Award from Science Foundation Ireland on the topic of Camera Based Bridge Safety Monitoring

In the figure, Overview of proposed approach; (a) Camera identifies truck class/type on bridge and tracks it, (b) Histogram of gross vehicle weight for the identified class of truck, (c) Histogram of maximum mid-span measurement (e.g. displacement) for that class of truck for the healthy and damaged cases

Prof Eugene OBrien has just won an award from Science Foundation Ireland on the topic of Camera Based Bridge Safety Monitoring. The award is worth €400,000 to UCD and is part of SFI’s US/Ireland programme. It is in partnership with Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Central Florida.

Many bridges, in European and the United States, have deteriorated and lost some load carrying capacity over their life cycles. However, they may still be safe, given their conservative designs. A great deal of money can be saved by retaining these bridges in service and monitoring them to ensure that they remain safe. The goal of this project is to use cameras to develop an accurate low-cost bridge monitoring system that can identify and quantify any reduction in bridge safety in an objective and timely manner. Cost effective bridge health and safety monitoring systems will greatly reduce the cost of providing highway and railway structures by extending the safe working lives of bridges. The service lives of these bridges will be extended by preventing premature replacement. This will reduce the capital cost of providing infrastructure as well as reducing demand for carbon-intensive materials such as concrete and steel and non-renewable resources such as aggregate.