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New bridge-monitoring devices go unused Print E-mail
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Friday, 07 September 2007 15:20

This article about the possibility of saving money with monitoring was printed in USA Today, read entire article here

Members of the NTSB examine the collapsed section of the I-35W bridge spanning the Mississippi River near downtown Minneapolis. New technologies are available to monitor the state of bridges, but experts say states have moved slowly to adopt such equipment because the extra expense has not yet proven cost effective. By Alan Levin, USA TODAY
MINNEAPOLIS — The disaster caused by the collapse of one of this city's highway bridges points to the need for better technologies to inspect bridges, but states have been slow to spend money on the new methods, national safety and engineering experts said Monday.

Dozens of new technologies can help monitor bridges: X-ray machines that can spot hidden cracks in girders, computerized monitors that track minute changes in stresses on steel beams, and sensors embedded in concrete that track corrosion of steel reinforcing beams.

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