November 20, 1997

AN ASSESSMENT OF STONY BROOK BRIDGE

by:

James Bintrim, Graduate Student

Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

The Pennsylvania State University

ABSTRACT

The Pennsylvania Transportation Institute conducted a field test on the masonry arch portion of the New Jersey DOT structure No. 1129-154, commonly known as the Stony Brook Bridge, located on US Route 206, ½ mile south of the borough of Princeton, NJ. The testing occurred on May 5-7, 1997. The bridge was instrumented and a single-axle and a tandem-axle truck were driven over both lanes of the bridge. The tests were performed with known weights of the empty, half-loaded, and fully loaded trucks. Also, random truck traffic and cars were incorporated into the testing. Deflections caused by the known loads and random traffic were measured using Linear Variable Differential Transformers (LVDTs). LVDTs were also used to measure the opening and closing of cracks running parallel to the north-south centerline of the structure. Horizontal and vertical seismometers measured the respective velocities of the structure at the centerline of the main arch and other critical locations. The condition of the structure has been assessed utilizing the data acquired in these tests.