CHI Consulting Engineers, LLC (CHI) was retained by the Delaware River Port Authority to conduct a monitoring program for the rocker bearings and superstructure movements at selected pier locations of the Commodore Barry Bridge. The objective of this study was to assess the behavior of the rocker bearings under long-term thermal variations and short-term live-load traffic conditions.

 

The monitoring program focused on four specific locations: Girder Lines 1 and 2 at Pier 24B, and Girder Lines 1 and 3 at Pier 26A. Two sets of cellular-networked instrumentation utilizing high-precision computer vision technology were deployed to track the translation and rotation of fiducial tags attached to the girders and rockers.

 

The monitoring program included the following tasks, which were successfully carried out:

• Long term monitoring: carried out from May/June 2025 through Mid-September covering a temperature variation range of up to 51.5 ˚F.

• Short term monitoring: carried out on 2025-07-17 at morning traffic time with a duration of up to 110 min.