Need for speed prompts bridge rating tool overhaul          

Needing to reduce the amount of time spent on analyzing bridges for overweight permits, ITD's Bridge section set out to streamline the process. The result is an innovation that will save about 15 minutes per permit — with approximately 1,200 permits issued per year, this equates to approximately 300 hours saved annually. As the tool is further developed to handle even more bridge types, the hours saved will increase.

"A new process was added to our AASHTOWare bridge software that is capable of very quickly computing load ratings," explained Bridge Asset Management Engineer Dan Gorley.

Data required for computing a load rating will be computed and saved in advance of the request for an overweight permit load rating, expediting load ratings at the time one is requested. This technique will be implemented in a new rating tool that can be used by our AASHTOWare bridge software users to quickly compute load ratings based on vehicle description and bridges types.

The new tool will be able to utilize a list of bridges selected by the user and rate those structures. It will also be an integral piece of DMV's automated permitting for the trucking industry.

Published 08-18-17