Case Study: British Columbia’s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure achieves real-time seismic monitoring and enhanced Port Mann Bridge resilience with Trimble’s REF TEK strong-motion system

Ref Tek's Strong Motion Structural Monitoring Technology is Used on the New Port Mann Bridge

REF TEK, a division of Trimble, was selected to provide strong-motion structural monitoring for the new Port Mann Bridge — the world’s widest cable-stayed bridge — located in a seismically complex region of British Columbia at risk from Cascadia subduction and local earthquakes. The challenge was to confirm the bridge’s seismic capacity, enable rapid post-earthquake damage assessment, and support long-term structural health monitoring and maintenance planning.

REF TEK deployed a real-time, multi-sensor monitoring network — including multi-channel recorders, strong-motion accelerographs, borehole and structural accelerometers, cable sensors and environmental transducers — with data streamed to the University of British Columbia’s Earthquake Engineering Research Facility and to NRCan. Commissioned on time for the bridge opening, the system improved risk mitigation, emergency response and maintenance prioritization, and its success led to REF TEK winning the South Fraser Perimeter Road monitoring contract.

British Columbia’s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure