The structural maintenance process of existing bridges integrated in BIM tools

Abstract

The heritage of Italian bridges is very vast and varied be-cause of the geographical and orographic conformation of the territory. Existing national road and highway bridges are subjected to periodical inspections and, in some cases, urgent structural measures. The definition of a control and maintenance strategy is necessary to preserve and guarantee an acceptable level of safety and functionality of existing construction. Digital transformation is promoting new operating methods for the Facility Management due to the IoT, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence. The study aims to assess a new digital method supported by BIM tools that allow to improve structural maintenance processes in terms of efficiency, quality and speed. The method proposed is characterized by the use of the Building Condition Assessment to collect physical and performance information of the infrastructure. This information is digitalized in BIM and integrated with operational and maintenance attributes. Once the BIM model has been completed, the final purpose is to manage structural maintenance procedures.