This paper presents a reliability analysis to assess the safety of corroded main cables of a long‐span suspension bridge. A multiscale probability model was established for the resistance of the main cables considering the length effect and the Daniels effect. Corrosion effects were considered in the wire scale by relating the test results from accelerated corrosion tests to the corrosion stages and in the cable scale by adopting a corrosion stage distribution of the main cable section in NCHRP Report 534. The load effects of temperature, wind load, and traffic load were obtained by solving a finite element model with inputs from in‐service monitoring data. The so‐obtained reliability index of the main cables reduces significantly after operation for over 50 years and falls below the design target value due to corrosion effects on the mechanical properties of the steel wire. Multiple measures should be taken to delay the corrosion effects and ensure the safety of the main cables in the design service life.

In recent years, the demand for transporting nondivisible overweight loads has increased significantly. To ensure bridge safety, inspection and evaluation of the bearing capacity of bridges along approved transportation routes become a critical need. Conventional load testing is one of the most reliable methods for bridge bearing capacity assessment, yet it requires full traffic closure and brings considerable socioeconomic costs. This paper proposes a no‐traffic‐closure fast load testing technique that directly employs permitted moving nondivisible overweight vehicles as test loads, taking advantage of their known axle load distribution and mandatory low‐speed crossing requirements. To resolve the core problem of selecting qualified overweight vehicles that satisfy load level requirements, grillage finite element models of typical multiaxle overweight vehicles and representative small‐ and medium‐ span highway bridges were built for parametric analysis. Parametric analyses on grillage models of typical bridges showed that the load efficiency ratio was most sensitive to the axle configuration, indicating flexible control of the test load level by vehicle configuration. A 13 m prestressed concrete hollow slab bridge case study achieved load efficiency ratios of 1.02–1.04 and an average verification coefficient of 0.60, confirming the feasibility of the proposed traffic closure‐free method and the adequate safety reserve in simply supported bridge.

Compound concrete, which refers to fresh concrete partly replaced with coarsely crushed demolition concrete (recycled concrete lumps or RCLs hereafter), is a simpler recycling process than the reuse of recycled concrete aggregates. The inherent weakness of the interface between RCLs and fresh concrete can be suppressed when a substantial amount of confinement can be provided as that in concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) columns. The local buckling of CFST columns can be further delayed or suppressed when fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) is used to jacket the steel tubes. The potential use of the composite column is as piers in rebuilt bridges. The paper presents and interprets the results of an experimental study on the mechanical behavior of CFST piers with compound or normal concrete subjected to combined axial compression and cyclic lateral loading. Four large-scale piers were tested, including a reinforced-concrete (RC) pier, a CFST pier, two GFRP-jacketed CFST piers with or without RCLs, to investigate the influence of parameters such as confinement types and concrete types. The test results indicate that the seismic behavior of the GFRP-jacketed CFST pier with compound concrete is comparable to that of fresh concrete; the use of GFRP jackets is effective in delaying the local buckling failure at the end of a cantilevered pier; the ductility and lateral load-carrying capacity of the RC pier can be significantly enhanced due to confinement. <!----> <!----> <!----> <!---->