News
AASHTO President and MDOT DIrector Kirk Steudle talking with BridgeGuard President and owner Jay Ruohonen at the conference. Lead BridgeGuard Field Technician Ben Ruohonen discussing BridgeGuard services with show attendees. Trade Show Booth. BridgeGuard President Jay Ruohonen taking a break with TSP-2 personnel at the show. Talon Research, Inc. President, Jay Ruohonen, has been elected to the Board of BridgeGuard was featured in Roads and Bridges Magazine! "Sensor vehicle turns IR bridge ispection concept into reality. To summarize the first article (see On the Flyover, February 2010), citing a study done in 1977 as motivation, development work began in 1995 on a thermal infrared (IR) system to surpass the existing bridge nondestructive evaluation technology of that day. That 1995 technology effort has now been newly configured as a commercial bridge inspection tool by building on both recent developments in IR technology and the expansion of proprietary supporting software tools." The article's abstract is as follows: The reinforced concrete decking used to construct the bridges of our nation’s highways is continuously degrading by normal traffic and environmental exposure. This degradation is exacerbated in climatic regions where de-icing chlorides are used and in coastal regions where bridges are exposed to high airborne salt concentrations. Such deterioration requires new computerized non-destructive evaluation (NDE) test methods that aid in establishing maintenance demands. Here, the application of state-of-the-art infrared imaging sensors, supporting technologies, and sophisticated image processing techniques to perform bridge deck NDE is discussed. This is the first of two articles that explores IR technology as a contributing solution to the detection and mapping of bridge deck de-lamination. » Click to read the published version of the article BridgeGuard is a revolutionary infrared service used for identifying and locating delaminations in bridge decks and substructures. Unlike some other inspection methods, the BridgeGuard system is best suited as an initial scoping tool to determine which bridge decks or substructures need further investigation. BridgeGuard Services does not require lane closures or commerce rerouting since all scanning is completed at near highway speeds. BridgeGuard Services uses a vehicle mounted thermal imaging system (patent-pending) to scan the bridge and find delaminations within the concrete. Substructures can be scanned from the ground or from a boat on the water. |
