Modern remote structural health monitoring

Monitoring of bridges can serve a wide range of purposes, providing continuous records of any variable in a structure’s condition. This may be of special interest to owners of older bridges, who must ensure the ongoing safety of their structures – not only because of the unavoidable deterioration that comes with age, but also due to the increased traffic loading of recent decades, and the fact that bridges were built in the past to different design and construction standards.

An automated monitoring system can be utilized to provide real-time information on any structure’s condition, allowing gradual changes over a period of time to be identified and offering notification by SMS or e-mail of any sudden changes in a chosen variable, or exceeding of predefined alarm values. Having such a system in place ensures that any changes in the structure’s condition will be recognized immediately, allowing appropriate strengthening work to be planned.