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Associate professor Mi Geum Chorzepa, left, and graduate student Max Ovett prepare a steel beam for testing in the UGA College of Engineering’s Structural Engineering Testing Hub.

 Special Photo: Cassie Wright/UGA

ATHENS — As President Biden’s $2 trillion American Jobs Plan places the nation’s infrastructure in the spotlight, new research from the University of Georgia suggests states can save money and extend the life of their bridges by taking a fresh approach to how they prioritize maintenance.

Current national strategies for bridge maintenance favor replacement over maintenance. A fairly simple depreciation formula is used, resulting in overly conservative assessments of a bridge’s long-term health. In a study published in the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, researchers from UGA’s College of Engineering propose a new model for the first time. This new approach considers the interaction of 60 to 80 bridge components in predicting long-term bridge performance, and focuses on maintenance instead of replacement.

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