Lennox Passage Bridge Monitoring Program

LOCATION: Lennox Passage, Cape Breton Island, NS

YEAR: 2015

ROLE: Monitoring Program

CATEGORY: Geotechnical Engineering

Lennox Passage Bridge Monitoring Program

LOCATION: Lennox Passage, Cape Breton Island, NS

YEAR: 2015

ROLE: Monitoring Program

CATEGORY: Geotechnical Engineering

The Lennox Passage bridge was built in the 1970’s and consists of a three span structure with a central bascule lift span. Throughout it’s service life the bascule span has experienced problems jamming during high temperatures for which no long term solutions have been developed.

In August, 2015, the Harbourside team implemented a year long monitoring program to capture the full thermal cycle of bridge movements. The instrumentation deployed on the Lennox passage bridge consisted of 4 thermistors measuring bridge deck temperature, 4 LVDTs measuring girder elongation, and 8 tiltmeters which measure rotation of the bridge’s abutments and two piers.  The monitoring was carried out using a remotely accessible data acquisition system recording measurements at 15 minute intervals. The monitoring program was combined with quarterly slope inclinometer readings at the east abutment and a detailed survey to help understand the overall soil-structure behavior.