Deficiencies Of Some Important Bridges In Albania

Abstract

Over the past decades Albania has built many new bridges and roads. The construction of these bridges and roads has been done under different periods and characterized from different types of construction codes. The work reported on this paper was carried out to survey the present condition of three important bridges in national roads of Albania. Literature review was carried out to identify common defects on same type of bridges. Interviews were conducted with different engineers worked on similar type of bridges' design, construction and inspection in Albania. Site inspections of these three bridges were carried out to identify defects on the bridges. The study was extended to inspect all the members on the bridges to define causes of the defects. The main causes of the defects were classified as; lack of detailing in design, poor quality of construction, poor concrete quality, inadequate concrete cover, water leakage and last but not least lack of maintenance. These bridges are classified as poor or very poor conditions based on visual inspection in the study.