Health Assessment and Risk Mitigation of Railroad Networks Exposed to Natural Hazards using Commercial Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Technologies

The overarching goal of this United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) project is to integrate data from three commercial remote sensing and spatial information (CRS&SI) technologies to create a novel data-driven decision making framework that empowers the railroad industry to monitor, assess, and manage the risks associated with their aging bridge inventories. First, automated wireless sensing technology provides a cost-effective means of remotely monitoring the capacity of operational rail bridges in a network. Second, wheel impact load detection (WILD) data provides a measure of load demand in the form of axle weights in the rail network. Third, global position system (GPS) data of train movement in combination with the WILD data provides a spatial mapping of the movement of live load within the rail network. A data-to-decision (D2D) framework will be established to automate the processing of the CRS&SI data to convert data to actionable information that empowers risk-based decision-making. Within the D2D framework is the use of reliability methods to rationally combine structural capacity and demand information to calculate reliability indices for critical bridge components monitored. Lower limit states are established on the reliability indices to provide a quantitative basis for quantitatively assessing the condition ratings of a bridge span. When adding the consequences associated with bridge performance during natural hazard events (e.g., flooding, earthquakes), the data-driven decision making framework provides bridge engineers a powerful risk assessment strategy. The team is partnering with Union Pacific (UP) who will support the installation of wireless monitoring systems to a select number of bridges exposed to natural hazards; UP will also provide access to WILD and GPS data of their trains.

• Record URL:
  http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jerlynch/RITA/index.html

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $656,406
• Contract Numbers:

  OASRTRS-14-H-UMICH

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  Washington DC,   United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Singh, Caesar

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  2350 Hayward
  Ann Arbor, Michigan  United States  48109-2125

  Prospect Solutions

  9 Stedman Way
  Loudonville, NY  United States  12211

  Weidlinger Associates

  40 Wall Street, 19th Floor
  New York, NY  United States  10005

  Civionics Inc.

  1600 Huron Parkway
  Ann Arbor, Michigan  United States  48109
• Principal Investigators:

  Lynch, Jerome

• Start Date: 20140915
• Expected Completion Date: 20170430
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• Subprogram: Research

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bridge engineering; Decision support systems; Global Positioning System; Hazard analysis; Loads; Remote sensing; Risk assessment; Sensors; Structural analysis
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Data and Information Technology; Maintenance and Preservation; Railroads;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01593504
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• Contract Numbers: OASRTRS-14-H-UMICH
• Files: RiP
• Created Date: Mar 12 2016 12:05PM