An integrated design approach for the renovation of masonry railway tunnels of central Italy with ARCHITA and MIRET

Abstract

In the last decades and certainly in the near future, survey, analysis and maintenance of existing structures will be one of the major fields of interest for civil engineering and infrastructure management. Existing structures have been realized in the past with different design conditions from their actual capacity, like foreseen life-span, loads and geometries. For this reason, civil works could be inadequate to fulfil modern requirements and guarantee the conservation state of structural elements. The paper focuses on the case study of Sipicciano 1 and 2, masonry tunnels in Italy, near Viterbo (Lazio), on the Attigliano-Viterbo railway line. The tunnels are located in a complex area interested by different superficial mechanisms that compromise the structural state of the lining and the global stability of the tunnels. ETS has been in charge of the survey, inspection, investigation campaigns and detailed design for the renewal of the tunnels. The entire design process has been carried out with the MIRET approach (Management and Identification of the Risk for Existing Tunnels). The tunnels are digitalized and structurally assessed with a Scan-to-BIM workflow thanks to ARCHITA, a multi-dimensional mobile mapping system developed by ETS equipped with laser scanner, thermal cameras, linear cameras and Ground Penetrating Radars. The geometriza-tion and informatization of the models, from the inspection to the design, are here concretely applied to the design process of Sipicciano 1 and 2 tunnels renewal, making also comparisons with direct inspections and results of preliminary consolidation operations.