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Steel-concrete composite bridges are an important alternative to concrete bridges due to considerable advantages regarding the design, construction time, durability and costs. Therefore, they are largely used in high-speed lines of the European railway networks. The recently launched EC research project "DETAILS" aims to remove actual uncertainties on dynamic effects and interaction phenomena, fatigue loadings, structural modeling, fatigue life and damage assessment of these types of bridges. In the frame of the project, 3 European bridges will be instrumented and monitored during a long period. This paper describes the permanent monitoring system that has been developed for the Sesia Viaduct located on the new Italian high-speed line between Torino and Milano. The aim of the vibration monitoring system Is to follow the evolution of the bridge dynamic properties in time and in relation to temperature and humidity and to evaluate the bridge response under high-speed train loading. Next to a description of the system, also the results of a preliminary detailed dynamic assessment will be shown.