SHM of the new bridge over the River Sado in Portugal during construction

Abstract

The new railway crossing over the River Sado is a 2,7 km long bridge, including two approach viaducts and a main bridge. The main bridge, with a continuous deck over 480 m, consists of three continuous bowstrings with a single plane of hangers on the bridge axis. The bridge is located in an environmentally sensitive area which conditioned the design and the construction methods used. The bridge importance, its structural complexity and the innovative constructions methods used were the main constraints and motivations for the development of the implemented structural monitoring system, which is described herein. The motivation of this paper is to present the structural monitoring system and the experimental bridge behaviour during the deck incremental launching and the hoisting of the arches.