Diagnostics and monitoring of the longest span extradosed bridge in Europe

Abstract

<p>The article presents complex diagnostic procedures applied for the purpose of behavior analysis of the extradosed bridge with the longest span in Europe that was built in 2018 in Poland. The system of health monitoring was used to: register internal forces in temporary supports, monitor concrete bonding, perform in situ diagnostics and operation tests. The bridge is a continuous four‐span structure with spans theoretical lengths equaling: 132.5+206.0+206.0+132.5 m. During the construction of the bridge, two technical monitoring systems were used. As a consequence of their application, it was possible to carry out works with the lowest level of risk and therefore the work schedule was accelerated. The first of systems was designed to measure forces transferred to temporary supports during cantilever construction stages. The second system was designed to measure changes of the strength of curing concrete, after it was poured at the site, which allowed to speed up the removal of the scaffoldings and post‐tension of cross section with cables. When the bridge was finished, a Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) system was installed and final acceptance tests were launched. The obtained results were used to validate theoretical assumptions done at the stage of the bridge structural design and provided insight into the complex bridge behavior.</p>