Resensys Wireless systems used to monitor I-40 over Mississippi River Bridge

On May 12, 2021 a crack found in the I-40 bridge connecting Arkansas and Tennessee.  This crack in a steel beam caused the bridge to be shut down immediately, resulting in traffic re-routing and massive efforts to ease the resulting congestion. The bridge was closed for about three months and the cost of closure of that bridge was estimated to be $2 million per day (according to this article).

To monitor the bridge during emergency repair a network of 44 Resensys wireless strain gauge SenSpots and two Resensys SeniMax gateways was installed on the bridge within 24 hours. Being wireless was a huge advantage to facilitate quick installation of the instruments on the massive structure. The sensors have been monitoring the bridge during the repairs and after reopening.

Resensys SenSpot™ systems provide convenient, easy to install, system-compatible high-performance data, Resensys monitoring systems were also a part of the immediate decision-making during the repairs. Resensys’ systems can easily provide data to help bridge engineers gather information around real time strain or stress in critical members, crack progression, tilt or other quantities. And once the bridge was repaired in August 2021, monitoring thereafter has been helping to ensure that the repairs are holding as expected and the issue is not recurring.  The following pictures show examples of Resensys wireless strain gauges installed on this I-40 bridge.

Long term Structural Health Monitoring such as that provided by Resensys’ SenSpot ™ can help officials make bridge safety decisions using real time data from an “at risk” bridge, whether that bridge is fracture critical or susceptible to fatigue, has a crack to be monitored, suffers from scour or is at risk due to seismic activity.   

Resensys was founded with the mission of protecting infrastructure against aging and malfunction by developing small sensors that can make a big difference.