OGDENSBURG -- Clarkson University has entered into a partnership with the Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority (OBPA) to test and monitor the Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridge, which is operated and maintained by the OBPA, over a three-year period.

During the first year, work will center on the development of a model of the bridge used for structural analysis. This model will be used and revised throughout the project and will serve as the basis of future research and facility management by the OBPA. It will also provide the OBPA with 3D visualization of the various elements of the bridge structure to better understand and capture the overall facility needs.

Clarkson faculty and staff on the research team include Janoyan, Erik C. Backus, Levon Minnetyan, Narutoshi Nakata and William Olsen, all of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

“The authority's partnership with Clarkson University will provide essential information to maintain, monitor, and control the International Bridge,” said authority Executive Director Wade A. Davis. “This information will be beneficial as it helps the authority preserve a structure which is critical to the North Country's economy."

Clarkson's bridge engineering and structural health monitoring group, made up of faculty engineers and graduate and undergraduate student researchers, will gather data for the OBPA through the use of trend-setting building information modeling and geographic information systems (BIM/GIS) techniques, sensing technologies, and monitoring capabilities, according to the school.

"The Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridge … links the North Country with Canada, the United States' largest trading partner," said Clarkson Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Kerop Janoyan, director of Clarkson's Laboratory for Intelligent Infrastructure and Transportation Technologies.