Updating existing railway bridges based on monitoring data

Due to the important direct and indirect costs of the intervention, more detailed examination methods based on data as obtained from monitoring is suggested. This paper reports on an ongoing study to examine the fatigue safety of one standard bridge type, i.e. riveted steel truss structure. First results show that all bridge members are safe under the various limit states. The level of stress ranges found in the truss members due to fatigue loading are low such that only two members experience fatigue damage. The bridge structure has thus significant reserves in capacity which makes a future increase in axle loads feasible.