The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials recently released its “Manual for Bridge Evaluation 4th Edition,” a publication that establishes inspection procedures and evaluation practices that meet the National Bridge Inspection Standards or NBIS.
[Above image by AASHTO]
Developed by the AASHTO Committee on Bridges and Structures/Technical Subcommittee on Safety and Evaluation, this fourth edition updates and supersedes the third edition, originally published in 2018.
The manual has been divided into eight sections, each representing a distinct phase of an overall bridge inspection and evaluation program, and major updates were made to the five of them: Section 3 on Bridge Management Systems; Section 4 on Inspection Procedures; Section 6 on Load Rating; Section 7 on Fatigue Evaluation of Steel Bridges; and Section 8 on Load Testing.
AASHTO added that the fourth edition of this manual also includes major revisions to permit load rating factors, Nonredundant Steel Tension Member NSTM inspections, wearing course inspection guidance, segmental girder evaluation, and prestressed service III limit state. It also includes new gusset plate guidance and examples.
To order a copy of this new fourth edition of the Manual for Bridge Evaluation, which is available to purchase as a PDF Download publication, click here or visit the online AASHTO Store at store.transportation.org and search by the Item Code: MBE-4.
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