Protecting Canada's concrete bridges

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Canada's reinforced concrete bridges are a critical part of the transportation infrastructure system. Many of these structures were built during the 1950s and are reaching a point in their service lives where careful assessment is required to ensure that they have the required capacity to ensure system resiliency. The tragic collapse of the Viaduc de la Concorde overpass in Laval, Quebec in 2006 demonstrated that constant vigilance is needed to ensure existing infrastructure is able to provide appropriate safety over its service life and that structures needing urgent repairs can be accurately identified. Until recently identifying these structures has been difficult due to a lack of accurate data about their performance and an inability to validate the numerical models used to assess their capacity. Recent advances in sensor technology such as the development of fibre