Bridge and transport network resilience – a perspective

Bridges and critical transport infrastructure are primary assets and systems that underpin human mobility and activities. Loss of bridge functionality has consequences on entire transport networks, which are also interconnected with other networks. Cascading events then unfold in the entire system of systems, leading to significant economic losses and societal disruption to business and society. Recent natural disasters have revealed the vulnerabilities of bridges and critical assets to diverse hazards (e.g. floods, blasts, earthquakes), some of which are exacerbated due to climate change. The assessment of bridge and network vulnerabilities by quantifying their capacity and functionality loss and adaptation to new requirements and stressors is thus of paramount importance. The aim of this work was try to understand the main compound hazards, stressors and threats that have short- and long-term impacts on the structural capacity and functionality of bridges and the impact of bridge closures on network operability. The main drivers of bridge restoration and reinstatement were also considered. Loss of performance, driven by redundancy and robustness of a bridge, is the first step to be considered in the overall process of resilience quantification. Resourcefulness is the other main component of resilience analysed in this work.