Fugro's Innovative Technologies Monitor Amsterdam's Bridges And Quay Walls

Fugro began testing and validating their technology in Amsterdam in mid-December and positive findings could result in more objects being monitored in a much shorter time compared to conventional survey methods.

Hundreds of bridges and kilometres of quay walls in Amsterdam have reached the end of their structural lifespan and are often in a poor state of repair. The City of Amsterdam launched their ‘Bridges and Quay Walls’ programme in 2019 to investigate, monitor and repair 829 bridges and 205 km of quay walls. Fugro has been involved from the outset, providing accurate and objective information using traditional survey measurement techniques based on tachymetry and levelling. Using these established methods, Fugro and two other service providers are currently measuring an average of 80 objects per month.

However, the size of the programme requires more efficient monitoring techniques and Fugro’s TotaLite and mobile laser scanning are being trialled as a solution. Fugro TotaLite analyses images taken from permanently fixed compact cameras to measure deformation and the mobile lasers scan bridges and quays from the water. Any deformations are accurately determined from the laser-acquired point clouds and the resulting Geo-data from both methods is immediately available for analysis via Fugro’s online platform Gaia.Monitoring, enabling Fugro to provide an efficient solution that will optimise repair and maintenance planning of the bridges and quay walls.