The Rędziński Bridge in Wrocław is the biggest Polish concrete cable-stayed bridge. It is equipped with a large structural health monitoring (SHM) system which has been collecting the measured data since the bridge opening in the year 2011. This paper presents a comparison between the measured data and the finite element method (FEM) calculations, while taking into account 7 years of data collection and analyses. The first part of this paper concerns the SHM application. In the next part, which contains comparisons between forces in cables and temperature changes throughout the structure, the measured data are presented. The third part includes SHM-based calculations and simulations with a complex FEM model to check the measured data and to estimate future measurements. The last part contains a durability assessment calculation for the cable stays.

In this paper a system of the Rędziński bridge will be described. The Rędziński bridge is the biggest object along the A8 motorway around the city of Wrocław and the biggest concrete cable-stayed bridge in Poland. For the purposes of the bridge monitoring a system of 222 sensors was installed. Results from the first 5 years of work of the SHM will be presented below.

<p>Monitoring systems have given the possibility of varied and long-term observation of bridge structures. The paper prestents the analysis of temperature impact on various bridge elements. The data comes from three different large bridges in Poland, equipped with extensive monitoring systems, namely from an arch bridge in Puławy (built in 2008), cable-stayed bridge in Płock (built in 2005) and the cable-stayed bridge in Wrocław (built in 2011). After few years of observation an enormous and valuable database of measured parameters was stored. The analysis shows how temperature changes between individual bridge components (e.g. between decks, pylon and stay cables) affect the structure mechanical behaviour and whether the influence fulfil the standards’ recommendations. Due to various static schemes and materials used in the described bridges, individual and non-typical impact of thermal loads is expected.</p>