Applications of Stratigraphic Analysis to Enhance the Inspection and Structural Characterization of Historic Bridges

Abstract

Road networks are disseminated of bridge structures whose typology reflects the time of design and construction of the transportation infrastructure and its relevance in the reference geographical area. Among others, masonry bridges are still widely operational, especially in those regions affected by a limited urbanization and a very high landscape value. As a consequence, the maintenance and the reliability of existing structures is a key issue for owners and managers of road and railway infrastructures. This circumstance leads to the development of an integrated approach able to cover the needs of knowledge of the technological and structural features of the bridge along with its history and current conditions. The main contribution of the study lies in the implementation of such an interdisciplinary approach through the application of archaeological stratigraphic method and 3D data management to historical masonry bridges. The survey and inspection protocol, whose first results are here presented, aims to improve the knowledge of the assets, and facilitate the visual inspection. The results refer to a road infrastructure located along the Aterno River in the surroundings of L’Aquila (Central Italy) and point out promising perspectives in terms of feasibility and scalability of the approach to large stocks of assets.

Conservation and Enhancement of the Pietrabbondante Archaeological Site between History, Geology and Emerging Crowd-Based Digital Technologies

“…The information about the location and natural hazards, historicalconstructive evolution, material and construction techniques need to be integrated with the dimensional data. In this way, the original elements plus those added, the components that characterize the structural system, the geological and geotechnical features, and, lastly, the nature and the evolution of degradation and damage phenomena can be properly identified [61,62].…”

“…The information recovered during the earlier phase are elaborated and digitized within the database [52,62,63] to facilitate their management and make them available at different levels, namely to researchers and technicians involved in the analysis and management processes and to a wider community interested in knowledge of the artefact.…”

Survey Methodologies and 3d Modelling for Conservation of Historical Masonry Bridges

“…The structures in use, whose original facies often was altered by the constant restoration and reconstruction, need a careful analysis for assessing the state of preservation and planning the actions aimed at monitoring and maintenance. Therefore, more comprehensive research is ongoing to define survey methodologies and an operational workflow for recording and managing data acquired during the knowledge and analysis in a digital environment (Savini et al 2021;Marra et al, in press;Fabbrocino et al, in review). However, different attention should be addressed to the historical masonry bridges still well preserved that have changed their original function, becoming part of the local network, such as crosswalks or interpasture roads, used for the agricultural management of the territory.…”

Digital Survey Ai and Semantics for Railway Masonry Bridges Health Assessment

“…Among masonry bridges, especially if carriageable or pedestrian, it is possible to find ancient specimens. Due to their configuration, these assets are characterised by a stratigraphy that need to be analysed through an interdisciplinary and archaeological-oriented approach (Savini et al, 2021). In this direction, the reference to CIDOC and its extension fits perfectly.…”