BIG BRO – Decision support for maintenance and upgrading of existing transportation infrastructure based on advanced assessment technologies and structural health monitoring

Research Project, 2016 – 2018

Maintenance of transportation infrastructure assets can be relatively expensive, since it does not only include the direct cost of interventions, but also the indirect consequences of traffic disruptions. Since transport infrastructure is usually public, it is essential to optimize the costs of operation and maintenance of the assets. To make rational decisions reliable information about the performance of existing structures is needed including knowledge about the anticipated demands (e.g. effects from traffic loads, environmental exposures, degradation processes) and capacity (e.g. resistance, robustness, durability).
The purpose of the project is to develop a framework for a decision support methodology that can be used for implementing maintenance strategies on a rational basis. The framework will utilize knowledge from different fields, such as on-site measurement technology, experimental mechanics, advanced structural analysis and reliability methods. The ultimate goal of the research team is to establish, implement and demonstrate the usefulness of the decision support methodology for the maintenance of existing transportation infrastructure.
As a first step the current proposal will develop a theoretical framework for a decision support methodology for the assessment and maintenance of existing transportation infrastructureassets. The project work will be executed by researchers at SP, LTH, KTH, Chalmers and NCC.