Reggio Calabria Highway - RINA.org

Reggio Calabria Highway

20 Mar 2017

D'Appolonia designs and installs SM system for the A3 Salerno

D’Appolonia has successfully designed and installed a Smart Monitoring (SM) s​​​​ystem for a portion of the A3 Salerno – Reggio Calabria highway, including various viaducts and tunnels. The system provides a continuous monitoring of:

  • vibratory phenomena which affect the main structural elements of the viaduct (decks, pillars, etc.)
  • quasi-static thermal deformations (summer/winter and day/night cycles) which affect the viaductlong-term structural deformation (e.g. settlement of the soil and ageing of structural elements)
  • fatigue of the main structural elements (stress amplitude due to vehicular traffic)
  • structural integrity (variation of the natural frequencies of the structure).

The SM system, which mainly uses fiber optic sensors, offers many benefits. It greatly contributes to the highway’s safety by early detection of performance degradation, limiting risks and effects of potential disasters. The SM system enhances the knowledge of the structure’s design and functioning and allows an immediate assessment of the structure’s safety after a major event. Furthermore it allows owners to extend the structure’s lifetime in a safely manner, to improve operation, maintenance, repair and replacement of structures, based on reliable and objective data.