Amsterdam seeks innovative solutions for monitoring bridges and quay walls
Image (Pixabay) by "Nel_Botha-NZ", licensed under CC0 License
The City of Amsterdam is seeking innovative solutions to improve how they monitor they city's historic bridges and quay walls, in order to better maintain them. Specifically, they are seeking new measuring techniques to gain faster insight into the technical condition of structures, and to signal possible failures at an early stage, to allow timely intervention.
Currently, bridges and quays are monitored according to traditional methods of tachymetry and leveleling. Approximately only 10% of the 829 bridges and 205 kilometers of quays in the city can be checked each year due to budget and capacity limits. The new solution should provide measurements for the entire area on an annual basis, plus monitor the highest risk bridges and quays at higher frequencies.
To find the new solution, Amsterdam has set up an SBIR innovation competition in collaboration with the Ministry of Economic Affairs (which will provide 50% co-financing)
Research shows that a great number of bridges and quays in the city are at the end of their lifespan
For further information, see TenderNed. The deadline for proposals is 22 October 2020. A digital meeting where questions can be asked will be held on 9 September (10.00-12.00 CET).