Informed successive condition assessments in bridge maintenance

The condition assessment of bridges considers a combination of information from different sources rendering multiple levels of assessment possible. This paper illustrates how successive condition assessment strategies increase the expected utility compared to single choice decisions through Bayesian inference. Multiple levels of assessment allow for additional possibilities for obtaining structural health information and updating one’s beliefs about structural condition. Thus, more informed decision-making is possible with respect to the gain in accuracy versus the costs of the assessment options. The paper aims to introduce how the successive approach can be implemented and in which scenarios it provides an increase in expected utility in comparison to one instant decision. To highlight this, a few pedagogical numerical examples are provided.