Corrosion is a prevalent damage aspect of aged highway bridges. In case of steel viaducts, the phenomenon is more intense close to the support due to malfunctioning expansion joints which fail to prevent water from penetrating into the supersaturate level. Engineers, to ensure public safety, estimate the load bearing capacity of deteriorated bridges by performing thickness measurements along the corroded girders. Established data collection methods are highly dependent on inspectors judgment and they are characterized by measurements short comings. To address these weaknesses, this study explores the use of 3D scanning for the capacity evaluation of damaged beams. Field corroded girders are scanned in the laboratory, and contours maps are created as an approach for mapping the remaining material of corroded parts of the girder. The performance of the proposed methodology is validated with thickness measurements taken by an ultrasonic thickness gauge as well as with full scale experimental testing of a field corroded girder. The post processed point clouds are combined with finite element modeling of the tested girder as well as with closed form equations to examine whether point clouds data can inform these two tools reasonably for accurate capacity predictions. The emerging conclusion is that 3D scanning can be a valuable tool for future modernization of the current inspection techniques towards a more detailed and efficient inspection protocol.