Government has Made it Compulsory to Install Sensors on Bridges
The road transport and highways ministry has made it compulsory to install sensors on bridges, such as gadgets that detect corrosion and keep track of their real-time health.
On Monday, the ministry issued guidelines for the identification and implementation of real-time health monitoring of bridges using sensors to all agencies involved in the development and management of NH sections. It stated that condition assessment of bridges is important for timely preventive maintenance and repair, rehabilitation, retrofitting, or reconstruction of such structures in order to avoid traffic disruptions and untoward incidents due to the failure of bridges.
As per the ministry, bridge inspection is conducted in two phases: a visual survey to assess the overall integrity of the bridge, followed by a detailed instrument-aided investigation to determine the extent and severity of deterioration. But for critical and major bridges, parameters such as strain, deflection, vibration, tilt, displacement, temperature, corrosion, and scour must be collected using appropriate indicators using different types of sensors installed in the bridges. These
cases can be analysed using software tools and models to ascertain the state of the bridge.
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