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Pedestrian Bridge Monitoring

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katytrail

SCOPE: Deliver a unique hardware and software monitoring solution for the transition of land from old Railroad grounds to a jogging, walking, inline skating, and bicycling path.

SERVICES DELIVERED:

Specto Technology supplied state-of-the-art monitoring products including crackmeters, tiltmeters, wireless dataloggers and ARGUS software for implementation in the field.

PROJECT OVERVIEW:

  • The Katy Trail is a jogging, walking, inline skating, and bicycling path that runs through the Uptown and Oak Lawn areas of Dallas, Texas, following the path of the old Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, which was known as MKT or the Katy.
  • The construction work to convert the unused 3.5 miles railway track into a hiking trail took place between 2000 and 2007.
  • Since completion, it has been expanded several times and is currently on final extension phase (Phase VI).
  • The Phase VI is 0.65 miles long, includes 2 pedestrian bridges and the estimated cost is $14.1 million.
  • Phase VI construction started in October 2015 and was completed in January 2018.

UNIQUE CHALLENGES:

  • Unique engineering designs and monitoring for the project is required due to the fact that one of the bridge (over Mockingbird Lane) sits atop a Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) tunnel.
  • A cantilevered suspension bridge design had to be utilized to push the bridge foundation away from the tunnel.

INSTRUMENTATION & MONITORING SCHEME:

The instrumentation and monitoring scheme, designed and carried out by HNTB and Rebcon Inc., respectively,  consists of the following instruments, dataloggers and software:

VW Crackmeters

  • 20 x crackmeters are installed inside the DART tunnel
  • These monitor cracks in the tunnel lining

MEMS Tiltmeters

  • 11 x tiltmeters are installed on retaining structures
  • They monitor the rotation of the retaining structure

LS-G6 Wireless Data Acquisition System

  • The LS-G6 system, by Loadsensing, was selected due to its long range radio, low power consumption, easy implementation and because it’s capable of working inside the tunnel
  • The system consists of one gateway, 11 x nodes for the MEMS tiltmeters and 5 x nodes for the VW crackmeters
  • The system collects readings automatically and wirelessly from the crackmeters and the tiltmeters

Deformation Monitoring Points

  • 92 x prisms were installed in and outside the DART tunnel
  • These are monitored by manual, optical survey

ARGUS Software

  • ARGUS was selected for its ability to simply display data online in real time
  • The software is used for web based management and reporting of data from all automated instruments and from manual optical survey points

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