The benefits to asset owners and engineers of a future-oriented asset-management approach to structural inspections

The long-term performance of structures and infrastructure, and the associated life-cycle costs, are strongly influenced by the quality of the inspection and maintenance work carried out throughout their service lives. This paper describes an “asset management” approach to inspection work, which optimizes the storage of all relevant information in an asset’s “digital twin” on a cloud-based platform. This enables all inspection-related data – including reports, photographs, comments and queries as well as carefully targeted non-destructive testing results – to be stored together with all applicable design drawings, as-built records and details of previous maintenance and modifications. Having all this information readily available to the owner’s engineers helps maximize the value of the inspection work. This future-oriented approach offers numerous advantages – not only for asset owners and engineers, but also for the environment and society in general.