More than 46000 bridges in the USA are structurally deficient and those bridges are crossed more than 178 million times a day
- American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) Bridge Report, 20201
Challenges being faced in Civil Infrastructure
- Slow and manual processes for conducting regular maintenance inspections. A typical inspection could take a month and pose a safety hazard, given that mountaineers are hired to scale the side and take photos for examination. The process needed to be repeated for all elements of the bridge
- Manual work takes up a large chunk of operations and is expensive
IBM Maximo for Civil Infrastructure - Sund & Bælt partnered with IBM to digitize and automate civil infrastructure maintenance and operations2. The objectives are to
- Inspect infrastructures and access insights on mobile devices on location
- Use AI to analyze data about the health of infrastructure elements such as bridges and tunnels
How does it work?
Drones are used to take photographic data in a quick and safe manner. This is integrated with maintenance records, design documents, and 3D models to help identify structural defects and corrosion
Digital Twins are being developed using all the aforementioned data. 3D models are used to optimize maintenance work - Predictive maintenance is embraced
Sund & Bælt has developed digital twins for the Øresund bridge3. They have recreated the bridge using 3D models and traffic flux data. Sensors are used to capture parameters and other information concerning the bridge. Every component of the bridge (the bridge, cables, rails, and asphalt etc.) is digitally recreated - each component is called an asset.
Added Value and Benefits
- 15-20% increase in estimated productivity within 5-10 years
- 30% reduction in time between inspection and repair
- Øresund Bridge
- 2% reduction in annual operating expenses until 2023
- 100 years of bridge life extended
- 750000 T of CO2 saved