Wednesday, February 05, 2025

Paved with good inventions: Road management needs new technologies, simpler regulations and improved collaboration

As two EU-funded projects presented innovative digital, robotic and other technologies for cheaper, safer and more efficient road monitoring and maintenance, high-level participants in their conference identified how to pave the way for smarter and more

European Science Communication Institute gGmbH

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Credit: ESCI

Madrid, 16 January 2025 - Roads are the lifeblood of modern society and our economy, but Europe’s roads are getting old. Innovation and collaboration are key to their future, EU–funded projects OMICRON and InfraROB and high-level guests agreed in the one-day conference ‘Old Roads, New Technologies: safe and intelligent road asset management’. Held in Spain’s College of Civil Engineers, Canals and Ports in Madrid, the event highlighted regulatory, sustainability and collaborative challenges as well as innovative solutions for smarter infrastructure management.

To protect the future of Europe’s roads, OMICRON and InfraROB have developed ‘intelligent road asset management solutions’ for improved monitoring and maintenance in ways that support public and road-worker safety. During the event, both projects presented their digital, robotic and other technologies for cheaper, safer and smarter road construction, inspection and maintenance.

Around 120 industry leaders, researchers, representatives of road authorities, government departments, agencies and other expert stakeholders from around Europe joined the event, trying some of the demonstrated technologies and discussing how to pave the way for their wider adoption for safer, smarter and more sustainable infrastructure.

KEY MESSAGES FROM THE EVENT:

Panel discussions reviewed the presented technologies and considered the challenges and solutions for future safe and intelligent road management.

Claudia Ciuca, Project Officer with CINEA—Europe’s Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency—underscored the role of EU–funded road infrastructure projects in addressing environmental, transport performance and management challenges, as well as the opportunity to streamline standards and processes and to scale up Artificial Intelligence and other technologies across Europe for better data and resource-sharing.

“The future of road maintenance and inspection will be automated, data-driven and sustainable, leveraging technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and robotics for proactive, efficient and eco-friendly solutions.” Claudia Ciuca, Project Officer, CINEA

Alejandro Lanuza of Spain’s General Directorate of Roads (DGC) in the Ministry of Transportation and Sustainable Mobility highlighted the need for standardised digital mapping and centralised road data to enable data-driven road management decisions and emphasised that innovation should align with sustainability goals.
" Sustainability is not a cost, but an investment in resilience and safety. We need to map existing physical infrastructure into the digital world as soon as possible." Alejandro Lanuza, General Directorate of Roads, Spain
Federico Di Gennaro is Head of Innovation, Study Center and European Projects within the Italian road operator organisation Autostrade per l'Italia Group, a partner in the OMICRON project.

“The future of road maintenance lies in autonomous machinery and robotics to minimise safety risks for workers. As road operators, our goal is to reduce the time workers spend on roads in order to minimise their risks. We are seeking autonomous machinery for pavement operations and robotic platforms.” Federico di Gennaro, Autostrade per l’Italia

Christian Honeger is Head of the Asset Management department with infrastructure operator ASFINAG Bau, a partner in the InfraROB project.

“The ever-increasing volume of traffic and the growing need to refurbish our infrastructure is becoming a challenging task. The use of new technologies is therefore a welcome and important opportunity to ensure the safety of our employees and road users.” Christian Honeger, ASFINAG

The event presented OMICRON and InfraROB results under five session themes:

Smart construction
- InfraROB’s pre-cast roadside concrete element promises to streamline construction while ensuring durability and sustainability. Tests indicate it could be installed in half the time for the reference standard and make it easier to maintain services like fibre optics without road surface disruption.
- OMICRON’s ‘modular hybrid bridges’ can be built faster, more flexibly, and at a lower cost. Computer simulations showed they could reduce traffic disturbance through faster construction and limited highway interference.
Digital inspection & monitoring
- OMICRON’s drone-based camera systems offer accurate, real-time road / critical infrastructure inspection and identification of issues, providing detailed data for digital analysis, visualisation and planning. Aerial inspection reduces (on-foot) safety risks and (vehicle-based) traffic disruption.
- OMICRON’s ‘PointPix’ vehicle-mounted camera and LiDAR imaging system provides close-up data about road damage. This can lead to 50% lower inspection costs and 30% faster inspections.
- InfraROB’s system using fibre-optic cables installed in asphalt can monitor in real time the strain and temperature changes happening in road infrastructures.
Predictive maintenance
- InfraROB’s specially-designed models can optimise road maintenance by predicting when and where repairs will be needed, and Digital Twin and building information modelling (BIM) applications improve maintenance planning and execution.
- OMICRON’s Digital Twin and Decision Support technologies offer a real-time, virtual representation of road networks, helping operators make better-informed decisions about maintenance, repair and upgrades. Uniquely, the Digital Twin can be accessed via a mobile phone without specialist software.
Smart interventions
- InfraROB’s autonomous interventions use robotics and automation to perform paving tasks with greater precision and efficiency, as well as line painting, crack filling and pothole repairs, reducing the need for workers on the road and so improving safety.
- OMICRON’s robotic platform is—uniquely—a multi-tool for crack sealing, line removal signal cleaning, and the placement and removal of signals, cones and safety barriers. Remotely controlled via a VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality)-based interface, the platform enables safer, more accurate and efficient repair processes.
Safe intervention
- InfraROB’s remotely-piloted safety cones and aircraft systems improve traffic safety during roadworks by allowing safe traffic re-routing while workers and road users are kept safe.
- Both projects discussed V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything) communications, which enables vehicles and infrastructure to communicate in real-time, reducing the risk of accidents and improving overall road safety. InfraROB’s focus was on traffic management, while OMICRON highlighted real-time road control and crisis response

CONCLUSIONS:

The event showed how Europe’s road infrastructure sector is on the brink of a technological revolution, with digital and robotic solutions shaping the future of road management. The ability to collect and analyse data effectively and in a collaborative way will be critical in making proactive decisions to prevent infrastructure deterioration and mitigate risks. The use of new materials, advanced construction methods, as well as robotic tools and digital technologies are all part of this ongoing evolution.

A full report of the event and each technology can be found via:

OMICRON’s Final Event webpage: https://omicronproject.eu/final-event/
InfraROB’s Final Event webpage: https://infrarobproject.com/final_event
Projects’ event summary news article
- Via OMICRON website: https://omicronproject.eu/on-the-brink-a-technological-revolution-in-road-infrastructure-management/
- Via InfraROB website: https://infrarobproject.com/news/on-the-brink-a-technological-revolution-in-road-infrastructure-management

About OMICRON:

OMICRON fostered the industrialisation and automation of road construction, inspection and maintenance technologies. We integrated a broad portfolio of solutions, from inspection to execution, to: improve safety levels; increase the availability, reliability and capacity of the road network; reduce traffic disruptions; and lower construction and maintenance costs. The project ended on 31 January 2025, but we remain open for enquiries.

Contacts: Jose Solís: jose.solis@cemosa.es / Laura Durnford: ld@esci.eu / Mara van Welie: mvw@esci.eu

About InfraROB:

InfraROB aimed to reduce workers’ exposure to live traffic and construction machines, increase the availability of the transport network, reduce the cost of repetitive tasks, and increase the safety of road users by promoting significant advances in automating, robotising and modularising the construction, upgrade and maintenance of road infrastructure. The project runs until 28 February 2025.