---
title: AI for Transport and Infrastructure Engineering
url: "https://www.systra.com/en/innovation/ai-for-transport-and-infrastructure-engineering/"
type: page
date_published: 2026-09-08
date_modified: 2026-09-11
schema:
  @type: WebPage
language: en-US
word_count: 1326
reading_time: 7 min
canonical: "https://www.systra.com/en/innovation/ai-for-transport-and-infrastructure-engineering/"
featured_image: "https://www.systra.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/header_ia.jpg"
---

# AI for Transport and Infrastructure Engineering

![AI for Transport and Infrastructure Engineering](https://www.systra.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/header_ia.jpg)

## KEY POINTS

- **AI amplifies SYSTRA’s expertise and makes our collective know-how more accessible**
  : We believe AI will help to put the right experience, methods and technical
  knowledge in the hands of every team, while keeping engineers firmly in
  control.
- **AI strengthens the quality, efficiency and reliability of our delivery**: By
  automating repetitive work, improving project information management and
  supporting risk control, AI frees up time for technical judgement and
  higher-value work.
- **AI helps us create differentiated value for our clients**: From stronger
  commercial proposals and project delivery to new data-driven services, AI
  enables SYSTRA to turn innovation into concrete, useful and measurable
  outcomes.

In a sector facing growing complexity, SYSTRA sees artificial intelligence as an
accelerator to strengthen its expertise, delivery performance and client
differentiation. It helps teams explore more design options, make better use of
technical and project data, anticipate risks earlier, and reduce the time spent
on repetitive and information-intensive tasks.

At SYSTRA, we develop AI solutions grounded in engineering practice and designed
with our domain experts by combining SYSTRA’s experience in transport and
infrastructure with targeted digital capabilities. This helps to address real
project needs and improve performance, quality, and delivery control.

Applied across the project lifecycle, from tendering and design to construction,
systems engineering, maintenance, project governance and knowledge management,
these solutions help our teams to focus their expertise on higher-value work,
while turning innovation into practical, trusted and measurable benefits for our
clients.

## AI for Infrastructure

![ia_infrastructure](https://www.systra.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/ia_infrastructure-1024x576.jpg)

Infrastructure projects require early strategic decisions, often based on
incomplete information, while balancing technical constraints, costs,
performance objectives, and site-related risks.

In this context, AI helps teams analyse available options more quickly, make
better use of existing project data, and identify design or construction risks
earlier.

### Optimising rail alignment

In rail design, our solution **ThunderTrack** supports alignment studies by
generating and comparing scenarios more quickly and with greater precision. It
combines topographical data, land-use constraints, the presence of rivers and
bodies of water, geometric rules, cost factors, and journey-time parameters to
help identify reliable alignment options from the early stages of the design
process.

### Exploring bridge design options

For bridge design, **AI Bridge Design** supports the early stages of project
development by facilitating the parametric analysis of design options. Drawing
on data from existing projects, this approach helps identify relevant bridge
typologies, span configurations, and comparable reference structures. It helps
our bridge expert to retrieve data from previous bridge design which accelerates
scenario development and enriches technical analysis from the earliest stages of
a project.

### Managing geotechnical risks

For underground works,
[**ReAcTIVE** **Tunne**](https://www.systra.com/italy/news/reactive-a-real-time-monitoring-platform-for-tbm-operations/)**l **
and
**[ATAS](https://www.systra.com/italy/news/atas-advanced-tunneling-assistance-systems-a-new-era-in-mechanized-tunneling/)**
address two complementary needs in the management of excavation operations.
**ReAcTIVE** **Tunne**l uses data from tunnel boring machines to monitor
operations in real time, detect anomalies, and better understand ground
behaviour during excavation through machine learning.

**ATAS** complements this approach by helping teams anticipate geotechnical
risks and adapt operational control. Together, these tools help improve the
performance of underground works and support on-site risk management.

#### VMAI, an AI Agent for automating engineering calculation and Analysis

Before a bridge, a building or a tunnel is constructed, our engineers create
digital models to check its structural performance and safety. This work is
essential, but much of it is repetitive: rebuilding models as designs evolve,
rerunning checks and extracting and formatting results. It can absorbs a
significant amount of our structural engineers’ time.

