Establishing MR&R Costs for a Network-Level Bridge Management System

The development of standardized maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation (MR&R) cost data for a network-level bridge management system (BMS) is presented. The Pontis BMS requires several data inputs, including the agency’s costs to perform bridge maintenance actions. Most states that are implementing Pontis do not have historical cost data standardized according to MR&R action, element, and condition state as required. The development of a questionnaire for collecting MR&R costs is described. The questionnaire was used to collect the estimated costs of MR&R actions on 25 bridge elements. Standard definitions of the physical characteristics for the elements were developed. Direct and indirect factors that influence MR&R costs were identified and organized into scenarios corresponding to the extreme minimum and maximum costs. The cost data collected by the questionnaire were analyzed. Procedures for assessing the variability of the estimated costs are presented. The coefficient of variation was used to measure the relative variability of estimated costs. One-way analysis of variance was used to assess the variation in estimated costs among the elements and MR&R actions. A multiple comparisons with the best analysis was used to identify certain elements and MR&R actions with greatest and least variations in cost. The results of this paper include recommended costs for the MR&R actions on 25 elements for the state of Wisconsin.