With the rapid developments of global economy and construction technologies, bridge construction has experienced a rapid growth. On the other hand, long-span bridges are usually subjected to harsh and severe environment, including heavy traffic loads and corrosion. Thus the safety of long-span bridges is facing great challenge, causing the collapse of several bridges due to cable corrosion and truck overloading. In this study, first-passage probability of a long-span suspension bridge was evaluated considering actual heavy traffic loading. A random traffic flow load model was proposed by considering probabilistic characteristics of vehicles speed, vehicle to vehicle distances and vehicle weights, estimated based on the weigh-in-motion system of a highway bridge. Nanxi Yangtze River Bridge, which is a suspension bridge with mid-span length of 820 m, was selected as the prototype to investigate the traffic load effect. The variables such as the root-mean-square displacement and velocity of the bridge girders were evaluated. The first-passage reliability of the long-span bridge in 100 years was predicted. The numerical results can provide a theoretical basis for the traffic control and bridge maintenance during the service period.
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