Evaluating the in-service performance of critical components of the new Walterdale Bridge

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Among the deteriorating and aging national infrastructure systems, transportation infrastructure, especially bridges, stands as one of the most critical links for Canada's well-being; thus, tracking and improving the condition of our bridges are of the utmost importance for developing a sustainable infrastructure network. Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is considered to be one of the most critical components of this long-term goal for providing an objective and innovative decision-making support tool for infrastructure owners and decision-makers. Design companies and consultants are also interested in SHM technologies for understanding the performance of the bridges they design under operational loads to verify their designs and improve future designs. The main objective of the proposed research is to develop a monitoring tool to track and evaluate the performance of critical components of the new Walterdale Bridge. This major bridge over the North Saskatchewan River will be one of Canada's signature urban bridges that is unique in its design, while also incorporating many conventional components found in more common bridge designs. The proposed technology will provide bridge design and construction professionals with an effective tool to understand the in-service behaviour of the critical components of bridges and enhance the future designs based on the findings of the proposed research project. This project will also provide baseline SHM data for the performance of the critical members of the bridge prior to full operation when it opens to traffic in mid/late 2015. In general, the framework developed in this research program is expected to fill several gaps for routine SHM applications and facilitate wider applicability of SHM systems to critical infrastructure systems. This will help Canada's infrastructure agencies increase the safety of existing infrastructure systems, as well as optimise maintenance operations during the service life of these systems, offering considerable savings in life-cycle cost.