A new European research project is exploring whether the same fibre-optic cables that carry our internet could also serve as real-time sensors for hidden damage in infrastructure, including bridges, railways, tunnels and energy pipelines.
The €5.1 million ECSTATIC project, coordinated by Aston University in the UK, is trialling this breakthrough approach in a major UK city, using a heavily used railway viaduct as its first live test site. The goal is to detect subtle structural shifts, stress, and vibrations in real time, using laser light pulses sent through fibre-optic cables already embedded right beneath our feet.
“Our aim is to create a global nervous system for critical infrastructure,” said Professor David Webb, ECSTATIC project coordinator. “We are hoping to turn existing fibre-optic cables into a 24/7 early-warning system, detecting the tiniest tremors or stress fractures before they become catastrophic. If successful, it will be the difference between fixing a fault and cleaning up a tragedy.”
Using Light to Listen for Trouble
Installing physical sensors across entire transport and energy networks would cost billions and cause major disruption. But the ECSTATIC project is taking a different route: it uses the infrastructure that’s already in place.
At the project’s first demonstration site (a major Victorian-era rail viaduct carrying tens of thousands of trains per year), researchers will send ultra-precise laser pulses through buried fibre-optic cables. As trains pass overhead, the fibres subtly flex and vibrate. These movements change how the light behaves inside the cable, altering the ‘phase’ and ‘polarisation’ of the light, creating a kind of optical ‘fingerprint’ of the forces acting on the structure.
By measuring these changes and interpreting them using a new dual-microcomb photonic chip (a clever way to send and measure many light frequencies at once) and advanced AI signal processing, ECSTATIC aims to pinpoint early warning signs of damage or fatigue. Crucially, it all works without interrupting internet traffic and without laying a single new cable.
“Cracks in bridges, viaducts, or tunnels don’t announce themselves; structures wear down gradually and silently, with the first signs of failure remaining invisible until it’s too late. The UK and many places across Europe have hundreds of ageing railway bridges, with millions of vehicles passing under or over them each year. Many of the UK bridges date back to Victorian times, which could present a ticking time-bomb unless we take decisive steps to monitor them now.”
Preventing the Next Tragedy
The urgent need for early-warning systems is clear from recent bridge collapses in Europe that have cost lives and paralysed cities. In Italy, the Genoa Morandi Bridge disaster in 2018 killed 43 people when a 200-metre section of highway collapsed, despite internal warnings about structural risk years earlier. As recently as last year in Germany, the Carolabrücke in Dresden – a vital lifeline for the city – partially collapsed without warning. The incident severed critical utility lines, leaving parts of the city without hot water for several hours and triggering widespread transport disruption.
These events, though rare, reveal how vulnerable infrastructure can become when ageing structures are left unchecked, and how devastating the consequences can be.
ECSTATIC aims to help authorities act before warning signs become disasters, by giving them better data, earlier, and without the need to install costly or disruptive new sensor systems.
Scaling Up Across Europe and Beyond
With more than five billion kilometres of optical fibre already installed across the globe (through cities, oceans, and remote terrain), the potential for ECSTATIC’s technology is enormous. If the trials in the UK prove successful, the approach could be rolled out across Europe’s transport and energy networks, enabling safer, smarter infrastructure monitoring at a fraction of the cost of traditional systems.
The ECSTATIC project runs until July 2028 and is coordinated by Aston University in the UK. It brings together 13 partners from across Europe, including leading universities Padova, L’Aquila, Chalmers, Alcalá, and West Attica, alongside industry Telecom Italia Sparkle, OTE Group, Nokia, Network Rail, MODUS, and Swiss SME Enlightra SARL, as well as the Greek seismology specialists NOA.