PSI - Issue 84

Giuseppe Alessandro Battista et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 84 (2026) 694–701

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A key innovation in this proposal is the integration of the VISIT (Visual Inspection for Safety-deficit Identification and Triage) methodology (see Fig.1), developed as part of the VISIVIA research project (Grimaz et al., 2025a, 2025b, 2024a, 2024b).

Fig. 1 – Framework of VISIT methodology. This method introduces the concept of road technical triage , adapted from emergency medical protocols and already utilized by the National Fire Brigade in post-seismic scenarios or other emergencies where time for detailed inspections is limited. The logic of technical triage allows for extremely rapid operation, enabling the immediate identification of safety deficits and an expedited classification of intervention priorities. The application of the VISIT model on prototype cases, such as the SS13 Pontebbana road, demonstrates how visual inspection procedures can be harmonized with ANSFISA's audit requirements, creating a bridge between ordinary and extraordinary management. To ensure long-term sustainability, the methodology incorporates variables related to the geotechnical vulnerability of slopes (Marin and Long, 2024) and life-cycle cost analysis (Oh et al., 2023), allowing managers to plan reinforcement interventions proactively. Furthermore, the inclusion of risk-based multi-objective frameworks ensures that budget allocation is optimized across different asset categories, such as bridges, tunnels, and pavements, maximizing the overall reliability of the network (Poudel et al., 2022). This integrated system ultimately provides a decision support tool that aligns technical urgency with economic efficiency, strengthening the resilience of the entire national transport system. 7. Conclusion and future developments The present research has defined an innovative path for the prioritization of road infrastructure oversight and maintenance, integrating institutional criteria with advanced technical tools for rapid triage. The analysis has demonstrated that the effectiveness of Safety Management Systems cannot be achieved without a capillary and updated knowledge of the asset heritage, an objective that can only be reached by harmonizing visual inspection procedures with proactive management models. The proposed methodology provides a concrete response to the need for optimizing economic and inspection resources, ensuring that interventions are directed primarily toward structures exhibiting the most significant safety deficits or high risk levels. Future developments of this research will focus on the validation and territorial extension of the VISIT methodology. A pilot testing phase is planned involving five Provinces, selected to represent the diverse infrastructural characteristics of the Italian landscape. The strategic objective of this phase is the technological transfer of the VISIVIA methodology to local managers, transforming provincial administrations into actual technical reference centers. In this scenario, Provinces will operate in synergy