Structural identification of the Commodore Barry Bridge

The Commodore Barry Bridge is a major long-span bridge across the Delaware River connecting the cities of Bridgeport, New Jersey and Chester, Pennsylvania. A Structural Identification (St-Id) study of Commodore Barry Bridge is presented. The objective of this structural identification approach is to characterize the as-is structural condition and the loading environment of the bridge through experimental information and analytical modeling. The attributes that make long-span bridges different for utilization of experimental and analytical applications as compared to short-span bridges are presented. Some of the experimental, analytical and information tools which are utilized for this research are discussed. The details of constructing a preliminary analytical model after conceptualization of the structural characteristics are presented. Development of the 3D analytical model, and the model characteristics such as elements used, boundary and continuity representations are summarized. The experimental techniques that are necessary for the structural identification of a long span bridge are defined and application examples are provided from the Commodore Barry Bridge. Experiences gained during the applications of different forms of dynamic tests, instrumented monitoring and controlled static and crawl speed load tests are presented with example experimental data. Correlation of experimental results and analytical simulations are presented. Immediate and possible future uses of information generated are summarized.