Alliance between research institutions and universities
A technical-scientific alliance to ensure the safety of Italian bridges and viaducts is born. A few days before the inauguration of the new viaduct on the Polcevera in Genoa, ENEA, the Politecnico di Torino and Milano and the Universities of Pisa, Padua, Perugia, Camerino, Messina, Campania ‘Luigi Vanvitelli’ and Sapienza have created the Fabre Consortium with the most qualified experts and the most advanced technologies to monitor and evaluate the state of health of the road infrastructures of our country and promote and coordinate the activities concerning the classification of the structural and environmental risk.
In particular, its members will assess the various risks (static, foundational, seismic and hydrogeological) and promote the verification, control and monitoring of the infrastructures, in addition to the development and use of innovative techniques to repair and improve bridges, viaducts and other existing structures.
“The name ‘Fabre‘ indicates that the issue of safety must be tackled ‘ingeniously’, both in the design phase of the new structures, for which we have all the knowledge and tools to operate well, and in the evaluation and monitoring of the existing ones. with advanced technological systems.
In this way we will be able to identify the state of roadworks and, where possible, to intervene before any damage becomes so severe as to make restoration very expensive or even impossible “, ENEA research manager Paolo Clemente, who represented the Agency at the consortium signing ceremony at the University of Pisa, explained.
“Like people, also infrastructures need scheduled check-ups, especially taking into account that a large part of the Italian road heritage is over 50 years old. The Fabre consortium will coordinate and make the most of the expertise of Italian universities and research centers and transfer the outcomes of scientific and technological research to public and private entities that manage these infrastructures and to professional communities, with the primary goal of prevention ”Clemente said.
ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development will also take advantage of the expertise and engineering and IT technologies of EISAC, the first center in Italy and Europe for the protection of strategic infrastructures, stemmed from the collaboration between the Agency and the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) .
EISAC will provide state-of-the-art technological tools (sensor networks, multi-hazard risk analysis and weather-climate forecasting systems) and advanced services (territorial databases, satellite data analysis, simulations of natural events and their impacts on services and stress tests of infrastructures) to monitor critical road infrastructures, such as bridges and viaducts, and improve their resilience, i.e. their ability to withstand extreme loads and events and to quickly return to normal operating conditions
But that’s not all, “ENEA, which has joined the Fabre consortium thanks to the strong commitment of President Federico Testa, will also provide a unique research infrastructure in Italy, the shaking tables, crucial for experimenting with new technologies in the field of structural engineering”, Clemente continued.
Source: ENEA
