BIG BRO 2.0 - Decision support for maintenance and upgrading of existing transportation infrastructure

Maintenance of bridges, as important transport infrastructure assets, can be relatively expensive: it includesthe direct costs of assessments and interventions, the indirect consequences of traffic disruptions, detours and losses due to possible structural failures. The optimization of costs arising from the operation and maintenance of bridges, is thus important for both public and private road network operators. However, the optimal strategies considering sustainability and resilience goals might be different depending on the actual case. Through utilizing risk/utility-based principles, a rational decision-making framework has been proposed in the BIG BRO project which enables a smart costs optimization with due consideration of the operator’s preferences and the interests of the society as a whole (including environmental aspects) with a main focus on public operators. In a parallel project Utvecklad broinfrastruktur practical guidelines for the management of privately-owned bridges have been developed. The current proposal, BIG BRO 2.0, aims to further develop and implement the BIG BRO framework methodology for practical applications for both public and private operators. The project work will be executed by researchers at RISE, LTH, KTH and Skogforsk with contribution from industry partners such as WSP and ÅF and from bridge owners such as Trafikverket, Sveaskog and SCA.