When the original Forth Bridge was completed in 1889 it was
heralded as a modern wonder of the world, a bridge of the like that
had never been seen before. Its upkeep, however, would turn out to
be never ending, leading to the well known phrase "it's
like painting the Forth Bridge" (though in fact this is no
longer the case, owing to modern painting
techniques and products!).
With the opening, earlier this
year, of the new Queensferry Crossing across the Forth
estuary, running parallel to the original bridge, will this new
bridge create similar headaches to maintain? It turns out that new
technology comes to the rescue!
Sensors are embedded in the structure, such as small microphones
on the cables, to detect changes to the bridge. These sensors,
which also monitor the weather conditions and traffic levels, are
connected to a computer system that knows their locations and can
report back any faults that have been detected. This enables
engineers to pinpoint any
