Testing and monitoring of a centenary arch bridge

The present article summarizes relevant aspects concerning the monitoring system adopted during a load test carried out on the Luiz I steel bridge in the city of Porto, Portugal. The instrumentation is described and some results obtained from the load test and from a short observation period before and after the test are presented. Additionally, the performance of fibre optic Bragg grating sensors is appraised in measuring field strains and temperatures. The results are compared with those given by using a bridge numerical model, in which some integrity parameters are to be assessed by the monitoring data.