Structural health monitoring at a displacement project: Fid-Bau Portal

Structural health monitoring at a displacement project

Shoef, G. / Shoef, Y.

Five buildings, of cultural heritage importance, were built by the German Temple Society during the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, in Sarona, Palestine. This place became the heart of Tel Aviv and the buildings stood in the way of a new traffic ways expansion project. Three options were considered: a) to destroy the buildings; b) to dig a tunnel underneath; c) to displace the buildings. The Department of Structural Conservation of Tel Aviv City Council chose the third option. The project was executed by a local company, 'Solel Bone', and the Dutch company 'Mammout', while the monitoring of the building was carried out by Gabi Shoef Ltd, Mishmar Hashiva, Israel. The Health Monitoring covered the complete displacement process from the initial stage of the building reinforcement, casting of the concrete platform, disconnecting of the building from foundations, actual movement and finally the anchoring at the new location. Such a project was performed in Israel for the first time, and the successful results were due largely to the careful study and the expert design of the project team. It was shown that a system composed of eight strain gauges and four accelerometers is sufficient for the monitoring of a building during the preparation for displacement and during the actual movement up to the resting on the foundations at the new site. The information obtained enabled full control of the movement process and the displacement mission was fulfilled successfully. The accumulated information provided data for further reinforcement of the buildings. In principle it is possible to design similar health monitoring systems to provide continuous information for long periods about degeneracy of the building due to environmental conditions.