Monitoring the collision of a cargo ship with the Vincent Thomas Bridge

On 27 August 2006, the Vincent Thomas Bridge, a 1850‐m suspension bridge located in the larger metropolitan Los Angeles region, was struck by a large cargo ship passing under the bridge. Moderate damage to the maintenance scaffolding at the main span of the bridge was observed. This incident left transportation authorities wondering about the structural integrity of the bridge. A real‐time continuous monitoring system that had been recently installed on the bridge successfully recorded dynamic response before and after the incident, as well as during the collision. Analysis of these valuable data allows transportation authorities to quantify the effects of the collision on the bridge structural condition, which would otherwise be infeasible with traditional visual bridge inspection approaches. A forensic study was performed to assess the structural condition of the bridge before and after the incident. Both global (multi‐sensor) and local (single‐sensor) identification methods were applied to detect whether significant changes occurred in the bridge vibration signature. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.