**VMA**I, the winning innovation of the **2026 SPARK Challenge**, provides
engineers with AI agents to take on this routine work. An engineer describes the
task in natural language and shares the project files; the agent then works
directly within the engineering software already used by the team and returns
the result for the engineer to review and approve. The agents operate in a
secure, isolated environment, and every exchange is traceable.

##### What it brings

###### Speed

In selected real-project applications, engineers completed work two to five
times faster than by hand.

###### Better engineering

Time shift from repetitive modelling to design judgement, exploring more
options, and responding faster to client deadlines.

###### Shared expertise

Each validated task becomes a reusable recipe, enabling one engineer’s know-how
benefits other teams.

###### Always engineer-led

Nothing is used without human verification. The engineer remains fully
responsible for the design.

## AI for Safer and More Efficient Transport Systems

![ia_transport](https://www.systra.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/ia_transport-1024x576.jpg)

Transport systems are increasingly connected, interoperable, and data-rich.
Rail, road and mobility projects must meet demanding requirements in terms of
safety, reliability, maintenance, compliance and cybersecurity, often within
large-scale and complex programmes.

AI helps teams make better use of this data, target priority actions, and
strengthen long-term system control. Globally, the potential is particularly
significant in rail: AI could generate between $13 billion and $22 billion in
annual value for the railway industry (McKinsey & UIC,
_The journey toward AI-enabled railway companies_, 2024).

### Identifying road safety risks

In road safety,
**[ Collision Seek](https://www.systra.com/uk/solutions/collision-seek/)** is an
example of how SYSTRA uses historical accident data and geospatial information
to identify collision risk factors and potential hotspots. This enables teams to
prioritise targeted safety measures and take a more proactive approach to risk
reducing.

### Strengthening transport cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is a major challenge for transport systems, helping protect
passengers, ensure business continuity and safeguard critical data and systems.
Our team are exploring currently how AI can support cybersecurity experts by
helping them analyse large volumes of information, identify potential
vulnerabilities, prioritise protection measures and strengthen compliance
processes by ensuring the quality of produced documents traceability.

## AI for Decision-Making

![](https://www.systra.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/ia_prise-decision-1024x683.jpg)

Transport and infrastructure projects generate large volumes of technical,
contractual and operational information. When this information is scattered
across multiple documents and systems, processes slow down and governance
becomes more difficult.

Up to 50% of tasks related to documentation and design engineering could be
supported by AI (McKinsey, _How AI is reshaping the future of the AEC industry_,
2026). Drawing on our expertise in complex project management and advanced
technologies, we help teams structure this information, reduce manual tasks,
strengthen traceability and support more informed decision-making.

### Supporting project management documentation

The **Project Management Plan** is a formal and evolving document that serves as
a roadmap for how a project is executed, monitored and closed out. Using
generative AI and our experience of major projects, SYSTRA can support the
drafting, review and harmonisation of project management plans and associated
reports. This approach helps reduce manual effort, standardise documentation and
strengthen the quality of governance practices.

### Managing complex project requirements

Project requirements define the technical, performance and safety criteria that
are essential to the delivery of systems. To verify and manage these complex
requirements, approaches such as **Verify** help automate certain key tasks,
strengthen traceability, support compliance and improve monitoring throughout
the project lifecycle.

### Making project knowledge easier to access

AI-powered document intelligence can search, extract and synthesise information
from large volumes of unstructured technical content. At SYSTRA, our
**Knower Suite** helps teams and projects identify relevant knowledge more
quickly, reduce the time spent searching for information and make better use of
existing expertise. Where appropriate, the **Knower Suite** provide a secure
environment to operate AI agents, helping teams access and use project knowledge
while maintaining appropriate control, traceability and protection of
information.

### Interested in finding out more?

![gettyimages-ai-generic](https://www.systra.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/gettyimages-ai-generic-1024x578.jpg)

### AI at the service of engineers and sustainable infrastructures

[Discover our Experts’ Insight](https://www.systra.com/en/expert_insights/ai-at-the-service-of-engineers-and-sustainable-infrastructure/)

### Contact us