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Contents
The FORESEE Project: an Introduction
FORESEE Objectives
Meet the Partners
Interview / Video TECNALIA
Project Status: Our Progress So Far
The FORESEE Project
Road and railways infrastructure are the result of precise engineering designs which however are particularly sensitive in the face of unanticipated natural events (weather, landslides, earthquakes) or human hazards (accidents).
Those hazards are strongly impacting on the citizen’s safety and generate increasing economic loses year by year in transport of goods. A stronger and more resilient multimodal transport system would represent a key element to sustain economic growth and social cohesion in the European Union.
In order to minimise this risk, the European Commission is funding the collaborative research project FORESEE which will develop a toolkit to improve transport asset management schemes for transport authorities and infrastructure operators.
The innovative multimodal approach will deploy cutting-edge technologies able to deploy long term asset management strategies. FORESEE will provide road and railways authorities and managers with a solution to anticipate, absorb, adapt and rapidly recover from a potentially disruptive hazard during the entire lifecycle of their infrastructures: planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance.
Objectives of the FORESEE Project
The overall objective of FORESEE is to provide a cost effective and reliable tool which will improve the resilience of transport infrastructure, as the ability to reduce the magnitude and duration of disruptive events.
FORESEE will address through new innovative technologies, methodologies and resilient schemes the effectiveness of measures able to improve the ability to anticipate, absorb, adapt to, and rapidly recover from a potentially disruptive event on critical transport assets such as bridges, tunnels, pavements, slopes and terminals.
The technical consortium, which combines different profiles able to bring industrial, research and academic know-how and experience, will produce several benefits to National Transport Authorities and infrastructure operators, and as well end-users and freight operators.
Inputs generated during the lifetime of the project will mainly improve road and rail asset management schemes for authorities and infrastructure operators.
Specifically, the research will achieve the following technical objectives:
Establish preventative maintenance and upgrading strategies able to improve resilience of transport infrastructures towards human (accidents) and natural hazards (extreme weather events, landslides and earthquakes).
Predict and alert of potential risk scenarios at different time scales considering age, conditions and residual life of engineering components.
Reduce the social and economic impact on critical transport assets (bridges, tunnels, pavement, slopes, terminals) when those disruptive events happen.
Facilitate the deployment of mobility contingency protocols for citizens and freight in such critical situations to ensure safe and efficient evacuation including emergency operations and contingency plans.
Demonstrate positive costs and benefits balance associated with resilience investments during the full life cycle of the infrastructure.
Image credit: Ferrovial Agroman
The FORESEE toolkit aims at positioning in the global market an innovative solution made in Europe, and able to tackle critical challenges faced by transport engineering assets.
Meet the FORESEE Project Partners
A wide range of international partners are involved in the FORESEE project - each one providing valuable knowledge and expertise to develop a tool which will improve resilience of transport infrastructure .
A description of each of the 18 project partners is provided below.
Aiscat Servizi is a consulting engineering company founded in 2005 as subsidiary of AISCAT, (the Italian Association of Toll Motorways and Tunnels Concessionaire Companies) with the aim providing added-values services in the fields of road engineering and transport economics including planning, design, construction, and daily operation and maintenance of toll motorways and tunnels.
AISCAT will be responsible for the coordination of all the 6 Case Studies in Europe, including their own case study on the A24 highway in Italy (WP6). Moreover they will provide their expertise in supporting the development of Resilience Indicators (WP1), definition of new methodologies and solutions (WP4), and producing resilience scheme application (WP7)
Established in the early 1950s, Autostrade per l’Italia is 100% owned by the Atlantia holding Group, a global player in the motorway and airport infrastructure sector operating in 16 countries. The Group manages 14,000 km of toll motorway.
Autostrade per l’Italia is a leader among the concessionaires that manage and construct toll-paying highways with a network of around 3,000 km. Autostrade per l’Italia and its subsidiaries are carrying out a major investment plan of over €21 billions, to develop and modernize the highway network.
ASPI will be the responsible for the coordination of the case study on the Bridges on the Naples–Bari highway (Italy) in WP6.
Centro de Estudios de Materiales y Control de Obra (CEMOSA) is an engineering consultancy and quality control company in the field of construction, including transport infrastructure and building established almost half a century ago. The company includes a multidisciplinary team able to provide a holistic point of view in the field of transport infrastructure covering the following stages: design, quality control laboratory, site supervision and Work Direction, inspection, maintenance assistance and cost analysis.
