This paper introduces an approach to the realization of an ICT-based bridge remote monitoring system which enables real-time monitoring and control for unexpected heavy loads such as big earthquake and strong typhoon. In this paper, the integrated bridge remote monitoring system called the “Intelligent Bridge” consists of a stand-alone monitoring system (SMS) and a web-based internet monitoring system (IMS) for bridge maintenance but also its application to para-stressing bridge system as an intelligent structure. For the purpose of verifying its validity to actual bridge structure, an attempt is made to study the possibility of controlling the actual structural performance by adjusting the cable forces on a 2-span continuous cable-stayed bridge model. The experimental results demonstrate that the implemented monitoring system supplies detailed and accurate information about bridge behavior for further evaluation and diagnosis, and it also opens up prospects for future application of web-based remote system to actual in-service bridges under field conditions.

Largest portion of the bridge stock in almost any country and bridge owning organisation consists on ordinary bridges that has short or medium spans and are now deteriorating due to aging, etc. Therefore, it is becoming an important social concern to develop and put to practical use simple and efficient health monitoring systems for existing short and medium span (10-30m) bridges. In this paper, one practical solution to the problem for condition assessment of short and medium span bridges was discussed. A vehicle-based measurements with a public bus as part of a public transit system (called "Bus monitoring system") has been developed to capable of detecting damage that may affect the structural safety of a bridge from long term vibration measurement data collected while the vehicle (bus) crossed the target bridges. This paper systematically describes how the system has been developed. The bus monitoring system aims to detect the transition from the damage acceleration period, in which the structural safety of an aged bridge declines sharply, to the deterioration period by continually monitoring the bridge of interest. To evaluate the practicality of the newly developed bus monitoring system, it has been fieldtested over a period of about four years by using an in-service fixed-route bus operating on a bus route in the city of Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. The verification results thus obtained are also descrived in this paper. This study also evaluates the sensitivity of “characteristic deflection”, which is a bridge (health) condition indicator used by the bus monitoring system, in damage detection. Sensitivity of “characteristic deflection” is verified by introducing artificial damage into a bridge that has ended its service life and is awaiting removal.