Data-driven road maintenance in the Province of Livorno

About Livorno

The Province of Livorno, through its Department of Road Infrastructure, is responsible for the management, maintenance, and planning of the provincial road network.

The territory extends from the Tyrrhenian coastal area to the hilly and Apennine regions inland, and also includes the Island of Elba. The provincial road network is organized into three operational areas: North Zone, South Zone, and Elba.

Compared with other mountainous regions, the network generally has lower morphological complexity due to its coastal geography. However, some road sections cross Apennine areas characterized by less stable geological conditions and weaker subgrades, which can significantly affect pavement lifespan and require particular attention in maintenance planning.

The Challenge

In the past, the Province of Livorno faced challenges due to the lack of monitoring technology capable of providing objective, up-to-date, and consistent data across the entire road network.

Assessments of pavement conditions were often based on spot surveys or targeted inspections, making it difficult to obtain a comprehensive and comparable overview across the different operational areas.

This limited availability of homogeneous data made it more difficult to:

• compare conditions between the North Zone, South Zone, and Elba

• objectively identify priority road sections

• plan multi-year maintenance interventions based on reliable forecasts

• optimize the allocation of the maintenance budget

In particular, the management of infrastructure on the Island of Elba was less integrated with the rest of the provincial network, making structured and consistent comparisons more difficult.

The Solution

To address these needs, the Province of Livorno adopted NIRA Dynamics’ Road Health technology, using data related to road roughness (IRI) and models estimating the remaining service life of pavements.

Thanks to NIRA data, the Department now has objective and consistent information across the entire provincial network, including the infrastructure on the Island of Elba, enabling direct comparison between the different operational areas.

The service life estimation models are based on forecasting algorithms that learn infrastructure behavior from available historical data. The system uses data from the past four years to analyze the evolution of each infrastructure asset and estimate its future development.

The definition of intervention targets is automated: NIRA’s technology identifies the intervention thresholds historically adopted by the authority for specific road types and uses them as reference points to estimate remaining service life.

Based on these analyses, the algorithm identifies a specific number of kilometers and infrastructure segments where priority intervention is recommended. The Department’s technical team then reviews the proposed list, taking into account operational priorities, local conditions, and budget constraints.

The Results

The use of NIRA Dynamics Road Health data has enabled the Province of Livorno to structure a more strategic and medium-term oriented maintenance plan.

The maintenance plan currently defined will be progressively implemented throughout 2026.

Key benefits include:

• greater objectivity in defining priorities

• the ability to compare North Zone, South Zone, and Elba consistently

• improved optimization of budget allocation

• better management of Apennine road sections characterized by more sensitive subgrades

• planning based on pavement performance forecasts, not only on current condition

This approach enables a more efficient and sustainable management of the provincial road network, improving the authority’s ability to plan timely and targeted maintenance interventions.