DETER · A Decision Support Tool to Manage Earthworks along Road and Rail Networks

Road and rail managers must maintain their networks to ensure the safety of passengers and the reliability of transport services. The management of earthworks is particularly challenging as many of these assets were constructed prior to modern engineering standards, meaning that earth/rock slopes and embankments are of poor construction quality. More frequent extreme weather events due to climate change are rapidly worsening the situation and increasing the occurrence of earthwork failures. At present, infrastructure managers are forced to make decisions about where to implement remediation works based on disparate information from various data sources, and are constrained by annual budgets. Gavin and Doherty Geosolutions Ltd. has developed an innovative software solution, DETER, which can be used to conduct a risk ranking of earthworks and to support decision making for optimised budget spending to prevent failures along road and rail networks. This is the leading Decision Support Tool available for the management of earthworks that is based on novel scientific algorithms, providing a quantifiable risk assessment for each earthwork asset. The product is at a TRL of 7 as it is currently being used by the national railway operator in Ireland to manage 3,700 earthwork assets. GDG aim to become the leading provider of DETER and intend to commercialise this innovative tool within the European and global markets. To do so, this feasibility study will conduct a detailed market analysis to establish the scale of the market opportunity and to verify that DETER is the leading solution for the management of earthwork assets. The feasibility study will also include a technical review of the compatibility of DETER with existing databases through engagement with infrastructure managers, a review of existing commercial barriers, and the development of a commercialisation strategy for GDG to bring this product to market, resulting in an elaborated business plan for DETER.