AI Drones Take Over Bridge Inspections, Saving Millions

• Proeksa Meas
• 5 April 2026
• Construction Focus
• 1146 Views

The United States is swapping human climbers for AI-powered drones to fix over 600,000 bridges along the Mississippi River, a faster, cheaper, and safer way to maintain crumbling infrastructure.

Traditionally, inspecting a massive structure like St. Paul’s Robert Street Bridge is a nightmare. Engineers have to dangle from ropes, snap thousands of photos by hand, and sketch cracks in notebooks while hovering over traffic. It is a slow, expensive process that often requires shutting down lanes for commuters and carries significant safety risks for the workers involved.

Collins Engineers decided to try a high-tech approach for the bridge’s latest check-up. Instead of sending people over the side on ropes, they deployed drones to fly the length of the 1,429-foot bridge.

These drones captured over 57,000 high-resolution images, which were then processed by Bentley Systems software to create a “digital twin”—a photorealistic 3D map of the bridge stored in the cloud. Artificial Intelligence then scanned this model, automatically finding and measuring every crack and chip before a human ever stepped foot on-site.

The results of using AI are not just technical; they are financial. By doing the “discovery” work in the office, the team completed 70% of the inspection before arriving at the bridge. This shift cut time spent on-site by 20%, which meant fewer road closures for the public. While the AI has already saved over $90,000 on the inspection itself, the long-term impact is even bigger, with an estimated $15 million in construction savings predicted for the state.

With a shortage of new engineers entering the workforce, AI allows the existing experts to do more with less. This technology ensures the bridge can safely serve drivers for another 50 years while setting a new standard for infrastructure maintenance across the country.

Bentley’s iTwin Platform powers engineering-grade digital twins and AI inspection workflows for infrastructure assets worldwide.

• Bentley
• Digital Twin
• iTwin
• AI
• Bentley Systems