Utility collapse – Swedish expert: – It could have been avoided

In the past two years, the Swedish Transport Administration has adopted a new technology to monitor structures at risk.

The platform, developed by IoTBridge, combines sensor data with artificial intelligence that constantly monitors the state of structures.

– It is absolutely essential that the Norwegian authorities think carefully about how to monitor these bridges, so that this does not happen again, Kromy’s Raid told Dagbladet.

It refers to thirteenth bridge collapse At Gudbrandsdalen in Innlandet on Monday.

Karume is a full-time professor in the Department of Structural and Bridge Engineering at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. Among other things, he was responsible for the monitoring system on the Svinesund Bridge between Sweden and Norway, and since 2020 has been involved in an unpaid position as Research Director at IoTBridge.

– Using the IoTBridge platform, if critical errors are detected during the scan, sensors can be set up on these parts of the bridge. Sensor data is continuously monitored by artificial intelligence. Then perhaps the kind of slip that occurred on the Triten Bridge could have been avoided, the professor believes.

– More maintenance required

He asserts that he does not want to speculate about what caused the collapse.

Currently, we know that the Norwegian Road Administration, after an inspection in 2016, recommended investigations into several wooden truss bridges, including the Tretten Bridge, which collapsed on Monday. The county municipality, which owns the bridge, is mapping out how they will follow up on the recommendations.

However, they made sure to carry out several inspections of the bridge at a later date. Including the main inspection in 2021, and the individual inspection in June 2022.

Bridge expert: – It looks terribly weird

Taking into account the

Dagbladet asked the National Roads Administration if Norway is considering adopting the technology.

– The Operation and Maintenance Division of the National Road Administration is considering starting a development project on digital twinning and monitoring the condition of structures on the European and national road network, department head Stein Inge Rasmussen in Operation and Maintenance of the National Road Administration wrote to Dagbladet.

He states that the objective of the project is to achieve a more effective maintenance strategy for the structures from today, in order to reduce future costs related to operation and maintenance.

– In addition, it is also goals to monitor critical constructions in relation to acute accidents (such as ship collisions, weather events, overloads, etc.), and to support the Center for Road Traffic (VTS), writes Rasmussen.

The director of the department adds that in general bridges in Norway are inspected annually by one inspection and a major inspection every five years, the inspections being described in a brochure Bruin V441 فحص Test.

Less experience using wooden bridges

According to Professor Kromy, Sweden does not have as many wooden bridges designed for road traffic as Norway. He believes that there are advantages and disadvantages to this type of instructions for use.

The advantage is that the environmental impact is not as great as with other constructions, and its aesthetics are nice. The disadvantage is that it requires much more maintenance than other bridges.

In addition, wooden bridges have a relatively light mass and are therefore more susceptible to vibrations – especially if traversed by heavy transport.

– It can cause vibrations in parts of the bridge, which in turn can lead, for example, to loosening of the bolts, explains Kromy.

For steel and concrete materials, we have a lot of experience in making computational models for bridges that have to withstand heavy road traffic. This is not the case for wooden bridges, the professor points out.

There we don’t know much about how bonds are built between different materials, or how wood is affected when temperature and humidity change. Therefore, I think in the future we will need to monitor bridges to monitor the behavior of these bridges.