Existing bridge management systems have significant limitations. They often operate in isolation from other asset management tools and lack interoperability with geographical, societal, and climate-related data sets. These systems have limited capability to incorporate data from sensors or engage with the community, leaving engineering judgment as the primary decision-making factor within constrained time and financial resources.
Bridge failure or closures caused by extreme weather or condition deterioration can disproportionally impact rural communities, particularly those surrounding Lifeline National Secondary roads in Ireland. These roads are located in rural settings with limited access routes and as such, climate resilience must be prioritised when planning activities to meet 2050 objectives. This is particularly problematic at locations where an individual bridge provides the only means of utilities, passengers and freight crossing an obstacle and failure leads to catastrophic consequences. Recent examples of the impact of bridge failure are the Leenane bridge failure in Co Galway.
This talk will present the initial work done in developing advanced bridge decision making tools which consider the impact of bridge loss of rural communities and enable the integration of real time structural health monitoring data.
Dr Myra Lydon is a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow at Queens University Belfast and Assistant Professor in Civil Engineering at University of Galway
er area of expertise is in the development of structural health monitoring systems and infrastructure decision support tools. She is has secured over £1m in funding to develop bridge advanced bridge maintenance systems to inform on climate adaptation measure and quantify the impact of bridge loss on rural accessibility.