A large portion of Iranian railway's bridge asset is comprised of masory arch bridges. Due to long service life and deterioration of masonry, structural health monitoring (SHM) of such structures is of great importance. Moreover, capacity assessment of masonry arch bridges may allow for increasing the allowable speed or axle load of operational trains. SHM of masonry arch bridges may be carried out using one of the following:

• Dynamic load tests
• Long-Term monitoring

Structural response of bridge is determined by instrumenting different points on the structure in Dynamic load tests. It is possible to have a better understanding of material characteristics through dynamic load tests. Moreover, it is possible to employ the results for calibrating finite element models of the bridge, and use the calibrated F.E. model for analyzing the structure in different limit states.

In long-term monitroing, it is possible to study the structural response of the bridge through time. Using this approach allows for detecting structural damages, over-loaded trains, and introducing uncertainty parameters in analyses.