Overview
Infrastructure management systems (IMS) are increasingly being applied in the development of maintenance strategies of transport facilities. FEDRO (the Swiss Federal Roads Office), for example, has now developed the fourth version of the KUBA software application, which is used to programme medium- to long-term maintenance work on engineering structures such as bridges on the motorway network. Similarly, the SBB (Swiss Federal Railways) is developing its own comprehensive, dedicated management system. Such systems are currently geared to the minimisation of operating costs, i.e. those costs borne by the owner. At the same time, the exclusive focus on technical criteria in defining the state of infrastructure should not allow conditions to arise in which unacceptable impacts on users and the environment become likely. As yet, no allowance is made for any such effects, the scope of which may be subsumed under the concept of “vulnerability”.
The project will develop a general methodology for factoring “vulnerability” into maintenance strategies for the transport infrastructure. The vulnerability of transport facilities is to be integrated as a new parameter into the existing management systems. The project will therefore help to guarantee the financial sustainability of the Swiss transport system.
The project is split into two phases: the first involves the development of a methodology for individual infrastructure components and model networks, while the second will serve to illustrate this methodology using case studies. Separate studies will be carried out for the rail system and road network.
Funding
Results
Under this project, a set of guidelines for the development of computer-assisted IMS, which make allowance for infrastructure vulnerability in the relevant planning processes, was developed. These methods will be later integrated into the existing FEDRO and SBB systems and thereby render Swiss infrastructure facilities more resilient to unforeseen events.
Technical Implications
A set of guidelines for the development of computer-assisted IMS will be integrated into the existing FEDRO and SBB systems and thereby render Swiss infrastructure facilities more resilient to unforeseen events.