TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan has worked to ensure bridge safety with a detection system developed by a Taipei university to prevent the recurrence of a bridge collapse tragedy last year that claimed six lives.

A team of scientists from the National Taipei University of Technology's College of Engineering was behind a system that monitors the health of the country's major overpasses. The system has been applied to the West Coast Expressway and the Suhua Highway, wrote CNA.

Incorporating cloud services, the mechanism automatically issues alerts when cracks, displacement, temperature irregularities, and signs of tilting or sinking on a bridge are detected by its sensors.

While it is implausible to keep a close watch on all of the 20,000 to 30,000 bridges in the island country, priority can be given to decrepit ones or those with special designs in need of extra care, said College of Engineering Dean Sung Yu-chi (宋裕祺), who leads the project. Monitoring should begin at the commencement of a bridge's construction for better figure tracking, he added.

Such a mechanism is particularly needed for overpasses in Taiwan, which is a country prone to earthquakes, typhoons, and floods. The island country's Nanfang'ao Bridge (南方澳大橋) in Yilan experienced a deadly incident on October 1, 2019, when it collapsed, injuring more than 20 and taking six lives.

The actual cause of the collapse has yet to be determined, but a preliminary investigation report released last month indicated a lack of inspection, the last having been carried out in April of 2016, reported China Times.