CEMOSA will be responsible for the adaptation strategies to sustainable drainage systems, development of shakemaps, and leads the development of design, construction and remediation plans (WP7).
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) is one of the leading universities for technology and the natural sciences worldwide, currently (2015) ranking 9th in the World University Ranking of Times Higher Education. Founded in 1855, ETH Zurich today has more than 18,000 students (3,900 doctoral students), and 498 professors.
ETH will lead the definition of metrics and targets of LoS and resilience in WP1. In addition, it will be the responsible of algorithms for the selection of actions (WP4)
The European Union Road Federation (ERF) is a non-profit association, which coordinates the views of Europe’s road infrastructure sector and acts as platform for dialogue, information and research on mobility issues. The ERF has an impressive track-record of involvement in European Projects and initiatives dealing with Research and Road Infrastructure.
ERF will lead the communications strategy and as well the pre-standarisation actions (WP8).
Ferrovial Agroman is the flagship company heading up the construction division of Ferrovial, one of the world's leading groups specialised in infrastructure and cities, operating through its Services, Toll Roads, Construction and Airports divisions. It has over half a century experience of forward- looking projects and continues to strive to make a difference in the world of infrastructure and services and, therefore, in society. Since 1999 Ferrovial Agroman carries out all kinds of unique civil engineering, construction and industrial projects also representing an international benchmark in transport infrastructure having built more than 470 km of tunnels, 3,900 km of highways, 15,000 km of roads and 4,600 km of railroad (including 700 km of high-speed railroad).
Ferrovial will lead the case study to be implanted in the London Underground (WP6).
The Fraunhofer-Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems (IAIS), part of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, undertakes applied research of direct utility to private and public enterprise and of wide benefit to society. Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft coordinates 72 institutes in Germany, with a staff of some 25,000 and an annual budget of 2,3 billion.
Its main role in the project will be the participation in the development of the FORESEE Response, Mitigation and Adaptation Toolkit (WP5).
Future Analytics Consulting Ltd. is an innovative, multidisciplinary Irish SME which specialises in the areas of spatial planning, research, economic and socio-economic analysis. Future Analytics Consulting has established a strong profile in applied research projects, particularly those with an underlying evidence-base (data-led) component. Its main role will be coordinating the exploitation, communication and dissemination activities (WP8)
IP is a multimodal mobility company, that results from a merge between two Portuguese companies, National Railway Infrastructure manager/REFER and National Road Infrastructure manager/EP. Its mission, and its consolidated experience, is the conception, design, construction, financing, maintenance, operation, upgrading, extension and modernization of the Portuguese road and rail networks, including traffic command and control. IP manages 2 600 km of railway and more than 500 stations, 13 700 km of network under direct jurisdiction, 1 600 km of sub-concessioned network and 7 400 bridges and tunnels.
IP role in FORESEE, beside participation in the development of Resilience Indicators (WP1) and resilience scheme application (WP7), is its own case study the 25 April suspended bridge in Lisbon (WP6).
ICC, is a Spanish company which, from the beginning of its career, in the field of engineering, installations and fire conservation and protection industry, it´s based on the satisfaction of its customers and always at the Forefront of efficiency. The company operates in the field of Fire Protection, integrating Engineering, Technical Training, Installations, Maintenance and Emergency and Safety Plans Areas.
ICC will be responsible for the Management and contingency plans task in WP7. The main objective of this task is to develop, based on the results from the case studies and on the methodology developed in WP5, new and more effective contingency and communication strategies (incorporating the benefits of moving to dynamic’ approaches in which the time-dependent evolution of the people and threat will be considered) in order to enhance the resilience of the infrastructures.
IVE is a SME founded in 1998 in Hannover and currently employing 25 people with academic background in the field of traffic engineering and software developing. IVE´s line of business is mainly linked to rail transport systems bringing sectorial knowledge to the consortium.
IVE will be the responsible of the case study on the high-speed railway track and bridges to be deployed in Germany (WP6).
