It is the responsibility of the District Bridge Engineer or District BIC to notify the Program Manager of any changes to personnel in the District Bridge Section or any changes discovered with the Consulting Firm staff, as well as any changes affecting personnel qualifications, as soon as this information is known.

It is the responsibility of the Consulting Firm PM to inform the Districts and the Program Manager of any change in inspection personnel or change in qualifications of personnel.

It is important to keep organized records of inspection findings and personnel involved in the inspection of bridges. This is done to avoid having personnel perform an inspection on the same bridge(s) during consecutive inspection cycles, running the risk of becoming complacent with findings. In addition to keeping well organized records, open dialogue between personnel from the different BIP workgroups is essential to preventing this type of deficiency.

Inspection results from two different inspection TLs concerning the same bridge can be compared. Different perspectives and inconsistencies regarding the inspection procedures and/or results can be identified, discussed, and addressed thus increasing the quality of future inspections.

The maintenance of the official electronic bridge file is an on-going task. Although the Bridge Division and Consulting Firm staff update and upload information to the Bridge Inspection Management System, as the asset owner, the ultimate responsibility for carrying out this task falls to the District Bridge Section personnel. Bridge files need to be updated within 3 months of changes to the bridge data as a result of inspection (routine, NSTM, UW, etc.). For example, rail upgrades, structure widenings, overlays, repairs, results from an inspection after a significant occurrence, etc., all require that documentation be uploaded into the Bridge Inspection Management System.

Completed documentation for an inspection performed by personnel from a Consulting Firm is uploaded into the Bridge Inspection Management System. It is the responsibility of the District Bridge Section personnel to ensure that these tasks are performed thoroughly and according to existing guidelines.

Refer to Chapter 9 of this manual, “Bridge Records,” for detailed information regarding bridge documentation electronic filing, documentation requirements, etc. Requirements for secure storage of remaining hard copy files are given in this chapter as well.