AASHTOWare Bridge Design and Rating
Specialised bridge design and load-rating software from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) -- the BrDR (Bridge Design and Rating) product supports AASHTO LRFD design, load rating (LRFR/LFD), and bridge management (BrM) for U.S. state DOTs and their engineering consultants; part of the AASHTOWare suite alongside Project (construction management), Pavement ME Design, Safety, and PermitRoute; developed collaboratively by state transportation agencies with an AASHTOWare OpenAPI for system integration and an Alliance Program for third-party partner extensions.
Situational -- the de facto U.S. DOT standard for bridge design and load rating with AASHTO LRFD/LRFR support, an OpenAPI for system integration, and a collaborative state-DOT development model that guarantees alignment with agency workflows; but the tool is built for DOT-scale procurement cycles with quote-only agency pricing (RF1), a steep DOT-specific learning curve, and limited applicability outside the U.S. public-agency bridge engineering market.
Rubric Scorecard
| Criterion | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Value for the price | 2/5 | subscription (agency license, quote-required) |
| Agent Friendliness | 3/5 | API: AASHTOWare OpenAPI -- REST API for external system integration with AASHTOWare products; documented in the AASHTOWare developer portal |
| Ease of adoption | 2/5 | -- |
| Portability & lock-in | 2/5 | -- |
| Interoperability | 3/5 | 3 integrations |
How we verified this: we checked AASHTOWare Bridge Design and Rating against its live site and an independent source — aashtoware.org. Nothing on this page is listed from memory. See how we grade. Verified 2026-07-06.
Evidence
Integrations
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