Saber, Zhou, Alaywan 1 Monitoring Louisiana Bridges for Heavy Truck Loads Hauling Sugarcane

This study assesses the strength, serviceability and economic impact of overweight trucks hauling sugarcane on Louisiana bridges. Researchers identified the highway routes and bridges used in hauling this commodity, and statistically chose samples to use in the analysis. Eighty-four bridges were involved in this study and four different load configurations were examined. The cost of sugarcane truck loads on the remaining safe life of these bridges was computed based on the four different load configurations. A live load test was performed on a selected typical bridge to determine its stiffness, capacity, and rating. The bridge was instrumented in order to quantify the live load response of the superstructure under normal service loads and sugarcane truck loads. A long-term monitoring system was also installed on this structure. This will be used to monitor health status of the structure over the system’s scheduled life. Actual live-load dynamic responses can also be observed over time to verify the appropriateness of the applied impact factor