Digital Twins in Transport Infrastructure Management

Digital twins of transport infrastructure facilities in combination with digital technologies and control algorithms as part of intelligent transport systems allow saving physical, financial, material and other resources and can be used both at the stage of transport infrastructure design and when performing diagnostic and prognostic analyzes during the operation of transport facilities. The advantages of Digital twins of transport infrastructure are open up significant opportunities for the transport industry to develop new ways of designing, building, operating and monitoring transport infrastructure in connection with the Transport Strategy of Russia until 2030 adopted by the Government of the Russian Federation with a forecast for the period up to 2035. 
The purpose of this publication is to explore how Digital twins of transport infrastructure can help the transport industry build and operate modern transport infrastructure and intelligent transport systems (ITS). The paper presents an analysis of the benefits and challenges of managing the transport industry and proposes a number of approaches aimed at promoting the digital transformation of the industry based on the introduction of digital twins. The presented approaches are aimed at solving three main problems: the development of digital technologies for managing transport infrastructure, the formation of digital competencies necessary for these purposes and the training of appropriate qualified personnel to work using ITS.