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Union Pacific Uses New Tech to Harness Steel Vibrations


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#1 CNJRoss

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Posted 28 June 2017 - 09:40 PM

UP Inside Track, 6/28/17:
 

Heavy Metal No Match for New Tech Harnessing Steel Vibrations

 

What do rock ‘n’ roll and bridge inspectors have in common? Just as the strings’ vibrations tell a guitarist his instrument is properly tuned and ready to jam, the same kind of vibration or movement can give an engineer insight into a bridge’s durability. It’s called “smart monitoring” and it has the potential to revolutionize how the nation’s more than 614,000 bridges are inspected.

 

 

Bridge inspections have never been more important. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2017 Infrastructure Report Card, four in 10 U.S. bridges are 50 years old or older. The health of these structures is a hot topic for politicians at every level of government.

 

At Union Pacific, more than 95 percent of the company’s roughly 18,000 bridges are inspected a minimum of twice annually by a specially trained two-person bridge inspection team, exceeding federal requirements. Bridges fewer than 10 years old and without defects are inspected once annually.

 

“We want to know about potential problems between regular inspections, and if there’s a way to detect issues we want to take advantage of that,” said Union Pacific’s Director of Bridge Maintenance Todd Martindale.

 

Union Pacific currently is working with three partners on bridge monitoring projects. Among them are two universities’ Engineering Schools.

 

“Universities by nature do a lot of research and collaborate with vendors; our partnerships could lead to huge benefits,” Martindale said.

 

The goal: An easily deployable, cost-effective solution to supplement in-person inspections, which carefully examine bridge components for cracks or other defects.

 

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