Necessity of the bridge health monitoring system to mitigate natural and man-made disasters

Abstract

In Korea, there has been a wide consensus about the necessity of bridge monitoring systems. This is primarily due to a chain of accidental bridge collapses over the past decade. The first generation bridge monitoring system originated from an instrumentation system introduced upon the reconstruction of the New-Haengju Bridge after its sudden collapse in 1995. After that, on-line instrumentation systems were installed in existing cable-supported bridges including Namhae, Jindo and Dolsan Bridges. These systems can be considered the second generation bridge health monitoring systems (BHMSs). These were then followed by the development of the third generation bridge monitoring systems installed and currently in service on the Seohae and Yeongjong Bridges. This study tracks the background and advent of Korean bridge monitoring systems and their developmental history up to the present time. It also investigates current associated studies in progress and the limitations of contemporary BHMS technologies, and suggests possible remedial solutions for a follow-up bridge monitoring system.