An accurate and advanced assessment will allow keeping in service many assets that otherwise will be condemned to repair, strengthening and/or replacement. Because interventions in many bridges at the same time is not economically feasible, their advanced assessment could help prioritize the repair/strengthening works in the coming years. The main objective of this deliverable is to present the existing possibilities for an accurate assessment of railway assets condition. The two specific objectives of this report are:

1. - To describe a set of proposed advanced assessment methods that may be incorporated in the life-cycle management of railway infrastructures

2. - To see how the costs and benefits of the proposed advanced assessment methods may be incorporated within a LCA framework.

The scope of this report is limited to the assessment of relevant railway infrastructure assets. The assessment methods considered will be those applicable to the following asset types:

 Cuttings

 Metallic Bridges

 Lined Tunnels

 Track (including rails, sleepers, ballast, switches and crossings).

The most appropriate assessment method for every specific infrastructure asset strongly depends on many variables. This deliverable seeks to help the assessing engineer, first showing the available alternatives and, after that, in the decision making for the best method and technique to be used within a Life-Cycle Assessment framework, where the optimization of cost in a wide sense (including environmental costs) is the final objective.