Remote Monitoring of Historic Covered Timber Bridges in Madison County for the Prevention of Arson and Vandalism

Project Details
STATUS

Completed

START DATE

07/01/04

END DATE

02/26/10

FOCUS AREAS

Infrastructure

RESEARCH CENTERS InTrans, BEC, CTRE
SPONSORS

U.S. Department of Agriculture

Researchers
Principal Investigator
Terry Wipf
Principal Investigator
Brent Phares

Bridge Research Engineer, BEC

About the research

This work will consist of developing, deploying, and using a remote monitoring system for covered bridges in Madison County, Iowa. It is envisioned that with this system, proper authorities could be alerted, in real-time, to possible vandalism and/or arson. Additionally, it is thought that information from parts of the system could be made available to the general public via the internet. Specifically, streaming video of the bridges could be made available worldwide. It is felt that Madison County could use this web interface as a means of drawing attention to these bridges and increasing tourism revenue in the local community. To accomplish this, six general tasks will be completed: threat assessment, literature review, system development, system installation, and long-term monitoring, and final documentation.

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