smartBRIDGE Hamburg – all eyes on bridges

Every day around 38,000 vehicles use the Köhlbrand Bridge, which was opened in 1974.

Stress tests for calibration of the sensors.

To accompany the 30th Dresden Bridge Construction Symposium, which takes place online on March 8 and 9, the February 2021 edition of the Bautechnik journal focuses on bridge construction. The journal includes two articles on the Köhlbrand Bridge, a project in which WTM Engineers played a leading role. Alongside further development of sheer force verifications for prestressed concrete bridges, the main focus is on the assessment of structural reliability on the basis of monitoring data. Highlighted here is an innovative verification concept that forms part of the smartBRIDGE Hamburg project, which continuously monitors the stability of vulnerable areas of the bridge over the river. smartBRIDGE Hamburg is being jointly developed with the Hamburg Port Authority (HPA) and Marx Krontal Partner, whereby the Köhlbrand Bridge is being equipped with extensive sensor technology and a digital twin so that it can become a pilot project for smart technology on major bridges. Incidentally, information on the bridge’s digital twin can be found in last year’s February edition of the journal “Bautechnik”.