Experienced Gained and Lessons Learned from an Extensive Bridge Monitoring Research Project

Tests were conducted on twelve interstate highway bridges in Illinois over a two-year period. The bridges were instrumented on their beam webs with strain gage rosettes installed on each beam to measure shear stresses caused by loads. Long-term test data were collected for approximately 6 months at each bridge to determine the loading trends for these bridges. The project required extensive fieldwork and logistics to install the approximately 400 strain gages at locations up to 125 miles from the university. Hardware needed to complete the extensive data acquisition requirements of the project was chosen to meet the technical and anticipated environmental conditions. This paper addresses the planning, hardware design, fabrication and installation, software design, routine maintenance and decommissioning phases of the project.