Transformation of an Arterial Highway Bridge to an Operational Bridge Weigh in Motion

Abstract
As highway infrastructure ages and degrades, the ratio of traffic demand to capacity is
increasing, making oversized and overweight vehicles a common concern worldwide.
Overweight vehicles can cause significant damage to bridge structures, accelerate
degradation, shorten the service life, and ultimately lead to a collapse in some instances.
This has resulted in a growing interest in the development of technologies and systems
that can monitor the frequency and characteristics of overweight loading events and the
effect they have on bridge structures. Bridge Weigh in Motion (BWIM) systems use the
deformation of a bridge, under live loading, to estimate the characteristics of passing
traffic loads. An existing bridge is instrumented with a series of sensors that use the full
bridge as a weighing mechanism. The implementation of such a system is discussed
through a full-scale case study arterial highway bridge in the province of New Brunswick,
Canada. The value of BWIM is examined, operational data is presented, and key findings
are discussed.