Tunnel assessment: The Italian case

The age of the infrastructures and the ever-increasing levels of traffic make it necessary to deal with the problem of safety of the structures with the greatest rigor, by fully reviewing the methods of inspection, investigation and intervention adopted up to that moment. This article illustrates the experience gained by Rocksoil company on the tunnels of the Italian motorway network by proposing a new methodological approach that starts from an in-depth knowledge of the tunnel and its history and evaluates its state of consistency through a detailed inspection and a series of supportive diagnostic investigations. After complete defect identification and cataloging, the interventions aimed at re-establishing the safety conditions are planned and subsequent checks and monitoring are defined in order to verify their duration over time.