Towards life‐cycle focused infrastructure maintenance for concrete bridges

Purpose This paper aims to present approaches towards improving some specific infrastructure maintenance principles, strategies, models and practices, based on a recent study of bridge management systems in Hong Kong. A specific goal is to develop better informed and more systematic approaches to condition assessment, deterioration forecasting, and maintenance decision making over the life‐cycle of the built asset. Design/methodology/approach Improved performance prediction and decision‐making approaches are developed and presented based on a research exercise to formulate a maintenance management framework for concrete bridge elements in Hong Kong. This includes for example, the presentation of decision‐making approaches for optimizing inspection intervals on bridge expansion joints. Findings The findings show that judicious integration is needed in incorporating valuable elements of, and lessons learned from, previous practice with proposed new strategies/ principles, models and practices for specific scenarios. Practical implications Based on the findings, practitioners' understandings can be deepened as regards the barriers to improving condition assessment, deterioration forecasting, and maintenance decision making over the life‐cycle of the built asset. Furthermore, the results also provide useful information for developing strategies and practices to improve currently used infrastructure management systems. Originality/value Major obstacles are overcome in developing better informed and more systematic approaches as above, and in extending current knowledge on condition assessment, performance prediction and decision‐making models by utilizing more pertinent data and addressing some barriers in practical implementation.