Maintenance of engineering structures

Objectives

To promote teaching and research in the field of transportation infrastructure management. The Chair organizes lectures, classes, specialist seminars with academic experts and people working in the field. It contributes to the funding of scientific exchange activities. Every year, it awards the Abertis research and innovation prize for a doctoral thesis and research project (Masters dissertation) in the field of transit management and planning.

Themes

Despite its focus on road transportation and the relation between supply and demand, transportation infrastructure management covers a wide range of themes. It tackles road use, including questions of maintenance and upkeep. Intelligent transport systems (ITS) and new technologies are naturally covered. Planning and travel demand analysis are included in the activities of the Chair. Mobility is approached from a sustainability perspective. It encompasses questions of the environment, safety, efficiency, economic viability, and acceptability. Methods of infrastructure financing and their consequences in terms of costs and pricing are also explored as major themes. This multiplicity of topics is matched by a multiplicity of methods. Apart from modeling and simulation, the different categories of assessment are included. Methods of economic analysis, optimization, and statistical analysis naturally have their place in the range of methodological approaches.