Skip to main content

Bridge condition sensor

LifeSpan Technologies, a specialist in advanced structural condition assessment solutions for civil infrastructure, has announced the commercial availability of its newest PeakStrain sensor, allowing rapid and accurate evaluation of bridge conditions after a seismic event.
February 6, 2012 Read time: 1 min
2269 LifeSpan Technologies, a specialist in advanced structural condition assessment solutions for civil infrastructure, has announced the commercial availability of its newest PeakStrain sensor, allowing rapid and accurate evaluation of bridge conditions after a seismic event.

Visual inspection techniques have been used to assess the condition of bridges for decades, both in the US and many other countries. However, engineers in the US and Japan know that visual inspection is subjective, highly variable, and not sufficiently reliable for long-term bridge management. It is also slow and can be costly if bridges have to be visually inspected after each seismic event.

LifeSpan's new extended range PeakStrain sensor will be used by Japan Railways on the Shinkansen, a vital link across the country, to monitor lateral displacement of bridge members as a result of seismic activity. The device will allow Japan Railways to quickly determine if Shinkansen bridges can continue to be used or must be shut down to protect passengers and railway equipment.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Transport and traffic management for major sporting events
    February 2, 2012
    Maurizio Tomassini, Isis, and Monica Giannini, Pluservice, detail the STADIUM project, which is intended to provide those responsible for planning major international events with a blueprint for success
  • New technology revolution in urban traffic control?
    January 26, 2012
    Urban traffic control is a well-defined and practised art. Nevertheless, there are technologies here and on the horizon with the potential to revolutionise how we do things. By Gavin Jackman and Andrew Kirkham, TRL, and Jason Barnes. Distributed monitoring and control of urban traffic networks and flows is nothing new. PC-based Urban Traffic Control (UTC) is now well established and operating in many locations around the world. However, it is worth considering the effects of the huge growth in the use of sm
  • Flir launches thermal fire sensor for rail coaches
    September 20, 2016
    Flir Systems is taking advantage of the Innotrans 2016 exhibition in Berlin, Germany, 20-23 September, to launch the Flir RSX-F intelligent sensor for advanced fire detection inside rail coaches. The sensor uses the Flir Lepton thermal sensor and high-definition visual imaging for fire and occupancy detection as well as CCTV monitoring. The Flir RSX-F uses a thermal sensor with on-board fire detection algorithms to detect a fire faster and more accurately than conventional methods. It detects thermal
  • Green requirements of traffic video systems
    February 2, 2012
    Traficon's Head of Product and Application Management Robin Collaert offers up a discussion of the likely future green requirements of traffic video systems. At the most basic levels, ITS has the potential to significantly reduce the amounts of time which vehicles spend waiting at intersections, and less time spent waiting means less in the way of vehicular emissions. All of that will hardly come as news to most laypeople, let alone transport professionals. However, the reality is that even today too many r