Sydney’s iconic Harbour Bridge was opened to the public in 1932. It is one of the largest steel span bridges in the world. In recent years the bridge owner required a way to remotely monitor structural supports under the road deck. The initial objective was to provide early warning of problems so that preventative maintenance can be carried out without disrupting road users. The business goal was to extend the life of the asset without a significant increase in maintenance expenditure. NICTA1 developed and implemented a large scale structural health monitoring system that uses over 2,400 sensors to monitor approximately 800 structural components. There is ongoing research into condition assessment and predictive analysis. In this paper we discuss the monitoring system, analytical techniques used, the research, development and implementation process and also future directions for the work. This paper is intended to be an update and overview only –other papers from us describe the work in more technical detail.
doi: 10.12783/SHM2015/199