How Can Digital Twins Be Used in Highway Maintenance? A Questionnaire Survey for Industry Practitioners

Abstract

The digital twin (DT) concept can potentially bring about a systematic approach to digitalizing information for road infrastructure systems. However, it is currently unclear how the DT concept can be applied in the highway maintenance domain and what the benefit is. This study conducts a questionnaire survey to explore what industry professionals view as the main obstacles in current practice and what areas of highway maintenance can improve if using a road DT. A total of 183 responses were obtained from highway industry practitioners. The results reveal the main issues in maintenance processes and potential use cases of DTs.