Bridges are an essential aspect of the transport infrastructure in all countries, making life easier for people to move from one side to another and shortening trading and transportation routes for goods and services.

However, while offering these benefits, the design and construction of bridges present significant challenges and often push the boundaries in civil and structural engineering. Bridge construction presents health and safety concerns for workers: the construction industry is one of the leading industries with high fatality and injury rates, both globally and in Malta, where 55% of the 20 work-related fatalities between 2022 and 2023 occurred in the sector.

In this context, automation can not only present greater efficiency in production and execution but can also lead to significant benefits as workforce safety can be improved. Following the manufacturing industry's evolution through automation, developed countries are now applying these concepts to modernise their construction sectors.

There is potential to exploit automation in Malta's construction sector, and bridge construction and maintenance presents a significant opportunity.

Building, inspecting and maintaining bridges all require traffic management and road closures – a major challenge in a densely populated country like Malta.

Take the Manwel Dimech Bridge in St Julians. It is a major bridge and forms part of the country’s main arterial road network. When its bridge deck required reconstruction and its supporting substructure had to be repaired a decade ago, the works posed a significant challenge for traffic management

Using automation for such works could both increase the quality of works as well as reduce construction time. But it could also play a major role in bridge maintenance, providing reliable assessments of damages, timely action and interventions and effective action without relying on traditional time-consuming and undesirable interruptions to traffic.

Automated techniques in bridge construction, such as using robotics and AI-powered machinery, could also increase safety by reducing human exposure to dangerous operations. Automated maintenance systems, which include sensors and AI for predictive maintenance, could detect and fix structural faults early on, avoiding costly repairs and maintaining long-term safety.

And because automation allows resources and materials to be more precisely measured and used, such processes also lower the environmental impact of building projects.

Traffic flow also improves significantly as automated construction techniques, including prefabricated modules and robotic assembly, shorten on-site work duration and reduce the need for road closures. Predictive maintenance systems help prevent unexpected breakdowns and associated disruptions.

Environmental benefits emerge through precise material usage and reduced waste in construction projects. Shorter construction periods mean less machinery operation time, lowering carbon emissions. Meanwhile, automated inspections extend bridge component lifespans through early wear detection.

The financial advantages for the public and government are substantial, with reduced maintenance costs and longer operational lifespans of bridges. Additionally, the sector sees positive job evolution as workers transition to higher-skilled positions managing automated systems while eliminating the need for hazardous physical labour.

Muhammad Ali Musarat.

The Faculty of ICT and the Faculty for the Built Environment at the University of Malta, in collaboration with Zhejiang University in China, are working on a research project that will develop computer vision techniques for the digital health inspection of concrete bridge structures in coastal areas with the utilisation of wall-climbing robots and unmanned aerial vehicles.

The project DiHICS received funding from Xjenza Malta and the Ministry for Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China (MOST), through the SINO-MALTA Fund 2023 Call (Science and Technology Cooperation).

Dr Muhammad Ali Musarat is a Research Support Officer at the University of Malta working on the  DiHICS Project.