Project Highlight: University of Massachusetts

The University of Massachusetts Boston is demolishing aging Science and Athletic buildings to create a new elevated quad area for the students and facility. The close proximity of construction activity to occupied buildings and underground utilities as well as poor soil conditions presented several technical challenges. As a result the Project Team elected to implement a comprehensive monitoring program to protect existing infrastructure, to validate short and long term design performance, and to ensure public safety. In order to meet the monitoring requirements, sensemetrics was selected by GZA and the Project Team as the IoT platform to provide real time deformation monitoring solutions using Leica total stations which directly connect to our Broadband IIoT Thread device. Construction vibration data was collected using Instantel seismographs. Additional geotechnical and structural sensors to be installed as a part of this effort will include vibrating wire piezometers and wireless tiltmeters.   

GZA was responsible for monitoring the performance of existing structures and providing real-time data to the Project Team. The sensemetrics monitoring platform was used to visualize the data, to detect changes in condition for existing infrastructure, and to identify movement and vibration levels that exceeded project thresholds. Using sensemetrics Thread devices and integrated software, GZA team was able to monitor the activities in real-time and gain conditional performance information to reduce risk and increase operational efficiency.