Monitoring and safety of transport infrastructures (CSA)

The proposals should include at least the following activities:

• A critical review of the relevant maintenance and monitoring procedures in all EU Member States and in a number of relevant other countries;
• An inventory and a complete analysis of the proven most advanced technologies, methodologies and standards used to monitor and control the safety, stability and good operation of bridges and other relevant transport infrastructures across their lifespan;
• Identification of the international state of the art for damage detection technologies (both non-destructive and destructive) and methods for assessment, retrofitting and assuring reliability and safety of bridges and other relevant transport infrastructures;
• Identify technical, economic, environmental, social and administrative barriers for the safe operation and maintenance of bridges and other relevant transport infrastructures;
• Identify ways to adequately reflect deviations from design specifications (increased use, higher loads, climate change, extended life) in maintenance programmes;
• Propose a roadmap for the systematic adoption of easily and quickly deployable technologies to predict durability of materials, components and overall reliability of existing bridges and other relevant transport infrastructures;
• Provide the technical input for an EU standard and guidance material based on best practices for the control, risk assessment and maintenance of bridges and other relevant transport infrastructures;
• Creation of relevant stakeholders networks (e.g. authorities, industry, academia, etc.) to share the findings of this CSA and develop implementation strategies.

Although this action focuses in particular on existing bridges, the results may also be of relevance for other ageing large infrastructures, such as tunnels.

Proposals under this topic should take into account the work and the outcomes of relevant projects in this field funded by H2020 or the JRC.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU around EUR 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Bridges can be particularly vulnerable elements of transport infrastructures. In particular, road bridges may be approaching end of life be subject to higher volumes of traffic than designed to support for. Sound procedures to ensure monitoring, quality control and preventive maintenance systems are therefore vital. Various procedures are in place at national level in Europe, which must be analysed in order to identify the actions needed at EU level to enhance coherence and promote best practice for bridges and where relevant for transport infrastructures at large.

• Contribution to a possible mandate for a standard (CEN TC 250) setter at EU level for the maintenance and control of bridges and where relevant for transport infrastructures at large;;
• Identification of best practices for monitoring the safety and maintenance of bridges and other relevant transport infrastructures, including outcomes of the most promising research projects which facilitate assessing and thus lowering significantly the risk of an unexpected collapse of bridges and other relevant transport infrastructures in the EU;
• Significant improvement of the safety of bridges and other relevant transport infrastructures through better maintenance and control.