Bridge maintenance prioritization using multi-attribute utility theory

Abstract

Bridge maintenance planning is a complex problem because of the complex ity of the objectives. Handling this issue optimally is a challenge. There is a need of bridge planning process to organize and control the bridge inventory for a better decision-making process and the overall public utility. Among the other alternatives, multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT) is applied as a viable multi-objective decision making method to prioritize 20 bridge networks in Western Turkey. The aim of this study is applying MAUT to a bridge maintenance planning problem in Turkey and providing improvements to the existing Turkish bridge management system (BMS) decision-making method in the literature. Existing attributes are examined and an other criterion that intrigues the safety for the work-zone is added. The prioritization methodology is replaced with the MAUT approach to explain the uncertainty situa tion by taking risk preferences of the decision makers. Additionally, additive utility independence assumption of MAUT is inquired to for a more optimal solution. The results provide that how calculating risk preferences, interrogating more decision mak ers, unique point of views of the various expertise, and adding a new objective criterion might change the priority order for the same bridge dataset.