Pontis

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Pontis is a software application developed to assist in managing highway bridges and other structures. Pontis stores bridge inspection and inventory data based on the U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) National Bridge Inventory System (NBIS) coding guidelines. In addition, the system stores condition data for each of a bridge's structural elements.

The system is designed to support the bridge inspection process, recommend a bridge preservation policy, predict future bridge conditions, and recommend projects to perform on one or more bridges to derive the most agency and user benefit from a specified budget. The system uses a Markovian Decision Process to model bridge deterioration and recommend an optimal preservation policy. It uses the Markovian model results, in conjunction with a simulation model, to predict future conditions and recommend work.

The name "Pontis" is derived from the Latin "pons," meaning bridge. Pontis was first developed for the FHWA by Cambridge Systematics, Inc. and Optima Inc. The system is now owned by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), with the Michael Baker Corporation and Cambridge Systematics, Inc. serving as AASHTO's contractors for ongoing support of the system. As of 2008 it was licensed by AASHTO to over 45 U.S. state transportation departments and other organizations in the U.S. and other countries. Pontis is a registered trademark of AASHTO.