The quest for achieving more efficient designs leads bridge engineers to explore the use of new materials, develop new structural systems, and improve existing ones using improved details. The prestressed girder bridge alternative is one of the most popular ones today. It offers many advantagessuch as ease of construction and durability. The prestressed girders are usually precast of site and transported for erection before pouring composite decks. As a result, full continuity between the girders has generally been sacrificed for the sake of ease of construction. Recently, NCHRP Project 12-53 investigated a positive moment continuity detail for prestressedgirder bridges. The findings of the project were published NCHRP Report 519 (REF), which presents the results from the experimental program, the recommended details, and analysis method. The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LA-DOTD) is adopting the new detail in the construction of the new John James Audubon Bridge crossing the Mississippi River in Saint Francisville, Louisiana. This detail is different than the current standard used in Louisiana. Furthermore, one of the bridges with the new detail utilizes Bulb-T girders and is skewed, which is different than the scope of the experimental program covered in Project 12-53. Thus, it was decided to monitor the performance of that bridge. This paper presents details of the monitoring system developed for this project. Preliminary results of strains and temperatures from the casting yard are also presented.
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