Bridges - Maintenance Inspection Tab

Date: Date of maintenance inspection.

Surveyor: Person who carried out the maintenance.

Parapets: The inspection begins from the road with a check on the parapets and any damage which may be observed on the day. The function of a parapet is to prevent errant vehicles or pedestrians from falling into the watercourse. Therefore, damage is an important safety issue and should be recorded.

Access and Egress: The Inspector then considers the hazards associated with accessing the structure, to ensure it safe to proceed with the inspection. Where it is deemed unsafe, it is important to record the reasons in the available text box to inform and advise future inspections of potential hazards.

Vegetation: Vegetation can restrict the Inspector’s ability to safely undertake the full bridge maintenance inspection and left unchecked the vegetation can cause significant damage to the bridge itself. This information will be particularly useful in organising programmes of vegetation removal preventative maintenance works.

External walls: This is a check of the walls below the parapets on the outside of the structure, namely the spandrels and wing walls. Common defects include missing masonry, cracks, bulges, leaning or rotating walls and collapses. These are structural elements and their failure could lead to the overall failure of the bridge.

Abutments and Piers: This is a check of the supporting walls inside of the bridge. Common defects include missing masonry, cracks, exposed reinforcement, corroded reinforcement, bulges, leaning walls, scour holes and collapses. Again these are structural elements and their failure could lead to the overall failure of the bridge.

Deck or Arch: This is a check of the arch or deck of the bridge including any supporting beams or truss. Common defects include missing masonry, cracks, permanent deformations, arch ring separation, exposed steel works, corroded or missing steelwork, percolation, holes and collapses. Again this is a bridging element of the structure so failure could lead to catastrophic failure of the structure.