Last week, the Transmission Dynamics team were on site delivering the pilot installation of Bridge Strike Guardian as part of our Innovate UK First of a Kind 2025 project. Installed on a low bridge in partnership with Network Rail and Northumberland County Council Highways Agency, the system marks the first live deployment of this technology and an important step in demonstrating how real-time monitoring can improve the way bridge strike incidents are detected and managed.
What are the Consequences of Bridge Strikes?
Bridge strikes remain one of the most disruptive and costly challenges across the rail and highway network. When a vehicle impacts a bridge, the consequences can escalate into service delays, structural inspections, emergency response coordination and significant operational costs.
Across the UK rail network, Network Rail records around one bridge strike every five hours, causing over 120 days of delays for rail passengers and costing the industry around £12 million in delays and cancellations last year.
How can Bridge Strike Guardian Mitigate Bridge Strikes?
Bridge Strike Guardian has been developed to help address this challenge. The system is an innovative, solar-powered monitoring, assessment and alert platform that combines advanced sensor technology with edge-based intelligence to detect bridge impacts and analyse structural behaviour in real time. This enables potential damage to be assessed immediately after an event, providing operators with rapid insight into the condition of the structure.
The response to a bridge strike typically involves precautionary speed restrictions or line closures while engineers attend the site to carry out inspections. Even when structural damage proves minimal, these precautionary measures can bring services to a halt and cause disruption across the wider network.
By monitoring structural behaviour and infrastructure displacement in real time, Bridge Strike Guardian enables operators to quickly understand what has happened following an impact. This allows infrastructure managers to move more quickly from precautionary response to evidence-based decision-making, supporting faster recovery and reducing unnecessary disruption.
Unlike conventional monitoring systems, Bridge Strike Guardian requires no mains power, network cabling or civil engineering works. Its fully off-grid, solar-powered design allows rapid installation across a wide range of bridge types, including remote or logistically challenging locations. This makes the system highly scalable across the UK’s thousands of bridges identified as being at risk of strikes.
Following installation, the pilot system will now monitor the bridge continuously, generating operational data that will help evaluate the technology’s performance in live conditions and refine the system’s onboard intelligence. Transmission Dynamics would like to thank Northumberland County Council Highways Agency, Network Rail, and everyone involved in planning and delivering the installation safely and efficiently.
This project is funded by the Department for Transport (DfT) through the First of a Kind (FOAK) 2025 competition, delivered by Innovate UK, supporting the development of innovative technologies that improve safety, resilience and operational efficiency across the UK transport network.
See Bridge Strike Guardian in Action
To learn more about the Bridge Strike Guardian system and hear early insights from the pilot deployment, join our upcoming webinar.
Date: Thursday 26 March
Time: 13:00–14:00 GMT
Register here.