As the bridge stock in many countries is ageing, the topic of bridge assessment is gaining more importance. Bridge load testing is one of the tools that can be used to assess existing bridges. Over the past decade, assessment, and by extent, bridge load testing, have been applied, studied, and improved in various countries. This paper provides an international overview of bridge assessment practices, load testing practices, and recent research insights. Moreover, synergies in the research activities, collaboration efforts via technical committees, and recently published codes and guidelines are highlighted. The major topics of importance identified are linking load testing to global and element structural behaviour, improved on-site sensing techniques, incorporating load testing with structural monitoring, non-destructive evaluation, numerical modelling, probabilistic analysis, and leveraging the use of digital tools for embedding detailed load testing insights into modern bridge management systems. It can be concluded that bridge load testing is a dynamic field of application and research, for which international collaboration and comparing best practices is essential.

Bridge load testing is one of the tools engineers are using for the assessment of existing bridges, which is becoming increasingly important to manage the existing bridge stock in a sustainable manner. Over the past years, various research groups have worked on theoretical and practical research regarding load testing. Moreover, various international committee work on load testing recommendations. This paper provides an overview of recent research efforts in Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden. The way in which recent research efforts are implemented in new committee reports and guidelines is highlighted. Overall, the efforts have focused on combining load testing with insights in structural behavior, applying improved instrumentation techniques, combining with numerical analyses, and providing a probabilistic substantiation. In conclusion: bridge load testing is a dynamic field of research that benefits from international collaboration. Further improvements to existing codes and guidelines will be forthcoming in the next years.