Bridges in Austria often exceed expectations

Assessing old bridges using modern standards is no mean feat. Studies conducted by TU Wien show that many bridges are actually significantly more stable than might be expected, often rendering costly restoration work unnecessary. Deciding which bridges need to be restored in the near future and which are still in good condition can have extremely expensive repercussions. Many of the prestressed concrete bridges in Central Europe were constructed in the 1950s and 60s - a time when bridge building technology and indeed the corresponding standards were very different. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that these bridges are unsafe. At TU Wien, in-depth research has been conducted into the load-bearing capacity of prestressed concrete bridges on the basis of large-scale experiments and model calculations. The results of this work have shown that modern standards often grossly underestimate the load-bearing capacity of bridges, which are more robust than might be expected.