What equipment and auxiliary means may be required?
The usual means required to conduct a bridge inspection are the ones listed below. However, it must be noted that depending on the type of inspection to perform, some of them can be omitted. Moreover, some others not included in this document may be needed.
Moreover, a compilation of the following documentation should be taken to the field (paper or digital format):
• Existing inventory data
• Applicable Inventory documentation
• Control sheets necessary for the evaluation of elements (in digital or paper format)
• Results of the last routine inspection
• Results of the last principal inspection (if any)
Furthermore, it should be mentioned that in recent times, drones are taking over a lot of the visual inspections allowing for making a full 3D model that can be inspected in the first step at the desktop and the subsequent inspection can focus on critical areas on-site. These new technologies, along with structural monitoring, covered later in this chapter, are shifting the paradigm of bridge inspection, as well as the inspection of structures in general.
