Remote sensors to monitor health of bridges and high-rises in city

THANE: The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) may soon become possibly the first corporation in the country to embed in its flyovers and high-rises remote sensors for monitoring stability and long-term health of a structure.
Venture deep into any congested area in the old city or drive over a bridge, and it becomes clear that civic engineers here have not planned for long-term.
Now, by embedding the sensors, the TMC will be able to monitor when concrete girders of an old bridge sag or a building show signs of stress and strain.
Sources in the corporation said a deal had been struck with a Swiss firm to manufacture and supply remote sensors for TMC. The firm also provided sensors for construction activity during the last elections.
The Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) sensors will be installed on flyovers and high-rises over nine floors, and later extended to other projects and dilapidated buildings facing threat of a collapse, officials said.
The sensors will work as an early warning system for measuring variables, like loading, deformations and vibrations, affecting the condition and performance of a structure.
The real-time data generated from the sensors will be transmitted to a central server via a frequency network. This will help in long-term assessment and monitoring of a system, and early detection and corrective steps.
"As engineers we always anticipate joints of a bridge to suffer seismic displacement or any other damage due to excessive use. The idea is that under any such circumstance, emergency services should be able to report and then temporarily fix the damages as early as possible. The SHM will help us ensure comfort and safety of commuters and the residents of high-rises," said an official of the civic town planning department.
According to officials, a single bridge or building may require one or more sensors depending on the requirement and size. The TMC will then need to set up data outstation units in each ward to transmit and then process the real-time data. This will be no easy task.
"All of this could change how people perceive Thane's structures and old buildings, which have earned a poor reputation from frequent collapses in the past," said an official.