ABSTRACT
Masonry arch bridges have been used in engineering for thousands of years and still remain a vital part of the highway systems and railway networks throughout Europe. This chapter presents an overview of the assessment of masonry arch bridges, combining three nondestructive testing (NDT) techniques: ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and infrared thermography (IRT) are applied in the detection of pathologies in the inner layers of the bridge, thus providing valuable information about hidden geometry, moisture content and filling conditions. On the other hand, terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) can quickly measure the visible geometry of the bridge, including its superficial pathologies, giving extra information about their sizes and depths and the latest indicators of their severity. The chapter presents an overview of different NDT methods, as well as the data acquisition strategies for each method and the subsequent processing techniques. Then, some examples of the results obtained by the application of each of these nondestructive methods to masonry bridges are reported.
