Hydraulics and bridges: A French case study of monitoring of a bridge affected by scour

Abstract Bridges are one of the oldest types of civil engineering structures and the interaction between the transport and hydrographic networks represents a significant issue in a country such as France. Recently, various cases highlight the importance and vulnerability of civil transport works in relation to their environmental hazards, e.g. floods, and therefore the need to develop integrated observation tools and warning systems in the aim both of optimizing the management system and of increasing the knowledge on real scour processes. This paper reports on the “field approach” task of a research project aiming at improving continuous monitoring in order to follow the evolution of the scour processes of a given bridge or abutment. The first step has been to identify a pilot site, representative of scour vulnerability. After a report of the scour parameters to be monitored, the benchmark study and the choice of monitoring devices available on the market are detailed. Instrumentation, sensor adaptability, limitations (actual measurement ranges, ergonomics, energy supply limits …) and in situ implementation are then presented and discussed. Finally, preliminary measurements, post-treatments and interpretation are detailed.