Integrating RC Bridge Defect Information into BIM Models

Reinforced concrete bridges are a vitally important part of modern infrastructure. The status of this infrastructure needs to be monitored on a continuous basis in order to ensure its safety and functionality. This is currently being done by authorities worldwide via bridge inspection reports. The format and storage of these reports varies considerably across different authorities around the world and is sometimes compiled into a bridge management system (BMS). The lack of standardization severely hinders the use of inspection information for knowledge-generation use cases by both practitioners and researchers. This paper presents an exploratory analysis, and as a result, an information model and a candidate binding to Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) to categorize inspection information on RC bridges and to standardize storage of this information in a format suitable for sharing and comparing it between different users and varying requirements. The authors were able to show in three steps that IFC in its latest version provides sufficient functionality to serve as a basis for integrating relevant defect information and imagery. First, types of defects and properties needed for bridge assessment were extracted from existing bridge inspection manuals. Second, the authors modeled the defect entities, their properties, and their relationships, and third, mapped them to appropriate IFC entities. A prototypical implementation serves as a proof of concept for automated sharing and comparing of information needed in RC bridge inspections and for establishing a knowledge base for bridge performance over time and across authorities.