top of page
Ground Penetrating Radar for roadways

Bridge structures are traditionally inspected visually for cracks and damage due to deterioration. Through such traditional practices, bridge inspectors visually inspect a bridge, record cracks and damage, take pictures and give the bridge a health rating. Visual inspections cannot assess the internal integrity of these structures, but only what is visible to the naked eye. By the time deterioration becomes visually apparent to the inspector, the damage to the structure is often severe.

GPR Of Roadways

This is similar to a patient who delays getting a chest X-ray until feeling sick and symptoms are obvious. At that late stage, the x-ray reveals a mass that leads to a diagnosis of stage 4 cancer. Had the x-ray occurred earlier, the cancer could have been detected at an early stage when it was curable. Deterioration within a bridge is similar to a progressive disease like cancer. If caught early, the deterioration can be more cost-effectively repaired, thereby extending the service life of the structure. 


 

Bridge condition assessments

The image to the right is from a Deck Deterioration Condition Assessment Inspection of a bridge built in 1958. The image shows 12 levels of deterioration within the deck with no external visual signs that would indicate internal deterioration.

 

The blue color indicates no deterioration and the red color indicates high levels of deterioration.  The bridge owner repaired the red and yellow areas and extended the life of the bridge deck.  

IPC’s inspection process is able to look inside a bridge’s concrete deck and analyse the deck’s steel reinforcement. The strength of a deck is determined by the pattern and size of its rebar. The images below were taken from an inspection of an old bridge deck where the original construction plans were lost.

Bridge Deck Inspection

 

The owner did not know the rebar patterns of the deck and was guessing as to its configuration. As the deck aged and began losing it ability to carry its intended loads the bridge owner need to know the rebar pattern so that a more accurate load rating could be performed. The following are images from bridge deck:

 

 

GPR reporting Road assessment
Bridge Deck Inspection Reporting

The follow images are from bridge decks at various levels of age: 

Bridge Inspection with GPR-Custom Report
Ground Penetrating Radar inspecting concrete and rebar

Longitudinal rebar within the bridge deck.

3D image of the deck showing both longitudinal and transverse rebar.

The following images are from previous inspection that demonstrates how concrete deterioration and delamination are identified:

In some cases IPC can reconstruct bridge beam configurations for bridge owners that do not have the original as-built plans. The image below is a sample of the reinforcement within a T-beam supporting a bridge deck:

Bridge Inspection T Beam Result
T Beam Bridge Inspection

Bridge Inspections

Bridge Inspection of Skyway Bridge

BridgeScan™ is IPC's comprehensive bridge deck and bridge approach way inspection service.

 

IPC has put together a comprehensive bridge inspection service that utilizes the latest Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) technologies to locate and quantify concrete deterioration, delamination and debonding, identify rebar patterns and sizing, locate and monitor crack progression and produce advanced proprietary condition assessment reports. 

BridgeScan™

IPC’s Bridge Condition Assessment Inspections provides valuable information to bridge owners and engineers performing load rating analysis by identifying locations and degrees of concrete deterioration as well as rebar placement patterns and sizing.  This information is used to create Condition Assessment Ratings and Remaining Life Estimates.

Bridge owners use IPC’s Condition Assessment Reports to budget maintenance and prolong a structure’s life expectancy through early detection and repair of deterioration.

IPC can conduct bridge deck inspections, roadway surface inspections, bridge crack inspections, post tension cable inspection, CableStay Inspections, ColumnScan Inspections and more... Contact us HERE for more information or a specific need.

bottom of page