The

Code of Federal Regulations

contains the National Bridge Inspection Standards (NBIS). The NBIS requires inventory information of on-system and off-system bridges to be entered into the State's database within 3 months after the month when any part of the bridge is placed in service (begins carrying traffic). This includes phased construction of new bridges, partially built bridges, and bridges being rehabilitated where any a portion of the bridge is open to traffic, even if portions are still under construction.

District Bridge Inspection Coordinators are responsible for ensuring that initial inspections are performed on new, replaced, rehabilitated, and temporary bridges or when existing bridges are first entered into the database. This inspection provides a basis for all future inspections or modifications to a bridge and establishes the intervals for other inspection types. An initial inspection is also referred to as the inventory inspection since this is the inspection that facilitates adding the new bridge to the National Bridge Inventory. It can also be thought of as the first routine inspection. (Note – it is not acceptable to wait longer than 3 months so that an upcoming inspection work authorization can be used to perform the inventory inspection. Nor is it acceptable to ask a consultant to return to a district, or even a county, if the consultant no longer has teams working in that area.)

Note initial deficiencies which might not have been present at the time of construction. Note changes in the condition of the site, such as:

Area Engineers must notify the District Bridge Inspection Coordinator that a bridge will be opened to traffic. Performing initial inspections prior to opening a bridge to traffic ensures the inspector can perform the initial inspection without concerns of live traffic. This is also an opportunity to create a “Bridge Punchlist” to ensure all bridge-related items are corrected before the job is accepted by the State. Additionally, new bridges must be communicated to the Department of Motor Vehicles for oversize and overweight permitting purposes.

The opening of a new bridge, particularly an off-system bridge, is the time to ensure that a copy of the bridge plans is included with the inspection documentation and the Bridge Record, as described in Chapter 8 of this manual. Texas law¹ requires a governmental entity that owns a bridge on a public road to submit a copy of the final structural plans to TxDOT within 31 days after construction or rehabilitation is completed. In addition, it is important to ensure that all new bridges have design calculations, load rating documentation, and scour evaluation (if over a waterway) included with the bridge record submitted to TxDOT.

Prepare the electronic bridge record as a result of the Initial Inspection. A detailed description of the Bridge Record contents is given in Chapter 8, Section 3 of this manual, Inspection Documentation and the Bridge Record.