TRL will work with Gaist, provider of roadscape insight and intelligence services, to explore the case for a digital twin of the UK’s road network, using data updated in near real-time.
According to the collaboration, such a twin could play a vital role in managing road repairs, prioritising investments and interventions and reducing delays and disruption for road-users.
It would also help planners and policymakers to better understand the useful lifetime of an asset and the demands it is likely to face as well as support predictions around how city transport systems can respond to the multiple burdens placed on them.
Gaist will join TRL’s Smart Mobility Living Lab London where they will work together to solve global roads challenges, shape the road asset data and standards landscape and explore potential advanced applications of roads data. They also aim to examine the role of roads data in supporting more efficient, greener and safer transport infrastructure.
Andrew Loveless, Gaist CRO, said: “This important alignment between two domain experts marks a milestone in the global application and exploitation of detailed, high-definition roads data.
“Together with TRL, we will present the “best of British” in asset data capture and asset management systems to international customers and work together to push forward our industry and promote UK exports abroad.”
As part of the collaboration, Gaist’s road asset data will be integrated into TRL software’s cloud-native iROADS asset management system, enhancing each other’s existing data products and services to bring greater value to clients around the world.
Ryan Hood, head of digitisation of transport at TRL, added: “This collaboration underlines TRL’s commitment to work with innovative digitally-orientated organisations to shape the future of road asset management and wider transport, both globally and here in the UK.
“The advanced thinking and ambition that Gaist demonstrates, alongside the provision of new data sources and insights, mirrors our own thinking about the future direction of the market.”
