Among the greatest accomplishments of human civilization are bridges. bridges have served as lifelines while inspiring the imaginations of people from early primitive structures where logs were simply positioned across streams to the long, arched spans from the Roman civilization that still stand today, to the modern era's engineering work of art.

Bridges enable communication and transportation in times of peace. On the other hand, bridges take on strategic value in times of war. The destruction of bridges has heavily contributed to the outcome of armed conflicts throughout history.

A new more sinister kind of warfare was revealed to America trough the 9/11 attacks. Bridges play a critical role in defense strategies in times of war. Hundreds or thousands of casualties, billions of dollars worth of direct reconstruction costs and even greater socio-economic costs can occur with the destruction of a critical bridge or tunnel at one of the numerous choke points in the highway system.

The report released by the White House on February 2003, titled "The National Strategy for the Physical Protection of Critical Infrastructures and Key Assets," identifies the close relationship between the many segments of the economy and the nation's transportation infrastructure. Transportation and nearly every other sector of the economy have always and will continue to depend on each other from many aspects. As a result, threats to the transportation operations affect other industries that continue to depend on it.

A terrorist attack on any of approximately thousand critical bridges in the United States can result in substantial casualties, economic disruption and other societal ramifications, as reported by a post-9/11 study conducted by Science Applications International Corp. A real life example was the PATH commuter rail line in New York which was not functioning after the attacks of 9/11. The closing of this line affected well over 67,000 passengers for more than two years. Not only that, but this also contributed to the relocation of over a hundred firms, 1.1 million square feet of office space and 11,700 jobs to NJ. These devastating results exemplify the socio-economic loss of a major transportation path.

Similarly, the highway infrastructure has vulnerabilities which must be addressed as pointed out by a FHWA's 2003 document, titled "Recommendations for Bridge and Tunnel Security". This issue is so crucial that many individuals would like it to be addressed among the policies of national security. The improvements in homeland security must address enhancements to vital tunnels and bridges.

The Coming of Homeland Security

The forefront of highway infrastructure saw little change until the Department of Homeland Security initiated the Surface Transportation and Reliability Act in 2003. On the other hand from the time when the landmark policy shift, DHS has taken far-reaching measures to identify the security needs of the U.S. highway infrastructure, including those of more than six hundred thousand bridges located all throughout the US.

March 2003 was the time when the first milestone in the development process took place, this was the time when DHS granted a four-year, $10 million award match to the administration of the Federal Highway department. The main reason for this grant was to develop model security-related installations in several target areas, one of which addresses finding the best approach to carrying out a bridge security network.

As a result, the FHWA, allowed state departments of transportation to recommend projects to win the grant and, for the first time in history, they gave the whole grant to a sole bidder which was the Florida Department of Transportation and its valued offer for the iFlorida project.

According to an iFlorida program manager the primary mission of the iFlorida model installation is to provide a transportation information infrastructure (or infostructure) to display how security, safety and reliability can be enhanced through extensive accessibility of real-time data. The 'I' in iFlorida resembles the four objectives of the program which are information, intelligence, infrastructure and innovation, at the same time "Infostructure" is a term that blends information and infrastructure for the purpose of enhancing communication and security functionality.

Security Control and Administration
Security Command and Control is the name of the model bridge security sub-project, it mainly focuses on developing video/software-based recognition systems for two critical Florida bridges, one in the Jacksonville area and one in Orlando.

According to another project manager, the major objectives for the video/software-based recognition setup are to enable detection of potential security troubles, assist in preventing disaster-related occurrences, enhance post-event analysis, and assist law enforcement in verifying hit-and-run suspects via footage caught by security cameras.

FDOT awarded the Security Command and Control contract to MasTec North America Inc. after realizing that they had a clear picture of what they wanted and who could best help them to achieve their goals. The Director of MasTec's Intelligent Transportation Systems sector turned to security consultant for guidance in product specification and Metric Engineering for help with plans deployment.

The approach to integration is one of the innovative aspects of the Security Command and Control system. The detection system which is video/software-based incorporates thermal and active-infrared technology to offer 360 degrees of surveillance for both boat and auto-related traffic for the majority of the time of its operation. PTZ cameras, fixed cameras, and infrared illuminators are installed to supervise specific zones while footage from the cameras is monitored in real-time at the traffic control departments. At the instant that a potential perpetrator or suspicious article is stationary for longer than a preset period of time, an alarm is triggered, the video displays on the monitors and TMC operators become attentive of the potential problem. By utilizing PTZ cameras, TMC operators constantly monitor the bridges and respond to triggered alarm zones.

