Although the maintenance of steel railway bridges becomes increasingly important every year, the budget for maintenance does not increase. The maintenance of bridges has become a serious problem as old bridges increase, while there are few specialists for inspection. Under the circumstances, it is required to estimate the minimum cost of maintenance. The life cycle cost is one of the total cost to be considered in the evaluation method. The method to evaluate the life cycle cost is also related with the performance design. This paper studies the concept of life cycle cost, and proposes a method to evaluate of costs and deterioration curves. This paper also calculated the life cycle cost of a bridge with corrosion, as an example.

Copyright (c) 2001 Railway Technical Research Institute