Sensors to monitor bridge health to be installed on all national highways

Road ministry issues guidelines for real-time monitoring of bridges

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways will now install real-time sensors to monitor the condition of bridges on all national highways, in a bid to streamline the maintenance process and avoid future bridge collapses, according to a circular issued by it.

Condition assessment of bridges is an important requirement for carrying out preventive maintenance and repair, rehabilitation, retrofitting, and reconstruction of a bridge in time to avoid traffic disruptions and untoward incidents due to the failure of bridges, the ministry said.

For important bridges/major bridges, parameters like strain, deflection, vibration, tilt, displacement, temperature, corrosion, and scour through appropriate indicators are to be collected through these sensors.

“In light of the above, it has been decided to undertake real-time Health Monitoring of different categories of bridges on National Highways using appropriate Sensors,” the ministry’s notification said.

Health monitoring sensors for bridges will be duly accounted for in detailed project reports (DPRs) of highway projects. The exact type, number, and locations of sensors for existing bridges will be approved by an expert committee comprising senior engineers.

Currently, bridges are monitored through visual surveys and periodic data inspections. Now, the centre wants to bring real-time tracking into all projects.

“Such real-time data collection and monitoring can be permanent with continuous data collection where sensors are embedded/installed in the major/innovative bridges & bridges located in highly saline/polluted environments either at the time of construction or subsequently installed during the operation stage,” it said.

All the executing agencies of the ministry will have to provide all the details of bridges, types of sensors installed, the details of the Data Acquisition System, software tools for the analysis of their performance, and outcomes of the analysis.

According to the ministry, there is no standardised analysis tool available presently for monitoring different parameters and for different topologies of bridges.

“The contractor is free to propose software tools of his choice for analysing the data collected through sensors to furnish outcome deliverables,” it said.

The ministry is looking to focus on improving the quality and safety standards of national highways in the long term.