About…
Heikki Lilja – Bridges, standards & Health Monitoring Expert
Bridge Health Monitoring
For nearly three decades, I’ve been on a professional journey through the world of bridges — not just designing them, but also ensuring their safety throughout their entire lifecycle. My work in structural health monitoring (SHM), damage detection, and digital twin solutions focuses on bringing innovative, research-based methods into everyday practice exactly where bridge owners need them most.
By combining bridge monitoring, damage detection, and digital twin technologies with experience gained from working as a designer, client, authority, standards writer, and now consultant, I bring an understanding of how theory is effectively turned into practical solutions. This broad perspective helps bridge owners protect assets, extend service life, and apply innovations in ways that truly work in the field.
Design and Standards Leadership
I have close to three decades of hands-on experience in bridge design, spanning roles in:
Design & proof-checking
Steering major projects
Drafting standards & design guides
Acting as client and national authority
My deep expertise in CEN standardization - especially the interconnections between Eurocode parts - has led to direct contributions to the 2nd generation Eurocodes, e.g:
prEN1991-2 Traffic Loads – Project Team member
prEN1990 Annex A.2 Design Basis for Bridges – Convenor, CEN/TC250/SC10/WG2 Bridges
Pioneering Practical Design Methods
I have advanced the industry with steering the work on 1st and 2nd generation National Annexes and Eurocode-compatible design guides for the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency and other organizations. My work often addresses special or one-off structures that fall between different codes, creating new verification rules where none exist.
Memberships in CEN-standardization:
CEN/TC 250/SC 10/WG 02 ”Basis of Design/ Bridges" (Convenor 2017 - ongoing)
Project Team SC1.T9 ”Traffic Loads” (Member of PT for EN1991-2)
CEN/TC 250/SC 1/WG 3 "Traffic loads" (member)
CEN/TC 250/SC 1/WG 7 "Evolution of EN 1991-1-1, EN 1991-1-6, EN1991-1-7 and EN 1991-3" (member)
CEN/TC 250/SC 3/WG 13 "Steel bridges” (member)
CEN/TC 250/SC 3/WG 11 ”Tension elements” (member/Reference group member)
CEN/TC 250/SC 5/WG 6 ”Timber bridges” (member)
TC250 HG Bridges - National Contact person
CEN/TC250 ”Structural eurocodes” (HoD Finland 2016-2020)
CEN/TC250/SC 1 ”Actions on structures” (HoD Finland 2016-2020)
CEN/TC 250/SC 10 ”Design basis” (HoD-Finland 2015-2020)
Various roles in most Finnish national mirror committees (e.g. TC250/SC10 ”Design basis” (Chairman))
Participation in other organizations:
NVF Nordic - Bridges
CEDR WG Road Freight Transport
IM-SAFE (Following)
RIL/TEK
IABSE WC1
(Scientific committee Guimaraes/2019)
(Scientific committee Ghent/2021)
