'Smart joints' enable seamless traffic flow on world's bridges

For decades, engineers faced a significant dilemma: how to inspect and maintain critical bridge components without stopping the flow of traffic. A Chinese company is now helping to change that paradigm. Intelligent Engineering Connections Incorporated (IEC), based in Chengdu, capital of southwest China’s Sichuan Province, is equipping bridges worldwide with what it calls ‘smart joints’. These high-tech bridge bearings and expansion devices can be calibrated under full load, detect structural stress in real time, and can even be removed and recycled after use. The technology has helped IEC’s products find application in more than 30 countries and regions, from South Asia to the Middle East and North America. The company took another major step in its global expansion on Monday, signing a strategic cooperation and exclusive distribution agreement with Malaysia’s Pan Sarawak Holdings Sdn Bhd to introduce IEC’s advanced digital twin system for bridge structural health monitoring to the Malaysian market. Bridge bearings serve as the ‘crucial joints’ in a bridge’s load-bearing system, absorbing external forces from traffic, temperature fluctuations, and seismic activity. Over time, bearings operate under continuous load, making traditional calibration and inspection methods, which require load removal and bearing displacement, difficult and disruptive to traffic flow. To check if a bearing is functioning correctly, engineers traditionally had to unload and move the entire structure, a process that caused major disruption, was expensive, and often required road closures. ‘Traditional connectors were just the skeleton of infrastructure. We wanted them to become the nerves, capable of sensing and even thinking,’ said Wu Dacheng, director of IEC. IEC changed the game. Their technology now allows for precise calibration of bearings in place, without the need to unload or move them. The technology, officially named the ‘Structural Intelligent Force Measurement/Calibration Device and Safety Monitoring System’, was recently recognised as one of the first batch of ‘industry-leading products’ by the Chengdu municipal government. IEC now holds 170 patents, including 27 Chinese invention patents and three international PCT patents. This breakthrough alone has saved millions of dollars in maintenance costs and avoided hours of traffic disruption on various projects, according to Wu. IEC also embedded Internet of Things (IoT) sensors into the bearings, acting as a round-the-clock ‘family doctor’ for each bridge. ‘With our self-developed structural intelligent force measurement, calibration, and safety monitoring system, the bearings can monitor internal forces, displacement, acceleration, and other critical parameters in real time,’ said Zhao Weichao, an IEC engineer. ‘If something abnormal occurs, the system not only sounds an alarm but also makes adaptive adjustments. It can detect problems before the structure actually suffers damage,’ Zhao added. In February 2026, the technology proved its worth on Bangladesh’s Jamuna Bridge, one of the largest bridges in the South Asian country. Working in the cramped, confined space beneath the bridge deck, IEC and its local partners retrofitted the structure without stopping a single car above. ‘The working space was so narrow that conventional methods were nearly impossible,’ said Li Shaofeng, a manager at CCCC Second Harbor Engineering Company, one of the project partners. ‘IEC’s smart equipment allowed us to perform the work with high precision and full control in that limited space without disrupting traffic flow. This technology has great potential for wider application, both in domestic and overseas projects,’ Li stated. IEC’s track record spans the globe. Its expansion joints withstood the desert heat on the Doha ring road built for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Its sliding bearings support the complex roof system at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, which will host the 2028 Olympics. New service centres are also planned in Singapore and Brisbane. A leading player in China’s domestic market, IEC has already secured orders worth 300 million yuan this year, targeting an annual output value growth of 30 percent. ‘We are transforming the Made in China label into a symbol of smart, low-carbon solutions,’ Wu said. ‘This is not just about building bridges. It is about ensuring they last longer, are smarter, and are more environmentally friendly.’