DVRs at field locations capture video footage caught by the cameras at any given instant. The streaming video is sent back via a fiber-optic infrastructure to be monitored at separate TMCs for redundancy as well as maintaining the local recording procedure. Once an alarm is triggered the DVRs at the TMC begin the recording process. The bridges of Jacksonville and Orlando are supervised by operators at both TMCs, as well as by the Florida Highway officers.

According to a manager of the project this approach allows for redundancy, which is very beneficial in case the footage is destroyed locally or a TMC is removed from the network.

The locations selected for this case study are intentionally different although both bridges cross the channels of major waterways. For instance, the Jacksonville Bridge is particularly urban with underpasses and major intersections to take into consideration. On the other hand, the Orlando area bridge is distinctly rural and most of the traffic below is related to boats. As a consequence, the equipment selection and security goals for the two bridges vary remarkably.

Relative Bridge Examination

The sidewalks and underpasses surrounding the densely populated bridge are the primary focus In the Jacksonville area. In order to ensure complete ground coverage, this urban environment requires one or more fixed cameras per pole, this makes the surface area space and deployment time key factors in when selecting the proper solution.

MasTec selected an integrated day night camera with built-in infrared illuminators and power supply by Extreme CCTV in order to conserve space on the poles for multi-camera accommodation and to decrease installation time for the large number of installations required. In order to produce properly-lit, high-resolution images at night, the incorporated day-night cameras use infrared illumination, a type of light which is invisible to the human eye.

According to a MasTec ITS engineer, the Extreme CCTV ZX55 model is a practical solution for situations where installation time and pole congestion are the major issues.

The incorporated day/night cameras are used for security in fixed areas, as soon as they are installed. The technology of alarm zones are also in surveillance software so that the cameras can detect and define unknown elements in the alarm areas.

According to the president and CEO of Extreme CCTV, the technology of Active-infrared night vision has brought significant advantages to city-wide ITS projects on an international level, It is now an anticipation that cameras deliver good, usable footages under any lighting conditions, including pitch dark settings.

A major commuter route for central Florida residents working in Orlando is the rural, Orlando-area Bridge. The bridge also crosses a fairly busy waterway and serves as a primary evacuation route for the region. The major factors affecting this location are the fluctuating water levels and the rural environment. As a result, the primary monitoring locations include the pilings underneath the bridge and the actual waterway itself. Due to these reasons, MasTec installed a combination of active-infrared and thermal technology to address the location's specific security requirements.

MasTec elected and deployed fixed cameras and infrared illuminators as standalone components on each camera pole to guarantee increased visibility.

According to MasTec ITS engineer the Extreme CCTV and Sony Day/Night Cameras, especially the SuperLED series Supercharged Infrared Illuminators functioned well together, resulting in excellent surveillance footages, even at total darkness. This was certainly a great feature to have since most criminal and illegal activities are not likely to be carried out on day light hours, the evil doers will certainly aim for a time when most people will not be present, and night makes a perfect candidate.

He further continued to explain that deploying standalone infrared illuminators provides a longer range than the built-in components, consequently, allowing smaller camera-to-coverage vicinity proportion.

MasTec selected a thermal camera for presence detection, to monitor the busy waterway. These type of cameras utilize heat to detect presence and maintain visibility through rain, fog, and other abnormal weather conditions. MasTec selected a short-range thermal camera made by ISAP For this type of implementation. In addition to that, alarm zones are installed to identify the presence of lingering objects using state-of-the-art security application. As soon as an alarm zone is triggered the TMC operators are alerted and PTZ cameras are utilized to focus in on the location of concern.

It is apparent that a new era in surveillance technology is on the horizon, in light of these and future security installations. Subsequent to completing a two-year assessment phase of the iFlorida program, the FHWA will investigate best performances to decide which aspects worked, in what other way can it be done , and which applications can be deployed in other regions of the nation.

According to the assistant district traffic operations engineer they predict to see others follow suit not so far off. With a bit of luck, the state department of transportation and other districts will gain advantage, not to mention that their innovative prototypes will help improve the security of tunnels and critical bridges across the nation.