Bridges are essential for guaranteeing the functioning of transportation systems since their failure can cause serious threats to the safety, well-being and economy of modern communities, especially in emergency conditions. Following recent bridge failures, among which include the Morandi bridge in 2018, specific guidelines on risk classification and management, safety assessment and monitoring of existing bridges have been issued in Italy by the Minister of Infrastructure as a mandatory code. They pay particular attention to the evaluation of the residual life span of critical transportation infrastructure dating back to the 1950s and 1960s of the last century. Being a newly issued tool, the Guidelines need to be applied and tested in order to find possible drawbacks and to point out the main factors influencing their results. Therefore, in this study, after a short description of the Italian Guidelines, pointing out some differences with other approaches adopted worldwide, some advantages and disadvantages are discussed by an application to a bridge stock located in the Basilicata region (Italy). Data needed to apply the Guidelines are gathered by a purposely set up procedure that exploits existing databases on road infrastructure (OpenStreetMap) complemented by additional data retrieved by means of public image repositories (Google Street View). By accounting for the qualitative nature of the risk classification results obtained by applying the lower analysis levels of the Guidelines, a prioritization method is proposed for ranking bridges for higher assessment levels and possible interventions, as well as consequent funds allocation. The application shows that the Guidelines’ approach tends to provide conservative results. In fact, even in case of bridges with low degradation levels, the final risk classification induces actions undertaken for preliminary or detailed assessment; thus, normal operation (with periodic inspections) would not be possible anymore.

In reinforced concrete (RC) structures, the compressive strength of concrete can play a crucial role in seismic performance and is usually difficult to estimate. Major seismic codes prescribe that concrete strength must be determined essentially from in situ and laboratory tests. Mean values obtained from such tests are the reference design values when assessing existing structures under seismic actions. The variability of concrete strength can also play an important role, generally requiring that various homogeneous domains are identified in a single structure, in each of which a specific mean value should be assumed as representative. This study analyzes the inter- and intra-variability of the concrete strength of existing buildings using a very large database made up of approximately 1600 core tests extracted from RC buildings located in the Basilicata region (Southern Italy). The analysis highlighted that concrete strength variability was dependent on the structures’ dimensions as well as on the number of storeys. Moreover, the concrete strength of cores extracted from columns was found to be, on average, lower than that from beams, thus justifying the usual practice to extract cores mainly from columns, which results in a conservative approach as well as a more feasible one. Finally, some case studies were analyzed, specifically focusing on the effects of the within-storey variability. Conservative strength values, to be used especially in the case of vertical members subjected to high axial loads, are suggested.

The knowledge of the materials’ mechanical properties is a preliminary and important step in the seismic vulnerability assessment of existing buildings. In RC structures, the compressive strength of concrete can have a crucial role on the seismic performance and is usually difficult to estimate. Major seismic codes prescribe that concrete strength has to be determined essentially from in-situ and laboratory tests. In some cases such estimation can be complemented by default values in accordance to standards at the time of construction, therefore analysing the actual concrete properties typically found in RC existing buildings realized in different periods can make available useful data. To this end, in this paper attention has been addressed to public buildings, namely schools and hospitals. A large database made up of about 1500 test results on concrete cores extracted from about 300 RC public buildings located in Basilicata region (Italy), has been prepared and analysed. The relationships between the actual strength values (mean and dispersion) and the construction period of buildings have been studied. Theoretical distributions to approximate the discrete distributions of strength values in different construction periods have been determined, thus providing relevant data for the structural assessment of individual buildings and, especially, for large scale vulnerability evaluations.

There are many existing buildings for which seismic rehabilitation interventions are required, especially in earthquake-prone areas like Italy. At the same time, the deep energy crisis that Europe is facing highlights the need for sustainable techniques that are able to increase the energy efficiency of buildings. In order to mitigate the social and cultural obstacles for deep renovations of buildings, effective techniques and methods are required to avoid relocating users, which often discourages such interventions. To this purpose and as the main novelty, this research is aimed at presenting a new strengthening technique for reinforced concrete buildings that is able to integrate structural seismic strengthening and energy efficiency improvements. It is made up of new framed structures connected from the outside to the existing building, thus reducing the intrusiveness and relocation needs of users. At the same time, the seismic strengthening technique is conceived for an optimal coupling with energy saving interventions like high-performance external insulation finishing systems. In this study, these techniques are described and applied to a reinforced concrete (RC) school building designed only for gravity loads, according to outdated standards. The results show that the considered strengthening technique increases the seismic performance of the building with respect to both life safety and damage limitation requirements, avoiding any further local interventions to the building’s interior. On the other hand, the energy renovation allows for significant savings, since the resulting reduction in the total non-renewable energy consumption is larger than 80%.