In order to ascertain the reliability of visual inspection (VI) used to inspect highway bridges nationwide according to National Bridge Inspection Standards and to identify factors affecting the reliability, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) carried out a detailed study in 2001. During this study, 49 inspectors from 25 different States participated in the inspection of a number of control bridges associated with the FHWA Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) Validation Center. Analysis of these inspection data shows a broad distribution of condition ratings by different inspectors, with each component having 4 or 5 different condition ratings. The results of this study provide the only measure of inspector reliability in a highway bridge inspection that is presently available.

Due to the robustness of New York State’s bridge inspection program, these results may not be applicable to the New York State Highway Bridge Inspection program. Thus, this study will provide quantitative evaluation of the variability associated with the New York State Bridge Inspection policies and procedures and a report documenting suggested improvements to bridge inspection policy and procedures and training.

More specific objectives of this research are to carry out in-depth field and analytical investigations of New York State’s bridge inspection program to ascertain its overall reliability through

• Analysis of consistency of inspection ratings
• Analysis and identification of subjective factors related to bridge inspectors affecting bridge inspection ratings
• Reference (control) bridges, effectiveness of bridge inspector training program and possible improvements to the program,
• Current use of various nondestructive evaluation techniques and their possible integration in improving quantification of bridge performance and current QA/QC program for bridge inspection and possible improvements to this program.