Some remarks on the knowledge of existing bridges in Bolivia: the case of Fisculco Bridge

Bolivia’s transportation infrastructure network plays a pivotal role in national connectivity, regional integration, and economic development, particularly in a country characterized by vast geographical diversity and complex topographical features. Its road network must traverse the Andes Mountains, tropical valleys, and extensive floodplains, presenting unique engineering challenges that complicate both the construction and maintenance of bridges and related structures. As a result, the resilience and performance of bridges—critical nodes within these transport corridors—are of paramount concern, especially given the increased frequency of extreme climatic events and the exposure to seismic risks in various regions of the country. On this subject, it is worth noting that Bolivia has not yet approved a National regulatory framework for the design of bridges, so that International standard, like AASHTO, are generally adopted in the design and construction phase. In this paper a first step towards the knowledge transfer of the recent indications provided by the Italian Guidelines 2020 about the seismic risk assessment of bridges indications within the Bolivian Standards framework is discusses. With reference to the explanatory case of the Fisculco bridge (located in Bolivia), they have been explored the potentialities of applying the crowd-based data collection aimed at supporting knowledge phase of the structure - i.e. the Level 0 of the Italian Guidelines - preparatory at implementing seismic risk assessment protocols.