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

在日益恶化和老化的国家基础设施体系中，交通基础设施，特别是桥梁，是加拿大福祉最关键的环节之一；因此，跟踪和改善我们桥梁的状况对于发展可持续的基础设施网络至关重要。结构健康监测(SHM)被认为是为基础设施所有者和决策者提供客观和创新的决策支持工具这一长期目标的最关键组成部分之一。设计公司和顾问也对SHM技术感兴趣，以了解他们设计的桥梁在运行荷载下的性能，以验证他们的设计并改进未来的设计。拟议研究的主要目标是开发一种监测工具，以跟踪和评估新沃尔特代尔大桥关键部件的性能。这座横跨北萨斯喀彻温河的主要桥梁将是加拿大标志性的城市桥梁之一，其设计独特，同时也融入了更常见的桥梁设计中的许多传统部件。拟议的技术将为桥梁设计和建造专业人员提供一个有效的工具，以了解桥梁关键部件在使用中的行为，并根据拟议研究项目的结果改进未来的设计。该项目还将在2015年年中/年末通车前，为大桥关键构件的性能提供基准健康状态监测数据。总体而言，在本研究计划中开发的框架有望填补常规SHM应用的几个空白，并促进SHM系统在关键基础设施系统中的更广泛应用。这将帮助加拿大的基础设施机构提高现有基础设施系统的安全性，并在这些系统的使用寿命期间优化维护操作，从而节省大量的生命周期成本。

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.