Experimental application of the Italian guidelines for the risk classification and management and for the safety evaluation of existing bridges

After some recent collapses of Italian bridges, specific guidelines on risk classification and management, safety assessment and monitoring of existing bridges were issued in Italy in 2020. The application of the first three levels of analysis of these guidelines to a large stock of bridges of two highways located in the Sicilian region (southern of Italy) is presented in this paper. The examined levels of analysis comprise census, visual inspection and calculation of the so-called class of attention of bridges.Based on the results of these analyses, an experimental database on more than 300 in-service road bridges has been collected and catalogued by means of a customized web application. The results are described and critically analysed, highlighting both abilities and limitations of the examined levels of analysis of the Italian Bridges Guidelines. Finally, a prioritization method is proposed to classify groups of bridges in view of more refined levels of analysis and interventions.