Measurement Based Performance Prediction of the Europabrucke Against Traffic Loading

Bridges are ageing and traffic is growing, which creates a demand for accurate fatigue life assessment. The Europabrucke — a well known Austrian steel bridge near Innsbruck, opened in 1963 - is one of the main alpine north-south routes for urban and freight traffic. A long-term preoccupation of VCE with BRIMOS® (BRIdge MOnitoring System) on the Europabrucke (since 1997) and the assessed prevailing vibration intensities with regard to fatigue problems and possible damage led to the installation of a permanent measuring system in 2003. Today’s monitoring abilities enable us to measure performance precisely. High-precision sensor data of accelerations and displacements in dependence of separately registered wind and temperature data and their implementation into analytical calculation provide the possibility to realize lifetime considerations, which are of eminent importance for bridge operators.