Another form of effectively monitoring the condition of a structure is through the use of Monitoring Stations, in a similar fashion to the use of on-site Surveyors and Engineers the tools they use are highly accurate Total Stations. Through a few changes the companies that build these highly accurate machines are able to build unmanned stations which are mounted on the infrastructure in a location which gives them line of sight to multiple prisms which are mounted on the face of the structure. Through continuous scanning of these prisms you will get a readout of changes which occur on your structure. The biggest problem here using this method of monitoring is the cost and maintenance associated with Monitoring Stations. Each station can cost in excess of $80,000 AUD and couple that with the Software required to stream and process the data which costs $5000 AUD a year and the multiple high accuracy prisms needed to be fixed on the structure which cost $1400 AUD each you have yourself a very expensive solutions. Then you also need to take into account the requirement for multiple stations to cover both sides and all unseen areas on the structure. These kinds of solutions have been used in very expensive projects before and usually come in at around $500,000 AUD for a solution like this with a maintenance plan and on-site cleaning and battery changes required every 4 – 6 weeks.

The other method of monitoring the Structural Integrity of your structure is through the employment of licensed Surveyors and Engineers to inspect your structure periodically. Although vastly cheaper than fixed monitoring stations this option also has its drawbacks. One of these drawbacks is the inability to monitor your structure in real time. Surveyors and Engineers are only able to inspect the structure from the time they are on site against the previous recordings they took upon last inspection. This will give you Static point to point data but should an incident occur during the day whilst under public use there is no way to determine this fault and ensure public safety. A typical surveyor and Engineer on-site to provide Structural Inspections can range from $1500 AUD a day upwards and even more to provide technical Engineering reports for repairs and reworks required. 

This way of maintaining a safe structure is done through the use of constant site inspections with highly trained technicians which use specialised equipment to get into tight areas which would normally be inaccessible. Doing this comes at a cost because this type of specialised equipment costs quite a bit to use and then the closing of the infrastructure whilst the public can be affected also costs quite a bit to close down safely. This kind of method isn’t cheap either with the hire of the equipment, the people required to complete the job and the expertise to write up the required report. This kind of Infrastructure Inspection can cost in excess of $15,000 AUD each inspection with multiple required to provide a decent understanding of the structure.