Development of a Safety Network System for Highway Structures in Korea

In general, structures in service gradually lose their original performance-level over time due to initial defects in design and construction, or exposure to unfavorable external conditions such as repeated loading or deteriorating environment, and in extreme cases, may collapse. So, in order to maintain the serviceability of structures at optimal level, advanced structure measuring system which can inform optimal time point and method of maintenance is required in addition to accurate prediction of residual life of the structure by periodic inspection. In Korea, the large-scale project for the safety network integration for long-term smart monitoring systems for bridge structures started in 2007, and this is the second year of the project. In this system, various structure types such as bridge, tunnels and cut slopes were considered with an emphasis on safety. The purpose of this system is to integrate the operation centers for these structure types in order to control and evaluate the structure’s real-time safety level through measured behavioral data. In this paper, the progress methodology for this network system and the smart monitoring system installation techniques for each structure types are briefly suggested.