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- [Narrator] With tens of
thousands of bridges in Texas,

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making sure they are in good
condition and remain that way

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is a major undertaking.

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This project conducted by
researchers at the University of

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Texas at San Antonio is
designed to predict bridge

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deterioration over time.

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- We have a little over
55,000 bridges in the state,

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which is the most out of
any state in the country.

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We inspect every bridge every 24 months,

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which ends up being several
hundred bridges per month.

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We want to be identifying
what kinds of defects or what

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kinds of maintenance needs a
bridge might exhibit signs of

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early. Right?

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And we want to do that systematically.

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- When you set up a goal
that you're going to maintain

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your bridges at a certain rating level,

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which this is what we're talking about.

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Then of course that's going
to cost you money. Correct.

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Okay. So TxDOT has an acceptable
rating level that it has

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established for its bridges. Okay.

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And of course at this rating
level, you want a tool,

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that tells you okay,

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if I need to maintain
it at this rating level,

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how much money do I need?

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- [Drake Builta] Researchers
developed a spreadsheet tool

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that's going to be helpful to
predict how it might behave

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going into the future.

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The part that I'm particularly
really excited about is

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scaling that up and taking these models,

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using them within our bridge
management system to predict

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behavior across the network.

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We're going to be able to use
that alongside cost modeling,

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alongside other configurations
within that system,

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and we'll be able to, forecast,

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funding needs really over
the next 10, 20, 50 years.

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- [Jose Weissmann] TxDOT is gonna use it

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to forecast the amount of money,

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because those are questions
that are always asked,

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how much money you need to

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preserve your bridges as a certain

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management level. Okay.

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So that's where this is
going to make a contribution.

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- The idea is to be proactive.

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We don't want to be
reacting to what we see

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as much as possible.

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And we do have to do that to
some degree, but if we can

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anticipate how much money
is going to be needed,

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you know, five, 10 years from now,

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we want to be starting to,

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to take the kinds of actions
that we can to lower that

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need in the future.

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And also not be surprised

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when we do see

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conditions across the network change.

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- [Narrator] For more information,

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and to find the publications
for this project,

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please visit the TxDOT research library

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at the link shown below.