Service-life extension of transport infrastructure through structural health monitoring

Transportation Infrastructure systems are recognized as essential for economic development, territorial cohesion, and social transformation. Unfortunately, some of the key structural components of this massive system, such as bridges, are rapidly ageing, while load conditions are exceeding those for which these systems initially envisaged as they are subjected to different hazards, such as natural events or new man-made phenomena. Given that a substantial portion of the current bridge stock was constructed many decades ago, degradation phenomena and a rise in service conditions greater than those employed in the original design may have contributed to reducing the reliability level, if countermeasures are not adopted. Therefore, the assessment of the current state and the prediction of the future condition of Transportation Infrastructure, and their protection against external hazards, turn out to be essential. This contribution firstly focused on an in-depth study of the role of structural health monitoring in improving the structural resilience of transportation infrastructure and consequently its life-cycle. Subsequently, a practical example is provided to highlight the role of SHM toward structural resilience improvement for an Italian common transport infrastructure.