Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of bridges during construction, as well as over its service life, has recently become more attractive to owners and consulting engineers. With the introduction of new materials and construction methods, various types of bridges are being instrumented with monitoring devices to determine their performance as well as their response to various loading conditions. Among many other objectives, this includes monitoring concrete deck cracking behavior, measuring time-dependent deformations such as camber and deflection, and validation of new design or construction provisions. This paper highlights various types of instrumentation techniques used to monitor and test bridges during construction in New Jersey. For each case study, various type sensors are installed on the structure for field-testing and long-term monitoring. These sensors consistof strain transducers, accelerometers, geophones, vibrating wire strain gages, settlement sensors, pressure cells, and weigh in motion (WIM) system. This paper also provides an overview how data from various sensors could be processed to provide the actual behavior of the structure at various stages. Results of research work to verify and validate LRFD AASHTO (2008) design provisions as well as analytical models are employed to enable New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) to successfully update theirdesign provisions.
Abstract