Design, rate, inventory, inspect, and manage

Letter from the Vice-Chair, Eric Christie

August 20, 2021

The AASHTOWare Bridge Task Force would like to thank the user community for the AMAZING contributions over the last 12 months ranging from service unit donations, to participation on our Technical Advisory Groups, to pre-solicitation funding commitments to incorporate the proposed changes to the National Bridge Inspection Standards and the new Specifications for the National Bridge Inventory. Your involvement is what ensures the AASHTOWare Bridge Management software remains up to date to meet the ever-changing challenges of bridge inspection and management across the country. Many enhancements were made to AASHTOWare Bridge Management in 2021 and more are coming! This newsletter provides information on the new functionalities available and the upcoming improvements planned for the AASHTOWare Bridge Management software.

In January of 2021 AASHTOWareBridge Management Version 6.4 was released with the following key features:

  • Multimedia Enhancements
  • Addition of the remaining Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) validation checks
  • Addition of a “Date Entered” and “Entered By” fields on the Tunnel Inspection page
  • Enhanced Mapping to view surrounding bridges
  • Improved Optimizer log
  • Added a Weighted option to the Percent Condition State field for the Element Condition State action type on the Network Policies task
  • Various bug fixes and usability enhancements identified by the user community

In June of 2021, version 6.5 was released which significantly improved the Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) module in BrM. This release was a true ‘team effort’ including major contributions from the Optimizer and Testing TAGs to ensure this release is as impactful as possible for our users. A summary of the key features of this release are below but more information pertaining to LCCA can be found on AASHTOWare Bridge Management Version 6.5 includes the following key features:

  • LCCA Module to generate optimal Life Cycle Plans through recursive analysis.
  • LCCA Policies can be used to prevent a bridge from falling below a certain threshold
  • Visually compare up to three plans via Performance, Timing and Life Cycle Cost charts
  • Added optimization queues to observe which optimization is currently running
  • Allow optimizer to recalculate the structure weight for each year of the optimization period
  • Added Action User Cost as an associated benefit groups option for actions
    • NBI Element Conversions report that shows how the conversion profiles are interacting with the inspection data
    • Time in State report to identify how long bridges remain in their NBI Condition Ratings

In addition to the two releases in 2021, we have started the development of Version 6.6, which will include two new, highly anticipated modules supported directly by DOT involvement and funding contributions. More information about these new features can be found in the articles on page #. Version 6.6 is currently in development with a planned release in early 2022 with the following key features:

  • Funding by Project Category
  • Critical Findings/Request for Action Module
  • User Certification Module
  • STIP Project Import Tools
  • Various bug fixes and usability enhancements identified by the user community

 

Finally, the Task Force continues to monitor the proposed changes to the National Bridge Inspection Standards as well as the new Specifications for the National Bridge Inventory. A date has not been established for the official release of these proposed changes; however, the Task Force remains vigilant to ensure we are ready to respond without delay. Once the FHWA changes are complete, AASHTO will finalize and issue the solicitation request to fund AASHTOWare Bridge Management (BrM) revisions to support compliance with the NBIS and SNBI. The amount of the solicitation will depend on the extent of the changes that will be required but is expected to be $300,000 per agency. To ease the impact to agency budgets, commitments paid over a two-year period will be an option. We ask that all agencies strongly consider supporting this important undertaking through participation in the upcoming project solicitation. More information on the project solicitation is provided on page #.

If there is anything the Task Force can do to improve your experience with the AASHTOWare Bridge Management software, please feel free to contact us. The Task Force strives to provide the best bridge management software to meet the needs of all our users.

Eric Christie, P.E.

Vice-Chairman AASHTOWare Bridge Task Force