Iowa State University's Bridge Engineering Center student Justin Dahlberg get out in the filed to install sensors on US Highway 65/Oak Street bridge (via Iowa State University)
Since the sudden collapse of the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge in Minneapolis a few years ago, bridge infrastructure has attracted more attention from builders and lawmakers. Now, for the first time, a team of Iowa State Researchers along with a private contractor, Cramer & Associates Inc., are applying cutting edge infrastructure on a bridge being built.
The bridge is the first of its kind. Its pre-building plans included the implementation of hundreds if gages and sensors, along with security surveillance. This new bridge will take the place of the old U.S. Highway 65/Oak Street Bridge, near downtown Iowa Falls. The team is maintaining the steel arch design of the previous bridge, but this bridge is stronger, and capable of monitoring corrosion, strain, surface conditions, moisture within the arch and structural movement in real time.
This new electronic infrastructure comes with its own software that scans the data and alerts the proper authorities in case of unusual findings. The data is collected at 100 readings per second and displayed via video feeds and on a website. The collected data will allow engineers and researchers to verify or modify the assumptions made when designing the bridge. This monitoring project is being funded by a grant of $300,000 from the Iowa Department of Transportation and will hopefully be finished by this summer.
The team hopes that this project serves as a prototype for other new and bigger bridges being built across the country. The collaboration of Iowa State University and private contractors proved to be effective not only in the designing and building process but also monetarily. They hope to apply all that they learn on a new bridge spanning across the Mississippi between Bettendorf and Moline Illinois.
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