Messina Bridge - Structural Health Monitoring System

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) Systems with new and emerging sensory technologies, sophisticated data acquisition systems and automated analysis tools are available, and provide the bridge community with great benefits and capital savings. The functionality that SHM Systems provides for diagnosis, during a bridge's lifetime from construction to operation, guides bridge owners through decision making. SHM Systems are most efficiently and effectively incorporated into bridge structures when integrated prior to construction.

This paper discusses the relevance and importance of SHM Systems to major bridge projects, using the Messina Bridge project as a show case. It illustrates the challenges of establishing a monitoring plan at the design stage of a project, but also identifies the benefits of establishing the system prior to construction. The integration of SHM Systems within more general Maintenance, Management, and Control Systems has also been discussed.