The current generation of advanced bridge management systems (BMS) assist the bridge manager/
owner in managing inventory and inspection information, and typically include some form of condition
performance measure, as well as an overall sufficiency rating, and perhaps other management indices. These
systems include the functionality to recommend prioritized work programs and budgets for the network or
subsets of the network. Most commonly, lifecycle cost analysis is used to determine the benefits of doing the
work and the ratio of benefit to cost (B/C) is used as the main ranking method. A shortcoming of these powerful
systems is the lack of explicit consideration of risk in the prioritization of recommended work. Condition
indices are only a measure the relative condition of structures and cannot be used reliably to prioritise projects;
structures can have the same condition index but very different criticality or urgency. Recent bridge collapses
have reminded us that criticality and urgency of recommendations should consider element function
and behaviour as well as condition severity and extent. A new approach has been developed which adds risk
analysis to the traditional B/C analysis and project prioritising process. When used in an advanced BMS, the
results of the prioritization process are improved and more often meet the expectations of the bridge engineer/
manager.