Wind Monitoring of the Saylorville and Red Rock Reservoir Bridges with Remote, Cellular-Based Notifications

Project Details
STATUS

Completed

START DATE

02/01/09

END DATE

05/31/12

RESEARCH CENTERS InTrans, BEC, CTRE
SPONSORS

Federal Highway Administration
Iowa Department of Transportation

Researchers
Principal Investigator
Brent Phares

Bridge Research Engineer, BEC

About the research

Following a high wind event on January 24, 2006, at least five people claimed to have seen or felt the superstructure of the Saylorville Reservoir Bridge in central Iowa moving both vertically and laterally. Since that time, the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) contracted with the Bridge Engineering Center at Iowa State University to design and install a monitoring system capable of providing notification of the occurrence of subsequent high wind events.

In subsequent years, a similar system was installed on the Red Rock Reservoir Bridge to provide the same wind monitoring capabilities and notifications to the Iowa DOT. The objectives of the system development and implementation are to notify personnel when the wind speed reaches a predetermined threshold such that the bridge can be closed for the safety of the public, correlate structural response with wind-induced response, and gather historical wind data at these structures for future assessments.

The project describes the two monitoring systems, their components, upgrades, functionality, and limitations, and results from one year of wind data collection at both bridges.

 

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