State of conservation of unprotected timber footbridges in Central/Northern Italy

12 timber foot-bridges, different for age, dimensions, structure, exposition, were investigated and monitored by means of the visual inspection, to check their structural health and state of conservation. The bridges were unprotected against weathering; all of them have been directly exposed to weather. The bridges were studied and then subjected to a visual inspection for assessing their state of conservation and for verifying the design details in relation to the correct governing of moisture. The visual inspections revealed some important lack in the durability design, leading to premature wood-decay problems in the 100% of the cases, namely the water "traps" due to contact surfaces between timber members or steel-to-timber and the horizontal timber elements with no physical protection.