Toward a Digital Twin Framework for Railway Bridge Maintenance: Indicators, Predictive modelling and Risk-Reliability Considerations

Railway infrastructures are critical infrastructure whose condition evolves over time due to traffic, material degradation and environmental effects, affecting reliability, safety and service availability. Effective maintenance management relies on performance indicators and predictive models to support decision-making under uncertainty. This paper outlines the initial steps toward the creation of a Digital Twin framework for railway infrastructures maintenance. It focuses on the input data and the procedures needed to process and update them, which are then used to generate prediction scenarios. These scenarios enable the evaluation of potential consequences and support risk- and reliability-based prioritization of maintenance strategies. Conceptual considerations of cost and RAMS are included, highlighting their relevance for infrastructure management. This paper presents a foundation for integrating performance indicators, monitoring data and scenariobased analysis into a Digital Twin, providing support for forward-looking and evidence-based maintenance decisions for railway bridges.

Keywords: Roadway bridges; Railway bridges; Performance indicators; Maintenance management; Risk-based prioritization; Reliability; Digitalization..