The company's instrumentation team, part of its Production and Integrity Assurance business, will work with UK-based structural health monitoring systems supplier Strainstall to deliver health monitoring technology and engineering for the project.
Strainstall will provide a package of technology and services for the new 2.7-kilometre cable-stayed bridge, which is scheduled for completion by the end of 2016. Intertek's corrosion data monitoring Concerto RCC units will play a key part of the system, providing details of the integrity of the concrete within the structure. This is achieved by measuring and monitoring for the potential of corrosion - along with monitoring the relative humidity of the concrete - via a complex set of measurements taken from probes embedded in the concrete.
Overall, Intertek will provide 120 units which will relay information between one another and send data to a central hub. Strainstall will use this information to enable engineers to assess when maintenance is required on the bridge.
The original Forth Road Bridge was inaugurated in 1964 and allows the passage of vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists between Edinburgh and Fife across the Firth of Forth. The bridge will remain in place primarily as a vital link in the local public transport corridor, with the bulk of traffic switching to the new bridge upon completion.
"We are pleased to be working with Strainstall on such an exciting project to assure the structural health of the new bridge," Tom Gooderham, Business Manager for Instrumentation at Intertek Production and Integrity Assurance, said. "The Queensferry Crossing will be an iconic landmark and it is an honour for my team to contribute to the safety and integrity of the new bridge for years to come."
Other high-profile projects that the instrumentation team is currently working on include providing corrosion monitoring equipment and software for Cityringen, the Copenhagen Metro extension and the Eurasia Tunnel project. The latter, scheduled for completion in 2018, will result in two continents being linked by one subsea highway tunnel for the first ever time.