Development of a Large Database of Italian Bridge Bearings: Preliminary Analysis of Collected Data and Typical Defects

This paper presents the development and analysis of a bridge bearing databaseconsistent with the 2020 Italian Guidelines (LG2020), currently enforced by the Italian lawfor risk classification and management of existing bridges. The database was developedby putting together the contribution of 24 research teams from 18 Italian universities inthe framework of a research project foreseen by the agreement between the High Councilof Public Works (CSLP, part of the Italian Ministry of Transportation) and the researchconsortium ReLUIS (Network of Italian Earthquake and Structural Engineering UniversityLaboratories). This research project aimed to apply LG2020 to a set of about 600 bridgesdistributed across the Italian country, in order to find possible issues and propose modifica-tions and integrations. The database includes almost 12,000 bearing defect forms relatedto a portfolio of 255 existing bridges located across the entire country. This paper reportsa preliminary analysis of the dataset to provide an overview of the bearings installed ina significant bridge portfolio, referring to major highways and state roads. After a briefstate of the art about the main bearing types installed on the bridges, along with inspectionprocedures, the paper describes the database structure, showing preliminary analysesrelated to bearing types and defects. The results show the prevalence of elastomeric pads,representing more than 55% of the inspected bearings. The remaining bearings are pot,low-friction with steel–Teflon surfaces and older-type steel devices. Lastly, the study pro-vides information about typical defects for each type of bearing, while also underscoringsome issues related to the current version of the LG2020 bearing inspection form.