Conservation state and structural deficiencies of typical Italian bridges

The preservation of strategic infrastructures, like bridges, is a public domain interest to avoid both losses of human life and connection problems in case of collapse. Most of the Italian bridges have been built before 1990, so actually they may present structural deficiencies due to bad state of conservation as well as outdating of adopted design criteria. On the basis of a collaboration between the Province of Caserta and the Department of Architecture and Industrial Design of the University of Campania “L. Vanvitelli”, four reinforced concrete bridges built in 1950s and located in the Caserta district have been examined. The aim of this study is to provide a general information on the state of conservation and structural suitability in relation to current code provisions. The results of this investigation reveals the existence of significant deterioration phenomena due to degrade and the presence of some structural deficiencies for the examined bridges.