If you’re heading to the Delaware beaches this weekend, you might travel over the recently completed Indian River Inlet Bridge. We here at TSD think the new bridge is beautifully designed, but since we aren’t experts in suspension and construction, we’re fortunate that TSD contributor Alex Wysocki has shared his engineering insights with us.
The Indian River Inlet Bridge (RIB) is a unique American bridge. It has an all fiber-optic monitoring system that consists of 120 sensors that will enable DelDot and the general bridge community to comprehend the long- and short-time performance of this long-span cable stayed bridge. The 120 sensors will measure a variety of conditions, from temperature and wind speed and the direction of strain, deck inclination and expansion joint movement.
The interdisciplinary team from the University of Delaware that contributed so much to the monitoring system of RIB included Professor Michael Cajes and Professor Harry Shenton of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Professor Robert Hunsperger of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The RIB has a projected 100-year design life. The monitoring system will enhance the ability to effectively meet that goal.
Frequent TSD Contributor Alex F. Wysocki is a Veteran of WWII, served in the Pacific Theater and was part of the original occupation of Japan. He has a passion for the history of state he was born in, Delaware.
