Smart Bridges

Cutting-edge technologies are contributing to the changing infrastructure and safety of bridges & flyovers, as well as a sustainable transport system.

As commuters, many of us rely on bridges & fly-overs as part of our day-to-day journey – they are key to our national road infrastructure. Continuing population growth in Indian cities means that good roads and strong bridges & flyovers are essential for the safe transport of both people and cargo.

Specially, in India, it is important that bridges and flyovers are frequently checked and strengthening programmes are undertaken as capacity changes and bridges age. To get accurate information, bridges must be inspected and this can be a dangerous and costly job. This is where technology is proving a game changer. By using innovative assessment tools that can predict the remaining life expectancy of bridges, monitoring has become much more streamlined.

Over the last few years, there has been an advancements in the area of bridge engineering in India with the introduction of limit state design philosophy, new special vehicle loads and fatigue vehicle for bridge design and usage of construction materials with high strength. Considering these developments and giving importance to durability aspects, it is possible to achieve target design life of 100 years for concrete bridges. With increase in span length of the bridges, more number of continuous bridges (three of four-span units) is being built during the last two decades which has led to the development of high capacity bridge bearings, POT bearing, POT-PTFE bearing sand spherical bearings. Also, modular expansion joints have replaced the widely used strip seal expansion joints in many bridges.

Technology is proving to be a game changer. By using innovative assessment tools that can predict the remaining life expectancy of bridges, monitoring has become much more streamlined.

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