Protecting Canada's concrete bridges

加拿大的钢筋混凝土桥梁是交通基础设施系统的重要组成部分。许多这些结构建于20世纪50年代，现在已经到了使用寿命的临界点，需要仔细评估，以确保它们具有确保系统弹性所需的能力。2006年魁北克省拉瓦尔市协和高架桥（Viaduc de la Concorde立交桥）的悲惨倒塌表明，需要时刻保持警惕，以确保现有基础设施在其使用寿命内能够提供适当的安全，并准确识别需要紧急维修的结构。直到最近，由于缺乏关于其性能的准确数据以及无法验证用于评估其能力的数值模型，识别这些结构一直很困难。传感器技术的最新进展，如光纤的发展

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