Who should carry out these inspections?
The requirements to be met by inspection personnel will depend on the type of inspection to be carried out.
In the case of routine inspections, as mentioned in the previous section, it will be the infrastructure maintenance team who, as part of their maintenance work, and with the established frequency, will carry out visual inspections and make the appropriate warnings in the event of detecting any problems. Such personnel should have knowledge of structures and pathologies.
These teams may involve either the bridge owner’s own personnel or a contractor company appointed by the bridge owner to undertake the maintenance and inspections.
In both cases, a consultant specialised in bridge inspection is recommended to attend the inspection as part of the team. Meanwhile, for the performance of principal inspections, specialised personnel with training and experience in the field will be required.
These bridge inspections should be carried out by highly experienced inspectors who can judge the consequences and risks of deterioration in the structural, durable, and functional performance of bridge elements. Considering the importance of bridge inspection data, and the complexity associated with condition assessments based on such data, there is a consensus that the inspector performing the inspection must be qualified to do so, with a general background knowledge (test calculations and assessment of existing structures, materials and their pathologies, geotechnics, hydrology and hydraulics, history of engineering especially applied to bridges, as well as some knowledge of the standards used at different times with which many works currently in service were designed, etc.) and a particular knowledge of bridge inspections.
The basic requirement for bridge inspectors is an academic degree in structural engineering. Previous experience in related fields (inspection, construction, design) may be required to ensure a higher qualification for inspecting large and complex bridges (such as cable-stayed bridges, truss bridges and arch bridges). Still, inspectors must undergo a specific training process.
The training of bridge inspectors is essential to achieve homogeneous criteria. Additionally, it must be noted that although there are no European standards in this regard, some countries legally require bridge inspectors to have a special regulated qualification.
