Politecnico di Milano joins the alliance between universities and research institutions

Milan, 28 July 2020 – The technical-scientific alliance for the safety assessment and monitoring of bridges and viaducts in Italy is born.

A few days after the inauguration of the new viaduct over the Polcevera in Genoa, the Milan Polytechnic, the University of Perugia, the Turin Polytechnic, the University of Padua, the University of Pisa, the University of Camerino, the University of Messina, the University of
Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli” and ENEA, have created the FABRE Consortium (Research consortium for the evaluation and monitoring of bridges, viaducts and other structures).

The Consortium will deploy the most qualified experts and the most advanced technologies to monitor and evaluate the state of health of our country’s road infrastructures and to promote and coordinate activities concerning the classification of structural and environmental risk.
In particular, the consortium members will develop methodologies with a high technical-scientific content to evaluate the various risks (static, foundational, seismic and hydrogeological) and promote the verification, control and monitoring of infrastructures, as well as the development and use of innovative techniques in the repair and/or improvement of bridges, viaducts and other existing structures.

“The Italian infrastructural heritage and, in particular, the complex of bridges and viaducts that make up our transport networks and communication, is a vital element for the economy and society, and yours efficiency is a strategic priority for the country. Unfortunately infrastructure also ages and deteriorates, and is also exposed
to the risks associated with natural phenomena and disasters, as the recent news. In the general context of aging of a large part of the Italian infrastructural network, designed and built in some cases well over 50 years ago, prevention assumes a priority role, keeping
under control the “state of health” of our infrastructures in order to being able to intervene at the right time, avoiding serious consequences and sometimes dramatic”, explains Prof. Virginio Quaglini, Head Scientist of the Materials Testing Laboratory and professor of the Department of Architecture, Construction Engineering and the Built Environment of Politecnico, which represented the University at the signing ceremony of constitution of the consortium which took place at the University of Pisa.

“The “FABRE” consortium aims to boost the necessary research activities, coordinating and enhancing theoretical skills e experimental plants present in the major Italian research centres, in order to make them available to the community. Quaglini concludes.
The Politecnico di Milano has been active in scientific research for decades in the field of bridges, with particular reference to the methodologies of monitoring aimed at identifying anomalies in behaviour based on information from instrument networks
installed in the buildings. In this regard, the systems of systems previously installed on the San Michele bridge in Paderno d’Adda and currently on the Milan Cathedral and on various road infrastructures since research group of Prof. Carmelo Gentile who, together with Prof. Virginio Quaglini, will take part in the Assembly of Consortium Members. Both Profs. Gentile and Quaglini belong to the Department of Architecture, Engineering of Construction and Built Environment of the Politecnico di Milano.

Source: Politecnico di Milano