The main goal of the PAV-DT project is to support the shaping of a new market in the infrastructure maintenance field and to achieve wider deployment of its innovative road monitoring solution. To ensure growth and scale-up, it has been determined that the best way to enter the market was by providing PAV-DT through Product-as-a-Service (PaaS) business model, representing a completely innovative approach in the pavement inspection sector.

Currently, the infrastructure development and maintenance sector is facing increasing budget constraints. As a result, state and local agencies need to economically tackle increased workloads with less financial means. Historically, the emphasis has been on building new roads, but the focus has shifted on maintaining existing pavement surfaces. For this reason, the infrastructure maintenance market is constantly growing and evolving. Furthermore, infrastructure owners and managers are becoming increasingly interested in implementing technological solutions that will allow them to reduce their costs and increase safety.

Corrective vs preventive maintenance

Despite the huge public budget effort allocated for road pavement maintenance, the large European road network is not in an acceptable condition. Current pavement maintenance strategies are mainly based on corrective maintenance which is an inefficient and costly approach with negative impact on pavement operational services, road safety as well as on the environment. In contrast to this is the predictive maintenance strategy, which is based on preventive, cost-effective measures that are carried out at the optimal time. For this purpose, continuous and accurate information on the condition of road pavements is required, which is currently not possible due to the high cost of current inspection services.

Game-changing PAV-DT technology

As an answer to these challenges, PAV-DT is introduced as a game-changing technology that will revolutionize the pavement inspection market and will change the way decisions are currently made about when and how to carry out maintenance operations. Here, PAV-DT’s advanced algorithm and a cloud-based platform will enable its customers to access the latest available pavement condition updates at any moment as well as receive information on which maintenance actions are required, where they should be applied and when would be the optimal moment to deploy a truly cost-effective maintenance strategy.

Target customers

Public and private entities are the two main identified groups of potential target clients interested in implementing PAV-DT technological solutions. The first group includes road infrastructure owners acting as infrastructure road administrators (usually public entities), who deploy their own staff and vehicles for routine visual inspections, useful for deciding which maintenance activities are required. The second group includes concessionaires and construction companies performing performance-based contracts (usually private entities), who must perform the inspection and maintenance of all elements included in that section according to performance indicators established by the infrastructure owner.

Commercialisation impacts

The widespread adoption of the PAV-DT solution has the potential to generate significant savings for European road network managers. As a result of a successful commercialisation, the following impacts are expected:

• Fast PAV-DT deployment into the market, fostering growth, benefits and competitiveness of involved companies and leveraging private investment in further research and innovation activities
• Creation of a new market by introducing a new-generation equipment for pavement inspection and road monitoring and management
• Strengthening competitiveness and scale-up of industries, since the implementation of PAV-DT enables road managers to save considerable amounts of their total costs in maintenance and inspection
• Positive environmental and social impacts by improving road safety and efficiency in inspection and maintenance tasks

Marketing and stakeholder engagement

A dynamic marketing and stakeholder engagement strategy has been implemented to further engage customers, but also to promote the solution among the general public, especially on issues related to the pavement road maintenance. The following actions have been used to present the direct use and benefits of the PAV-DT solution:

• Contacting and visiting selected potential clients to put the focus on their real needs and requirements
• Demonstrations for road infrastructure managers to verify on-site product capabilities
• Specialised events attendance to promote the solution on international level, and for commercialisation
• Participation of technical standardisation committees for the creation of specific PAV-DT regulations
• Association with public end-users for including PAV-DT to provide its pavement maintenance plans
• Scientific community specialised in pavement inspection and maintenance
• Data Management and Open Access for pavement damage information displayed in map format

Future exploitation paths

One possible exploitation path envisions introducing PAV-DT as an additional element in vehicle production. Here, all new vehicles would represent a profilometer which could register pavement condition information. Such a large array of vehicles could upload pavement condition information from any road. As a result, the digital platform would be capable to monitor pavement condition in any road network without extra efforts or expensive inspections, rendering significant socioeconomic benefits.