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Work on the second major aspect of mageba’s contribution to the construction of Montreal’s iconic Samuel de Champlain Bridge – its SHM system, following after its expansion joints – is now about to draw to a close.
When projects like the construction of Montreal’s new Samuel de Champlain Bridge come along, we are delighted to be able to play a part in them – these are the projects that will never be forgotten by the people who work on them. So it has been doubly pleasing to supply this project not only with the expansion joints it needed – as reported in our newsletter of July 2019 – but also with its state-of-the-art structural health monitoring (SHM) system.
The bridge’s SHM system is an extraordinarily extensive one – in fact, it is by some distance the largest ROBO®CONTROL SHM system ever supplied by mageba, and it was therefore also a great learning experience for us. With 255 sensors (measuring corrosion, structural temperature, strain, displacement, vibrations, tilt, position (GPS), weather conditions and visibility) and 26 data acquisition units, connected by 15 km [9.3 mi] of cabling, the complexity of the system as designed in accordance with national, provincial and project specifications was already challenging by any standard. But added to this was the installation challenge, involving the enormous size of the construction site covered by the system, access difficulties at many sensor locations (often requiring use of a shared barge or crane-lifted access basket), long cable lengths and sometimes harsh weather conditions. All of this culminated in an structural health monitoring project that began for us in 2016, and has now run almost four years.
This enormous monitoring project required the extended presence of a mageba SHM specialist on site for supervision, acceptance tests and coordination. Our Andrea Paciacconi, based in our Swiss headquarters, spent nine months on site, working in close collaboration with the bridge design engineers, the main contractor, his colleagues in mageba’s office in Montreal and the installation sub-contractor’s team of up to ten electricians. With commissioning of the SHM system now taking place (June 2020), Andrea is happy to be able to spend more time at home in the coming months, but also happy to have been able to play a very significant role in such an exceptional structural health monitoring project on such a fine example of modern bridge engineering.
“I would like to express my deep appreciation to SSLC, SSLG, T. Y. Lin and Grimard for their excellent support during my many months on their construction site, and for their strong spirit of collaboration in overcoming the different challenges we faced along the way in completing this huge project.”
Andrea Paciacconi, SHM specialist, mageba Switzerland
Bridge design: SNC-Lavalin, T.Y. Lin and International Bridge Technologies (Systra).
Bridge construction contractor: SSLC JV (SNC Lavalin, Dradagos, Flatiron, EBC).