Austroads has released a report that extends work previously undertaken to investigate the development and implementation of a national automated bridge assessment framework.
The report outlines the ongoing validation works, recommends a set of activities to assist in the deployment of the framework, and provides a roadmap to implementation.
This project has built on work conducted in Austroads project TP1681, which first investigated the potential for the framework. This stage of the project included further validation work, small-scale trials of the framework with state jurisdictions and identification of key factors for the implementation.
Freight productivity is linked to the level of access available on the network and to this end, assessment of bridge structures plays a key role in realising productivity gains in the heavy vehicle freight industry.
Bridge access is currently manually assessed by each asset owner.
The framework, designed in collaboration with asset owners, would support automation of access decisions and provide a tool for managing requests that require further assessment.
It would also help asset owners better understand the current level of access demand on the network and ensure that responsibility for access remains with the asset owner, allowing for risks to be more closely managed.
