BRIDGE SMS - INNOVATIVE SOLUTION FOR MANAGEMENT OF BRIDGES OVER WATER

Management of bridges over water requires a combination of knowledge from structural engineering, geotechnics and transport management together with expertise from hydraulics, hydrology and morphodynamics. Various quantitative and qualitative approaches and procedures have been developed for the assessment and management of structural and scour risk at bridges. Although scour is the leading cause of collapse of bridges over water, scour inspection is usually conducted as part of special inspection. The required inputs for bridge inspection differ in each approach and in some occasions the requirements on the number and details of data can be substantial for the asset management organisation. This paper presents a cost-effective solution for the management of structural and scour risk at bridges with emphasis on the efficient information management in the entire management process through BRIDGE SMS a Marie Curie Industry Academia Pathway Partnership (IAPP) project. With such aim, the suggested solution provides new aspects in the assessment of bridge scour risk by using standardised steps from data collection, inspections to reporting. On-site information from bridges are collected using tablet through a dedicated mobile app. Efficient monitoring of severe weather and hydraulic conditions at bridges is achieved through new weather and water level gauges in combination with a bespoke flood forecasting and warning system. A new user-friendly cloud-based platform is developed for quick and efficient processing, storage and management of inspection and monitoring data. In combination with weather and flood forecasting data the decision support system informs key personnel on the current and forecasted states and hazards on bridges and helps to seamlessly monitor on-going and planned activities on the network of bridges.