Smart infrastructure: a growing market worth 1.36 billion

One of the areas where digital transformation is having the most tangible impact in this sector is infrastructure maintenance. Italia has over 840,000 kilometres of road network, more than 60,000 bridges and over 2,200 tunnels, and, as we know, access to up-to-date information on the condition of these structures is becoming an increasingly strategic necessity. The technological solution to this problem comes in the form of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems – platforms that integrate IoT sensors, communication networks, data collection tools and analysis algorithms to continuously monitor the behaviour of infrastructure. The objective is well-known but no less ambitious for that: to move beyond the traditional model based on periodic inspections and reactive interventions, and to establish a comprehensive predictive maintenance system capable of anticipating critical issues and anomalies before they turn into operational problems.

To quantify the effects of digitalisation with hard data, the Observatory has developed an assessment model applied to a long-span bridge, with over 50 years of service life and located on a stretch of road subject to heavy traffic. The results highlight how the adoption of SHM systems, with an investment of between €150,000 and €335,000 including operating costs, can yield significant economic benefits: direct maintenance costs can in fact be reduced by up to 30% (falling from €200,000 to €140,000), whilst the benefit to users would be even more significant: with fewer closures, diversions and traffic restrictions, they would see a reduction in indirect costs of up to 45% (falling from €1 million to €550,000).

Even the so-called residual risk, and therefore the potential cost associated with critical events that could occur despite monitoring measures, would decrease by up to 40% (falling from €225,000 to €135,000). Overall, the total reduction in expenditure costs over the structure’s lifecycle could exceed 20%, and this impact would largely stem from the ability (of Structural Health Monitoring systems) to transform collected data into operational decisions, thereby improving risk management and the planning of interventions.

The data-driven model and approach are therefore gaining ground in the world of infrastructure, with further concrete examples of technological applications emerging from the transport and energy sectors. Thanks to Vehicle-to-Everything technologies, 5G networks and dedicated digital platforms, so-called ‘smart roads’ now represent one of the most advanced areas of experimentation, with the road effectively becoming an active entity capable of communicating with vehicles, users and control systems.

The Observatory has identified 176 international projects in this field, tracing an evolutionary path that leads from the first technological applications to the creation of fully integrated digital ecosystems, which reach their full potential when infrastructure, vehicles and platforms share data in real time, enabling the intelligent orchestration of mobility. To give concrete examples of applications already in operation, we can cite the A4 Milan-Bergamo motorway, with a dynamic fourth lane managed by predictive algorithms that is expected to help reduce CO2 equivalent emissions by up to 1.5 tonnes for every hour of operation, or the E45-E55 motorway corridor, which instead integrates V2X systems for traffic monitoring and emergency management. On the A2 Mediterranean Motorway (which runs through Campania, Basilicata and Calabria), over 800 technological stations powered by renewable sources have been installed to support connected driving assistance services,

Alongside mobility, the other sector highly responsive to digitalisation is the energy sector: with €460 million in investment and 21% growth, Smart Energy Infrastructure is the leading market by value and reflects the need to modernise networks (electricity, water and gas) by integrating renewable sources, increasing the resilience of systems and improving the ability to respond to extreme weather events or geopolitical tensions. In recent years, the share of innovative projects in this sector has risen from 13% in 2022 to a peak of 29% in 2024, settling at 24% last year. Over half of the initiatives concern the electricity sector, which accounts for 52% of the projects surveyed, whilst 28% are dedicated to the water sector and 20% to the gas sector. “In this transition – as Giulio Salvadori, the Observatory’s other co-director, explained – operators must rewrite their industrial strategies, positioning advanced connectivity, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity no longer as mere ancillary components, but as the true driving force behind tomorrow’s investments”.

According to the expert from the Polytechnic, the task facing managers is far from straightforward and involves the acceleration of physical assets, the energy transition towards decarbonisation targets, and the ability to respond promptly to the fundamental overhaul of competitive and regulatory frameworks.