T0261 Management of Fatigue in Steel Bridges

National Highways is responsible for the maintenance and operation of 1475 bridges constructed with a steel primary deck element. A large percentage of these structures were designed before the publication of the design code for fatigue BS 5400 part 10 and therefore may contain components with a fatigue life less than the design life of the structure. The objective of the client is to produce a standard which takes a risk based approach to the management of fatigue in steel bridges. This will have the aim of proactively managing bridges at risk of developing fatigue, rather that reactive.