Motorway Tunnels Resilience Through Automated Deformation Monitoring

In years where most of the road infrastructures are severely ageing worldwide, but still enormously contributing to transportation smoothness (people, cargo, etc.), careful monitoring attention is needed in mind of climate/weather change (extreme events, natural/man-made disasters, material aging, etc.) and capacity needs increase (increased flows for users). These factors are contributing to the overall network resilience as an important contributor to their long-term sustainability. Sustainability of the road network directly affects economical, social, and environmental aspects that indicate the overall value of their resilience and the urgent needs for adaptations, monitoring, risk management/analysis and forecasting, but also effective vulnerability modelling and assessment approaches. In the later dimension, this publication presents recent research results on a 3D modelling approach and methodology for measuring deformations in highway tunnels using 3D laser imaging sensors and consolidating the results in an approach to early detect deformations and structural deteriorations over time. The system is able to perform analysis of a 3D model of the infrastructure at millimeter level and provide comparisons with existing (previous) models to detect abnormalities in the 3D shape of the tunnel (intrados) as results of partial deformations. An early indication of any infrastructure deterioration is pinpointed and georeferenced for immediate uptake in the maintenance planning of highway safety teams and maintenance personnel, including 3D geometrical information on the defect position. At a next stage, the system can be integrated on an autonomous navigating robotic system that is able to position the sensing device at particular inspection points of interest or the suitable points for a holistic infrastructure measurement/modelling. This research presents recent research results of INLECOM INNOVATION in the running, European Commission (EC) co-funded, research project, PILOTING (https://piloting-project.eu/) currently during its 2nd year of execution over robotic inspection for the oil & gas and transport (viaducts and tunnels) infrastructures.