Low-cost Monitoring of Critical Infrastructures

One of the significant challenges facing critical civil infrastructures in Ghana is the absence of an efficient and reliable inspection and monitoring framework for tracking the health of infrastructure(s). The government spends enormous sums of money on such infrastructures; however, no proper plan is in place to ensure their longevity and resilience. This project seeks to develop a low-cost sensor-based Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) system to aid the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) in inspecting and monitoring bridges in the country.

The project's primary objective is to develop a monitoring-supported bridge inspection framework, through field testing, and to provide recommendations for integrating the developed framework into GHA's bridge maintenance program. Anticipated outcomes of this project include a lowcost sensor-based SHM framework for improving safety and longevity of highway bridges, and reducing maintenance and repair costs for the GHA. Such a project can potentially position Ghana as a leader in assimilation of SHM techniques for critical infrastructures in the West Africa sub-region. Moreover, successful implementation of the project could lead to an institutionalized partnership between the ETH Zurich and KNUST research teams and the GHA. This could involve expanding the developed SHM framework to other critical infrastructures in Ghana, such as gas pipelines.

Contact: Dr. Vasileios Ntertimanis

Partner:

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
Ghana Highway Authority