| With limited funds, a greater demand for use, and continuous deterioration, it is crucial that transportation agencies have an effective decision-making process and available tools, such as bridge management systems, to manage their network of bridges. Given the shortcomings of the current bridge management practices, as repeatedly highlighted in literature, it is evident that a decision process that only involves a single rating or index such as the Sufficiency Rating or Bridge Health Index to manage bridges is inadequate. Therefore, there is a clear need to pursue and develop supplemental bridge management practices.;The primary contribution of this research is to provide engineers, managers and decision-makers with effective bridge management components that have well-defined goals and related items. Additionally, these components clearly identify and distinguish differences in bridge attributes, which may go unnoticed when using a single criterion. Upon establishing the bridge management components transportation agencies may utilize them in a variety of ways to complement their current bridge management practices, which in turn may better illustrate the performance of their bridges.;The specific objectives of this research are (i) to identify the appropriate items that make up each of the aforementioned components and (ii) to determine the relative importance of those items as represented by weighting factors. To achieve these objectives, we conducted this research in two parts, seeking input from key bridge management personnel, industry professionals and experts. The first part consisted of a survey, while the second part utilized a mathematical method entitled the Analytic Hierarchy Process. |
