Posted on October 5, 2026
By Sarah Clark, public affairs specialist
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Dr. Trent Schreiber, a research civil engineer at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL), is developing a more affordable way to monitor the condition of the nation’s navigation infrastructure.
The research focuses on improving structural health monitoring for miter gates — the massive steel gates that allow vessels to pass through navigation locks. By using data from heavily monitored gates to assess similar gates equipped with fewer sensors, Schreiber hopes to help the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) identify potential damage earlier while reducing the number of sensors needed on individual structures.
The project was selected for funding through the Department of War (DoW) SMART Scholarship-for-Service Program’s SEED Innovation Awards to help USACE address a longstanding challenge in maintaining critical waterway infrastructure. Navigation locks and dams allow large quantities of agricultural products, fuel, raw materials and other goods to move along inland waterways, with miter gates playing an essential role in keeping those systems operating.
Damage or deterioration to a gate can lead to unexpected maintenance and lock closures that disrupt navigation. Detecting problems earlier can give infrastructure managers more time to plan repairs and potentially reduce costs and disruptions. Structural health monitoring systems use sensors and computer models to give engineers information about how a structure performs over time. However, installing large numbers of sensors can be expensive and difficult, particularly when devices must be placed underwater.
Schreiber is applying population-based structural health monitoring, which uses information from heavily monitored structures to assess similar structures equipped with fewer sensors.
“Population-based structural health monitoring means learning about the condition of one structure by also looking at other similar structures,” explained Schreiber. “In this case, navigation infrastructure tends to share similar designs and behavior, so the idea is that information from one miter gate can help us better understand another gate. This approach can be more practical because fully instrumenting every gate can be labor intensive and expensive. By using information from similar gates, we can fill in the missing pieces for structures with lower cost sensing networks.”
Computer modeling, sensor data and machine learning will identify patterns in how healthy miter gates respond to different types of damage. That data will then determine patterns that may help assess another gate with fewer sensors or sensors in different locations.
The effort will focus on gates like those along the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest, where several lock-and-dam systems have comparable designs. The project will build on existing monitoring data and a detailed computer model of the miter gate at The Dalles Lock and Dam.
Unlike earlier studies that relied on nearly identical structures and sensor arrangements, the ERDC approach is designed to account for differences found in real infrastructure. If successful, the research could reduce the number of sensors required to monitor individual miter gates, making structural health monitoring more practical for wider use across USACE navigation infrastructure.
“If this research is successful, it could give engineers a more practical and affordable way to understand the condition of lock gates before problems become severe,” said Schreiber. “Since much of this infrastructure is underwater, traditional inspections can be difficult and infrequent, which means issues are often not identified until they begin affecting gate operations. Earlier information about deteriorating performance could help engineers make maintenance decisions sooner, when repairs may be simpler and less costly. It could also help prevent damage from spreading to other components. That kind of early awareness could improve navigation reliability by reducing unexpected outages and helping maintenance teams plan interventions more effectively.”
The work also has implications for national defense. Inland waterways move materials important to manufacturing and military readiness. Faster identification of infrastructure damage could help engineers prioritize repairs, reduce supply chain disruptions and restore infrastructure more quickly following a damaging event.
Ultimately, the SMART SEED-funded research aims to give USACE asset managers better information while reducing the cost of collecting it. By learning from groups of similar structures, ERDC researchers hope to make automated monitoring a more practical tool for protecting the infrastructure that keeps commerce and critical supplies moving.
