Infrastructure

Events

9-11 April 2025
KANSAI LOGIX 2024
18-21 April 2025
Construction & Survey Productivity Improvement EXPO
23-25 July 2025
Maintenance/Resilience Tokyo 2024

Aging infrastructure: a major roadblock

Following the collapse of a motorway tunnel near Tokyo in 2012, the Japanese government pledged to examine and restore the aging infrastructure around the country. The Metropolitan Expressway stemming from 1964, is still being used today by around a million vehicles daily. With the average lifespan of 50 years for infrastructure, findings by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) indicate that more than 60 percent of all road bridges, flood barriers and other river facilities and over 40 percent of tunnels in Japan will have hit that mark by 2033. Also sewages and harbour facilities face an increasing safety risk due to decay.

Photo by Meruh on PhotoAC

Time to inspect & repair

Not all that aged infrastructure can be restored in time due to Japan’s pressing labour shortages and financial limitations, especially in rural areas. Therefore, the government needs to assess for each object how big the urgency is for replacement or repair. For that assessment, on-site inspection is needed, which requires additional manpower. Japan is looking for innovative solutions that can support with the large number of inspections and reparations that need to be carried out in the coming decade.

 

Photo by Alex Rerh on Unsplash

Opportunities for Dutch companies

This dire need for reparations and labour-intensive work presents opportunities for Dutch start-ups that provide products and services for inspection and renovation of infrastructure. The examination and maintenance of constructions is currently done through a public tendering process, which is managed by municipalities. Many of them are seeking to amend their guidelines to include maintenance inspections that are more cost-friendly and require less labour hours, for instance through the utilisation of drones, AI, digital twins, remote controls and 5G-powered edge computing. Also the use of sensors in infrastructure, to enable remote and predictive maintenance are solutions in demand. Other solutions can be found in new innovative materials and construction techniques that increase the lifespan of objects.

Photo by Mischa Keijser