Kicking off the UPGRADE project, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action tackle the problem of maintenance and resilience to climate change-related hazards of Long Linear Infrastructures (LLI). The kick-off meeting took place in Bruxelles where the 17 partners from around the globe and the REA officer met at the CNR liaison office.
Long linear infrastructure (LLIs) earthworks (e.g. road & railway slopes, pipeline bedding, flood protection structures) are more vulnerable to cascading and escalating failures due to their topographically designed spanning length and long operational lives. With increasingly frequent severe weather conditions caused by climate change, maintaining a high level of safety performance,
especially for the aged LLIs, remains a constant challenge, leading to an ever-increasing amount of investment in maintenance. The objectives of the UPGRADE project are focused on i) analysing geohazards at the LLI network scale; ii) delivering high-quality experimental data on deteriorating soil properties; iii) developing high spatial and temporal resolution monitoring of LLI; iv) optimising maintenance and investment strategies.