Draft manual for the load capacity assessment of timber beam bridges

Australia has about 15,000 timber road and railway bridges in service, representing a substantial asset and important part of the transport infrastructure. Typically timber bridges have been considered out-dated and planned for replacement with steel and concrete bridges, and as a result often not well maintained. The value of the timber bridge asset is being realised, and the enormous cost to replace these bridges prevents their replacement in the short term. With the reality that timber bridges will not be replaced (just because they are timber) has come the realization that we must maintain and understand these structures. The following sections of this paper describe the Roads and Traffic Authority of New South Wales Load Capacity Rating Manual for Timber Beam (Girder) Bridges, developed to rate their approximately 1,000 timber beam bridges and be available to other authorities that have timber beam bridges.