Skip to main content

Tattile part of Genoa bridge warning system 

WiM sensor and camera combination designed to prevent repeat of 2018's fatal collapse
By Adam Hill September 7, 2020 Read time: 2 mins
Tattile's cameras will help Genoa's San Giorgio bridge to remain safe for all users

Italian camera specialist Tattile has installed four cameras on Genoa's new San Giorgio Bridge as part of an improved structural monitoring system.

The old Morandi Bridge collapsed in August 2018, killing 43 people.

The new construction includes sensors beneath the platform to detect movements on the road deck, along with the Tattile Vega Basic cameras mounted above the bridge to monitor traffic flow and detect vehicle number plates. 

The idea is that this combination creates an early warning system regarding the bridge's stability and can be used to plan infrastructure maintenance.

The Tattile cameras are connected to a Weigh in Motion system designed by iWIM, which detects and records axle and gross weight of vehicles as they pass over a sensor integrated in durable steel plates on the road surface.

Data from the sensors and cameras is sent to a central server to give a clear picture of what is happening on the bridge at any time. 

Tattile says that while the old bridge was equipped with basic motion sensors under the road to detect movement of the deck, they were not able to trace the causes of the movements.  

"By integrating WiM technology with the combination of Tattile Vega Basic cameras on the new San Giorgio it is now possible to correlate structural deformations to the weight that weighs on the infrastructure, and to trace the weight load caused by individual vehicles crossing it," the company concludes.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Nairobi looks to ITS to ease travel problems
    March 6, 2018
    Shem Oirere looks at plans to tackle chronic congestion in the Kenyan capital - where commuters can typically expect it to take up to two hours to complete a 15km journey. Traffic jams in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, are estimated to cost the country $360 million a year in terms of lost man-hours, fuel and pollution. According to Wilfred Oginga, an engineer with the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA), the congestion has been exacerbated by poor regulation and enforcement of traffic rules, absence of
  • Camera technology a flexible and cost-effective option
    June 7, 2012
    Perceptions of machine vision being an expensive solution are being challenged by developments in both core technologies and ancillaries. Here, Jason Barnes and David Crawford look at the latest developments in the sector. A notable aspect of machine vision is the flexibility it offers in terms of how and how much data is passed around a network. With smart cameras, processing capabilities at the front end mean that only that which is valid need be communicated back to a central processor of any descripti
  • Bristol’s buses trial CycleEye detection system
    July 7, 2017
    Fusion Processing’s Jim Hutchinson looks at a two-year trial of the company’s cyclist detection system. Is cycling in a city dangerous? Well, that depends where you are and how you view statistics. Malmö is far more bike-friendly than Mumbai and the risk can either be perceived as small - one death per 29 million miles cycled in the UK in 2013 - or large - that equated to 109 deaths in the same year. Whatever your personal take on the data, the effect of these accidents can be felt indirectly too. News of c
  • Building the case for photo enforcement
    October 26, 2016
    As red light enforcement is returning to some intersections and being shut down at others, new evidence has been released backing the safety campaigners, reports Jon Masters. In 2014, 709 Americans were killed in red-light-running crashes and an estimated 126,000 were injured according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).