Louis Berger Spain designs global solutions within the main engineering and architectural fields: infrastructures, hydraulic works, town and city planning, environment, building, industry and energy, management and new technologies. The company offers comprehensive consulting services, ranging from the preliminary design and engineering design to construction supervision and construction management phases, including all the management, advisory and organization processes
Louis Berger’s will be co-responsible in the analysis and implementation of innovative engineering of links/interconnections (WP3)
RINA is a global corporation that provides several services across the Energy, Marine, Certification, Transport & Infrastructure and Industry sectors. Through a global network of 3.700 talented professionals, operating in 170 offices in 65 countries, we back up the market operators across the entire life cycle of their projects.
RINA will be the co-responsible of the analysis and implementation of innovative engineering of links and interconnections (WP3). Following its experience in software and user experience, it will play also a key role in the development of the FORESEE Toolkit (WP5).
Fundación Tecnalia Research and Innovation is a private, independent, non-profit applied research centre of international excellence employing around 1,300 people (225 PhDs). Tecnalia is a key agent in the ERA - European Research Area, holding position 12th among RECs and 26th overall in “EC’s 6th FP7 Monitoring Report 2012”.
Tecnalia leads the whole FORESEE consortium bringing together all the coordination and management tasks (WP9). It will be also the responsible for the selection of most adequate Structural Health Monitoring algorithms (WP4), for the assessment and establishment of an applicable testing strategy to test and validate FORESEE’s outcomes (WP6) and for the development of operational and maintenance plans for the different use cases identified in the project (WP7).
With a pedigree in space technology stretching back over 40 years, Telespazio VEGA UK (TPZV UK) is an experienced consulting, technology, engineering, space operations and service development business. A subsidiary of Telespazio, a 67/33% joint venture between Leonardo and Thales, TPZV UK has built its first class reputation by exploiting new technology developments in Earth Observation and Satellite Navigation & Communications to pioneer innovative services in space operations and geospatial data applications. Using the broader capabilities of the Telespazio Group, TPZV UK provides novel solutions to the remotest regions of the globe. Website: www.telespazio-vega.com
TELESPAZIO will be the responsible for the development of the Satellite Acquisition Program and the SHM BIM based SAS platform (WP2).
Universidad de Cantabria is a Spanish academic institution and composed of around 1,700 researchers and 13,000 students, 4 associated research centers, and 143 R&D groups from 31 departments. The University has been selected in the “Campus of International Excellence” Programme promoted in 2009 by the Spanish Government.
The University of Cantabria will be responsible for the integration of the Level of Service and the resilience concept (WP1) in governance mechanisms, the development of climate-based vulnerability maps for EU infrastructures (WP2), the development of innovative Porous Asphalt pavements and a new kit for slope-stabilization systems (WP3), the development and study site application of a methodology to face problems arising to transport infrastructure (WP4 and WP5), and the coordination of the case study in the Montabliz Viaduct (WP6).
Ranked in the top ten of UK universities in 2015 by several respected guides, the University of Bath is one of the leading research intensive universities in Europe. The University boasts a robust infrastructure to support the development of research and maximise its value and impact. The University’s current research funding portfolio is now valued at over £125 million.
BATH will focus psychological and behavioural dimension of transport safety to improve the FORESEE toolkit.
The University Court of the University of Edinburgh was founded in 1583 as Britain’s first civic university. Today, the University of Edinburgh continues to attract the greatest minds from across the globe, reflecting its position as one of the world’s leading universities
The University of Edinburgh will be responsible for the development of the virtual modelling platform for asset failure prediction (WP2)
Project Progress
ETH have been very busy working on WP1 (Processes and Methods), completing a first draft of D1.1, a “Guideline to measure service provided by, and resilience of, transport infrastructure” which was delivered on the 31.01.2019. It includes: an explanation of the concept to measure service and resilience, in the introduction; an explanation of the definition of the transport system, which is a precursor to measuring service and resilience; an explanation of how service should be measured, and; an explanation of how resilience is to be measured, including measurement of resilience using lost service and using indicators, and estimating the percentage of fulfillment of indicators and indicator categories, with differentiated resilience weights, equal resilience weights and no resilience weights. Additionally, the deliverable includes: examples of road and rail stakeholders and service types, and examples of generic road and rail categories, which are to be specified for each case study individually over the upcoming month(s).
TVUK has started the work on WP2 (Data acquisition, collection, integration and management system). The first delivery (Design of a Satellite Data Acquisition Program) related to this WP has already been delivered. The second delivery (Strategies for Change Detection and Surface Movement through Satellite Technology) is ongoing and will be delivered next month. Moreover, the first InSAR macroscale study has been started using Sentinel SAR data.
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