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New Mexico's bridges aren't just safer than the national average — some of them also are smarter than the problems they may one day face.

Since 2004, New Mexico State University has been testing a "smart bridge" technology that enables bridges to signal the need for help when a problem arises.

The technology is in three bridges so far — including two in Las Cruces and the Rio Puerco bridge west of Albuquerque.

The state Department of Transportation is interested in adding the mechanisms to new bridges as they're built, said Rola Idriss, a civil engineering professor at NMSU who developed the technology.

"Smart bridges could definitely help in a situation like that in Minnesota," Idriss said. "Instead of just relying on visual inspection, we collect data from inside the bridge and follow it year to year."

Smart bridges are built with fiber optic sensors inside them that monitor how each component in the bridge bends and changes due to weather and vehicle stress, Idriss said.

The sensors can communicate wirelessly to a computer — and if a problem occurs they can send out a warning, Idriss said.

"The bridge will basically alert you that it needs to be rehabilitated and retrofitted," Idriss said.

The technology is also relatively inexpensive and getting cheaper, she said.

In a $1 million bridge, it costs about $100,000 to make it smart, she said.

"It's becoming more and more available," Idriss said.

An even less expensive fix may be coming out of Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Researchers there are hoping sensors about the size of a credit card and costing only $1 apiece could be installed on bridges to provide an early warning to potential failures.

Lab scientists, in collaboration with the University of California at San Diego, say such a system would provide enough lead time to either shut down a bridge or perform preventive maintenance.

"The idea is to put arrays of sensors on structures, such as bridges, and look for the changes of patterns of signals coming out of those sensors that would give an indication of damage forming and if it is propagating," said Chuck Farrar, a civil engineer at the lab.

The electronic sensors would send data via radiotelemetry to a computer for analysis. The sensors detect electrical charges emitted by stress on material, such as steel-reinforced concrete.

Researchers are in the second year of the four-year project — funded at $400,000 a year — and it probably will be years before the sensors are commercially available, Farrar said.

Researchers are trying to incorporate the sensors with microprocessors and wireless telemetry systems so they can work as stand-alone monitoring devices, he said.

One hitch in the idea is how to power the sensors. Researchers are looking at small, remote-controlled helicopters to temporarily power the sensor via microwave or light beam, which then could beam information back to the chopper.

Researchers will be testing the helicopter power delivery and wireless sensor next month on a bridge about 10 miles north of Truth or Consequences.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.