Modernisation and Maintenance of Transport Infrastructure
The availability and functionality of transport infrastructure is essential for the mobility of people and the transport of goods. It enables social participation, the maintenance of supply and disposal services and further prosperous economic development in our globalised society based on the division of labour. However, motorways and trunk roads in particular are exposed to very high traffic loads. In particular, the further increase in freight traffic creates immense maintenance, expansion and modernisation requirements. In addition, there is an additional need for adaptation due to the changes to be expected as a result of climate change.
If necessary maintenance measures are not carried out in time, this can lead to traffic restrictions on individual routes or even to the failure of infrastructure elements such as bridges. Necessary major construction measures not only entail high investment costs, but also lead to traffic restrictions due to the associated construction sites.
Therefore, we have developed a variety of models and evaluation methods within the scope of research and consulting projects. These enable the evaluation and comparison of alternative measures, and they take into account the effects of measures on individual infrastructure elements such as bridges, tunnels or road sections, as well as on users and the network-wide traffic flow.
They can be used to show the general advantages of measures and programmes considered for the maintenance and expansion of the transport infrastructure, and they can also support to optimize the prioritization of projects to be implemented. So, our models and procedures serve to prepare the subsequent decision-making processes. PTV Research participates in the development of appropriate regulations, but also establishes individual assessment procedures for our clients.
Our fields of action
With our solutions, individual questions can be answered in connection with the overall economic advantage of measures and strategies for maintenance and modernisation, both at the individual property and in subnetworks.
- Calculation of effects on traffic of individual measures
- Economic assessment and selection of maintenance measures
- Preparation of maintenance demand forecasts and maintenance plans at network level
- Tailor-made solutions for the evaluation of specific investment projects
Our product portfolio supports you on this and many other topics.
Selected projects
As technical coordinator, we have been involved in the preparation of the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan (FTIP) 2030. As the most important instrument of federal transport infrastructure planning, this plan sets the course for transport policy over the next 10 to 15 years. It considers both existing networks and expansion and new construction projects in the road, rail and waterway transport sectors.
An urgent problem of infrastructure maintenance, which has led to serious restrictions on use and even closures in the recent past, is the replacement or upgrading of bridges with insufficient load-bearing capacity. We have addressed this problem in projects for the optimised planning of upgrading or replacement of important bridges.
In the study prioritization of construction projects, a first attempt was made to take a holistic approach to both maintenance and upgrading as well as pavement and bridge together.
