Vibration and Impact Monitoring System at River and Highway Bridges in Texas (TxDOT)

Brief Description and the work performed by Resensys

Case definition: Between 1960 and 2002, 31 major bridge failures globally, stemming from vessel and vehicular collisions, claimed 342 lives and incurred substantial economic costs. Surprisingly, no established guidelines existed for bridge authorities to assess damage and make informed repair decisions. Resensys has offered an innovative solution addressing both vessel and vehicular impact monitoring for 8 bridges in state of Texas.

Problems:

• Frequent vehicle collisions with low-clearance bridges that causes significant damages, and the authorities were not aware of them
• Frequent vessel collisions with river bridges and protection components (fenders and dolphins) that causes considerable damages, and the authorities were not aware of them
• Lack of clear guidelines for bridge authorities to monitor vibration and assess and repair damage

How to address the problem: Resensys wireless monitoring systems have been installed in bridges in Texas and based on the monitoring needs of each bridge:

• Wireless accelerometer: constantly monitor vibration on the structural/protection components, and taking up to 500 samples of tri-axial acceleration per second to reliably monitor vibration and detect barge/vehicular collisions
• Wireless solar powered camera: looking constantly at bridges and channels and provide corresponding visual feeds and in-depth monitoring of collision/vibration events on bridges (barge, vessel, truck, etc.)
• When an impact happens at bridge members, and vibration readings exceed 50 mg (1/20 g), accelerometers detect shock (impact). Upon detecting shock/impact, the accelerometers wirelessly send commands to cameras. The camera takes consecutive photos from the impact

Results:

• Detecting human-made and natural vibration events and impacts at bridge structure in the moment and quickly.
• These events were unnoticed by authorities before the installation of the monitoring system.
• As a sample, a total of 104 vessel collisions on Victoria Canal Bridge were reported to TxDOT from March 2021 to May 2024, averaging about 3 impact events per month.

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