Tirano meeting focused on bridge projects with Ramboll a leading scandinavian engineering company

Building on the numerous international contacts resulting from the activities of FOPPOLI MORETTA e ASSOCIATI srl, a meeting on bridge diagnostics was recently held in Tirano. The meeting was attended by Matti Airaksinen (Unit Manager) and Guy Rapaport (NDT Manager) from Bridge Asset Management at RAMBOLL, the leading Scandinavian engineering company with over 13,000 employees, headquartered in Denmark with offices across Northern Europe and worldwide.

The meeting provided an important opportunity to compare the bridge diagnostic activities carried out by FMeA, which has specific expertise on historic structures made of a wide range of materials including timber, masonry, and reinforced concrete, with those developed by Ramboll, with a particular focus on investigations of post-tensioned reinforced concrete structures, for which the company has experience on over 60 structures.

Several case studies were presented, exploring the technical methodologies applied: for FMeA, the discussion covered the Ponte degli Alpini and Ponte della Vittoria in Bassano del Grappa, the Ponte di Ganda in Morbegno, and the Ponte del Valdone in Sondrio; for Ramboll, analyses on pre-stressed and post-tensioned box-girder road bridges in Finland and Iceland were presented.

In the afternoon, the meeting also included a brainstorming session with professionals and technicians from local authorities involved in bridge management. This provided a valuable opportunity to view the challenges from multiple perspectives—analytical, technical, and administrative—and highlighted the clear need to undertake systematic, step-by-step inspections, investigations, and assessments of road bridges, which are essential to guarantee their structural and functional safety.

Both FMeA and Ramboll agreed that this meeting represents the first step toward a strategic partnership to develop joint activities in bridge diagnostics and monitoring.