The inspection and monitoring of existing bridges

Technological innovation in the service of infrastructure security

In a context in which road transport continues to be vital to the economic well-being of our country, it is of paramount importance to ensure the safety and functionality of the existing infrastructure for the agencies involved in road infrastructure management.

In particular, in a territory like Italy, characterized by a varied orography and crossed by numerous waterways, the greatest attention must be paid to the monitoring of bridges, the viaducts and tunnels, especially after the well-known news events that have highlighted the state of degradation of these infrastructures. In fact, since most of these infrastructures were designed and built more than 50 years ago, based on technological knowledge and traffic flows that are completely different from the current ones, to which are added the poor state of maintenance, the performance decay of construction materials and the effects of natural actions, it is of paramount importance to perform a proper census and a complete assessment of the state of conservation of the works and the risks related to them, so that maintenance interventions aimed at improving the safety of the infrastructure can be planned. Through participation in the Workshop, the topics related to the classification, degradation status assessment, risk management, safety assessment and monitoring of existing bridges, viaducts, flyovers and similar works will be known and explored in depth, through an analysis of the existing regulations, any problems related to their application and the applicable innovative solutions for control monitoring and structural upgrading currently available.

Target audience

The workshop aims to professionally and technically update all those involved in the management, control, and monitoring of infrastructures through testimonies of the experience of managers, planners, researchers, and companies, demonstrating how the proper use of new technologies and innovative solutions can contribute to the improvement of infrastructure safety. In particular, current reference regulations, tools for assessing the state of preservation of infrastructure, the use of new technologies, such as drones, laser scanners, artificial intelligence software, 3D digital twin models, and possible future developments made available by scientific research, such as the correct use of predictive analysis, will be analyzed.

The workshop intends, therefore, to be, in addition to an opportunity to assess the issues, technologies and approaches related to the census, inspection, risk classification, safety assessment and monitoring of bridges and viaducts, a time for discussion and debate with leading experts in the field for the knowledge of the latest available technologies, the possibility of new approaches and especially possible future developments.