OVERVIEW OF RAILROAD BRIDGES AND ASSESSMENT OF METHODS TO MONITOR RAILROAD BRIDGE INTEGRITY

This report documents the results of an FRA-sponsored study to assess techniques and technology for automatic monitoring of railroad bridge integrity for the purpose of reducing the number of bridge-related train accidents. The study focused on the following: Quantifying the risk of bridge-related accidents; Surveying technologies that may be applied to reduce risk; and, Preliminary evaluation of the costs of railroad bridge integrity monitoring.