The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission has announced that wireless structural-monitoring sensors have been installed on the Centre Bridge-Stockton Toll-Supported Bridge linking Solebury Township, PA. and Stockton Borough, N.J.
The sensors, however, won’t become operational until the Commission engineers and consultants conduct a series of mid-July overnight load tests to calibrate the devices.
Once operational, the sensors will enable the Commission to determine when and if overweight vehicles cross the bridge. The sensors also will enable engineers to log and assess how the bridge carries and distributes loads and how excessive loads affect the bridge’s structural integrity. Among other things, sensors can detect strain, displacement of steel members, and weakness caused by corrosion.
The work is being conducted as part of a Structural Health Monitoring Pilot Program that ultimately aims to improve the safety and maintainability of the Commission’s inventory of aging weight-restricted bridges.