Dive Brief:

• An infrastructure technology firm is using artificial intelligence and deep learning to keep tabs on changes to 74 bridges on the eastern edge of Long Island, New York, to head off small maintenance problems before they become big ones, officials said.
• Dynamic Infrastructure has expanded a pilot project with Suffolk County, New York’s Public Works Department to monitor its bridges and better prioritize maintenance of its infrastructure by identifying changes using its technology, which automatically compares existing and new photos to flag spots for concern.
• “The system allows any operator, inspector or maintenance engineer to have actionable intelligence at their fingertips in order to decide if, when and how maintenance projects should be conducted, by supplying instant alerts about anomalies,” said Kevin Reigrut, member of Dynamic Infrastructure’s board of advisors and former executive director of the Maryland Transportation Authority, in a news release emailed to Construction Dive.

Dive Insight:

The rollout of the infrastructure-analyzing AI technology comes in the wake of the American Society of Civil Engineers giving the country’s infrastructure a D+. The organization found more than 56,000 bridges nationally were “structurally deficient.”

Dynamic Infrastructure's technology continuously processes past and current inspection reports and visuals, identifying future maintenance risks and evolving defects, the company claimed in its release. The result is a live, cloud-based risk analysis of any bridge or tunnel. The system automatically alerts users when changes are detected in maintenance and operating conditions — before they develop into large-scale failures.

The firm said its creates a "visual medical record" for each asset, based on existing images taken from past and current inspection reports and interim inspections.

The analysis can use any visual source, from smartphones and drones to laser scanning. The images are compared and serve as the basis for the alerts on changes in maintenance conditions, are accessible through a browser, and can be instantly shared with peers and contractors to speed maintenance workflows.

In addition to Suffolk County, New York, the firm said it has projects in other states, as well as in Germany, Switzerland, Greece and Israel for clients who operate a total of 30,000 infrastructure assets.