Highway infrastructure

James Fisher Strainstall (JFS) provides monitoring for highways and infrastructure assets across the world. We have been monitoring civil structures since 1966 and our live monitored assets include:

Bridges
Retaining walls
Sea defences
Embankments and rock faces
Offshore wind turbine foundations
Rail tracks
Temporary works and construction sites
Tall buildings and Towers
Tunnels

Data and information can be collected from any sensors and acquisition units which communicate by broadband internet or 4G mobile phone signal to SAMS™. Data is streamed real-time for live reporting and can be viewed from a web browser. Information is processed, analysed and displayed to provide useful visualisations and help informed decision making.

Sensing can include:

Displacements and rotations
Strains using resistance or vibrating wire gauges
Acceleration and vibration
Fibre optic gauges, for strains, temperature, displacements, tilt and accelerations
Foundation movements and settlement
Corrosion progression
Weather conditions, including temperature, wind speed/direction, humidity
Weight-in-motion vehicle loads
3D positioning by automated total stations
GNSS (satellite) 3D positioning
Ice detection

Short term monitoring applications are used as a snapshot of the structure’s performance or as a “design validation” exercise. Controlled load tests or measurements in-service can detect various possible faults including bearing seizure, measurement of in-situ stress, loads in tensioned cables, response to excitation and capacity of parapets.

James Fisher Strainstall are at the forefront of technological implementation for structural health monitoring on bridges and other assets.

Monitoring on the Queensferry Crossing has (to our knowledge) the most sensors on any bridge in the world at over 2300.
Smartbridge continues research into an adaptive automated finite element model creating a digital twin where the model adjusts to represent real readings and measurements which can be calculated from the model for areas where no sensors are installed.
The bridge monitoring system at Pont de Normandie includes data collected by a total of 20 high speed data acquisition units, 3 meteorological stations and 17 GNSS units, which all send to SAMS™ for comprehensive processing, creating one user interface regardless of the sensory system, data type and who installed it.
Work with the University of Surrey has conducted research into the U-frame behaviour in abnormal girders, monitoring displacements and strains both under live trains and controlled loading.