Continuous dynamic monitoring of a centenary iron bridge for structural modification assessment

A multi-channel continuous dynamic monitoring system has been installed in a centenary iron arch bridge on late November 2011. The historic infrastructure, completed in 1889 and crossing the Adda river about 50 km far from Milan, is the most important monument of XIX century iron architecture in Italy and is still used as roadway and railway bridge. The monitoring project follows a series of preliminary ambient vibration tests carried out on the bridge since June 2009. The paper describes the bridge structure and its dynamic characteristics identified from the experimental studies developed since 2009, the installed monitoring system and the software developed in LabVIEW for automatically processing the collected data. Subsequently, the tracking of automatically identified natural frequencies over a period of about 18 months is presented and discussed, highlighting the effects of environmental and operational conditions on the bridge dynamic characteristics as well as the detection of structural changes, mainly based on natural frequencies shifts.