Bozeman, Montana ­ A new technology for detecting and monitoring bridge scour is being jointly evaluated and developed by the U.S. Army, Campbell Scientific of Logan, Utah, and Paul Green, a bridge specialist from Hardin, Mont.

The MSU TechLink Center, a technology transfer organization in Bozeman, Mont., and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Office of Research and Technology Applications, brought the parties together with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center - Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) of Hanover, NH. The aim of the collaboration is to jointly evaluate software for determining bridge scour, a high-water threat to the nation's bridges.

The Army developed the bridge scour detection technology and is seeking to commercialize it for monitoring of scour-critical bridges. Campbell Scientific of Logan, Utah, specializes in applications of TDR (time domain reflectometry). The purpose of the current project is to develop an algorithm for analyzing waveforms to automatically measure the scour depth. This algorithm would be used in an automated TDR bridge scour monitoring system. The project includes Paul Green, who will determine the readiness of the TDR system for field demonstration and potential license.

The scour monitoring system that CRREL developed uses a TDR unit with a series of probes. The probes are imbedded in the stream bottom to measure changes in the sediment level around the submerged portion of a bridge. The system is highly accurate and can be developed to provide real time data during a high water event from the safety of a remote location.

Bridge scour results when sediments around bridge piers are washed away by water flow, particularly during high water events. The loss of sediments can weaken the bridge's foundation and ultimately cause its failure. At least 17 deaths have been attributed to bridge failures since 1985, but it was the failures of the Schoharie Creek Bridge in New York and the U.S. 51 bridge over the Hatchie River in Tennessee in the late 1980s that focused national attention on the bridge scour problem.

Of the more than 482,000 bridges over waterways in the U.S., the Federal Highway Administration estimates that roughly 1 in 20 are scour critical. One in five bridges have foundations of unknown depth, making it difficult to determine their scour status. The device is one of several new technologies under development for the purpose of monitoring scour-critical bridges.

TechLink is located at Montana State University in Bozeman and funded by the Department of Defense and NASA to link companies in Montana and the surrounding region with federal laboratories for joint research and technology transfer. Its overriding purpose is to contribute to the success of both technology-based companies and key resource-based industries in the state and region.

Contacts:
Dan Swanson
MSU TechLink
(406) 994-7736
dss@montana.edu

Joel Greene
Campbell Scientific
(435) 753-2342
joel@campbellsci.com

Sharon Borland, U.S. Army Engineer R & D Ctr.
CRREL
(603) 646-4735
Sharon.L.Borland@erdc.usace.army.mil

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