Long-term monitoring of a reinforced concrete half-joint

Reinforced concrete half-joints were widely employed globally on a large number of motorway bridges over the past fifty years. Half-joints have dapped ends which enable savings by reducing the construction depth and by facilitating precast construction of concrete bridges. However, half-joints are prone to deterioration due to lack of water-tightness on the joint. In-addition, visual inspections of half-joints can be challenging, leading to ineffective and costly maintenance strategies to mitigate the risk of failure or collapse. This paper presents a field-monitoring campaign on a reinforced concrete half-joint which is located within the UK road network. For this purpose a comprehensive structural health monitoring system has been designed and installed, comprising Acoustic Emission (AE), Fibre Bragg Gratings (FBG) and environmental sensors. The monitoring scheme is described in details, along with acquired data during the first months of acquisition. AE data are correlated with the recorded dynamic behaviour and environmental conditions to provide further insight on the long-term performance of ageing concrete infrastructure.