Instrumentation of bridges for long-term performance monitoring

As the state of the art in bridge design is advancing toward the performance-based design, it becomes increasingly important to monitor and evaluate the long-term structural performance of bridges, including strains in critical structural members, soil pressures on the abutment back walls and footings, accelerations on the decks and bents, etc. Such information is essential in developing new performance criteria for design. In this research, sensor systems for long-term structural performance monitoring have been installed on two new highway bridges on Orange County, California: the Jamboree Road Overcrossing and the West Street On-Ramp.