Development and implementation of risk-based maintenance management

To choose the most suitable maintenance measures, there is a need for criteria. In the past, the decision was always based on the structural condition, whereas risk-based maintenance management incorporates many other factors.

Factsheet

Schools involved School of Architecture, Wood and Civil Engineering
School of Architecture, Wood and Civil Engineering
Institute(s) Institute for Infrastructure and Environment IIU
Research unit(s) Geotechnics and Special Civil Engineering group FGGS
Funding organisation Others
Duration (planned) 20.04.2020 - 31.12.2020
Head of project Prof. Dr. Dirk Proske
Project staff Franziska Nyffenegger
Urs Nyfeler
Zohra Mirjam Barhoumi
Prof. Dr. Dirk Proske
Prof. Dr. Jean-Baptiste Payeur
Partner SBB
Keywords Risk; bridges; maintenance management; retaining structures

Situation

The Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) have several thousand bridges, requiring a comprehensive maintenance management system. The current maintenance management is based on their condition. However, the condition of a structure does not give any indication of its importance to the SBB network. The closure of one particular bridge may have little impact on the SBB network as a whole, whereas the loss of another may adversely affect all travel services nationwide. Risk-based maintenance management identifies such effects.

Course of action

The project was carried out in four stages. Firstly, a status report was produced to determine the level of information available. A risk-based procedure was then defined and implemented as a proof-of-concept. In a final stage, risk-based maintenance management was implemented technically in the form of programming for SBB. These steps were carried out for bridges. A proof-of-concept had previously been defined for supporting structures.

Result

SBB has been using risk-based maintenance management for over a year. It is not the sole assessment tool used. It is deployed in conjunction with condition-based maintenance management. The procedure has proven useful in day-to-day activities.

Looking ahead

Work carried out so far only concerns risk assessment. Future activities may incorporate risk assessment into lifecycle costing or quality-of-life studies. Interestingly, SBB is a pioneer internationally in this field. Similar concepts are currently being discussed by the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE). SBB is using the procedure developed in day-to-day activities in parallel with structural condition assessments.