Digitalization and Risk-Informed Bridge Management in Europe: A Comparative Study

Europe's transport infrastructure networks are facing increasing challenges in ensuring safety, reliability, and longterm performance, particularly as many bridges built during the mid-20th century approach the end of their service life. The transition toward digitalization represents a major opportunity to enhance risk-informed decision-making, predictive maintenance, and asset management. This paper examines the current state and application of digital technologies, such as sensor networks, Internet of Things (IoT), Building Information Modelling (BIM), and Digital Twin (DT), in the management of roadway bridges across Italy, Portugal, and Slovakia, representing Southern, Western, and Central Europe. The study focuses on how these tools support condition monitoring, failure prognostics, maintenance optimization, and risk and reliability assessment. Key enablers, including data acquisition infrastructures, standardized frameworks, and organizational readiness, are discussed alongside major barriers such as interoperability issues, data quality limitations, lack of harmonized performance metrics, and regulatory fragmentation. Through a comparative analysis, the paper highlights differences and commonalities among the three national approaches and proposes pathways toward a standardized, digitalized framework for bridge health management across Europe. The findings aim to support the development of more resilient, data-driven, and sustainable infrastructure management practices aligned with European digital transformation goals.

Keywords: European Transport Infrastructure, Digitalization, Bridge Management, Risk-Informed DecisionMaking..