Real Benefit from the IoT

Usually I see IoT stories that are about hackers and mayhem. This reinforces the idea that there could be some benefit. Bridge In Distress Sends Warning Using IoT Sensors

There’s not much that can shake up Kjetil Sletten, a senior engineer who manages bridge maintenance for the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA). But when Sletten received an automated notification in April 2021 that movement sensors on a bridge in central Norway had gone off the scales, his instincts told him he needed to have a look with his own eyes.

It was an 80-year-old bridge, and one of the bridge had become separated from its support. (You can see movement in the video at the link above.) One end of the bridge was moving up and down with passing vehicles.

Sletten coolly blocked traffic in the northbound lane with his vehicle and called a road crew to manage traffic.

Which given that he didn't have an "official vehicle" was probably a bit of an issue, though maybe not the problem I would have envisioned in some places in America.

An interim repair was constructed to handle the traffic temporarily, and long-term replacement is under construction.

That 80-year-old bridge was part of a test of the IoT technology by the Norwegian transport agency.

“I don’t want to think about what might have happened if we didn’t have this instrumentation on the bridge,” said Trond Michael Andersen, director of Technology, division for Operation and Maintenance, NPRA.

In the video at the link above, it is noted that emergencies cost more than fixing things in a more proactive manner. Lack of time for planning, lack of time for a bidding process, and general stress all increase the cost.

The article mentions both the emergency closure of the Hernando De Soto Bridge in Memphis, and the collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa, Italy.