Three-Dimensional Terrestrial LIDAR for Operational Bridge Clearance Measurements

This paper reports the outcomes of a study of the vehicle crossing effects on a terrestrial light detection and ranging (LIDAR) scan on highway bridges for underclearance measurements. Ground-based or vehicle-mount terrestrial LIDAR scanners, which recreate the bridge structure as a three-dimensional point cloud of thousands of position data points, have been found to be ideal for bridge clearance measurements. To determine the effects of ambient overhead vehicle crossing and seasonal temperature variation on clearance measurements, periodic monitoring of the Harris Road Bridge has been conducted. A simplistic but practical correlation analysis is performed, which shows that operational LIDAR scanning is a viable technique for bridge clearance measurements.