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Indian River Inlet Bridge
About The Bridge
The Indian River Inlet Bridge Project is located in Delaware on State Route 1 and is a replacement project of the current Indian River Bridge. When the original bridge (Figure 1) was built the depth of the inlet was approximately 28 feet. Due to erosion and scouring the current depth reaches over 100 feet. A pier on either side of the river supports the bridge and due to the changing depth of the river they have become destabilized. An additional concern is the exposure of the steel piers to the salt water. This has created corrosion and they are continually becoming weaker. Because of these problems the bridge has been deemed deficient and needs to be replaced. The University of Delaware has designed a suspension bridge that will eliminate this problem. The way this works is the bridge will have two towers on either end single plane cable stays to support the overhang above the river. Being a suspension bridge there will be no support piers therefore not being susceptible to saltwater or changing depth. Figures 2 and 3 are computer renditions of the new Indian River Bridge that is under construction.
The System
When designing this bridge, the Delaware DOT wanted to incorporate a health monitoring system that would be more efficient than manual routine check ups. Cleveland Electric Laboratories was awarded the contract for a fiber optic health monitoring system. CEL chose CMS as the best qualified to install this advanced system. Being a new bridge, CMS has received an opportunity to build a one of a kind system in the United States. Our system will be installed during the process of the bridge construction, allowing us to embed the sensors into the concrete making it unique. This is a cutting edge system that is the future of structural monitoring.
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