Construction Technology Centre

As part of our strategy for constructive process digitalisation, we developed an Intelligent Platform for Land Movement that can carry out comprehensive control and monitoring of the equipment involved in the land movement, to optimise operations and improve the productivity of any project. The benefits of this development include real time asset viewing, advanced production and performance calculations and analysis, alerts and reporting, progress monitoring, and more.

For its part, our Tunnel Boring Control Centre, with the capacity to collect information from more than 65,000 sensors every 250 ms (milliseconds), allows us to simulate the tunnel machine's progress, perform predictive maintenance, get real time operation reports and get TBM trace history.

We innovate with a new short-range (4 m) geological survey technique for tunnels with TBM. This allows us to reduce geological uncertainty by viewing results in real time, without any impact on the tunnel machine's productivity.

In tunnels, we also innovate by designing and patenting a laser to avoid over-digging in conventional tunnel boring and to adjust the excavation section to the project's design section. In real time, the laser continuously projects and geo-references the excavation section over the front of the tunnel. This enables up to 65% improvement in digging accuracy and reduces cost overruns in materials, time and personnel.

Our collaboration with startups also allows us to incorporate new skills more quickly. One of the projects developed as part of the I'MNOVATION Startups programme used drones in tunnels to optimise and digitise the construction process. Using different sensors on board, we obtain volumetric calculations, 3D modelling for later integration into BIM models, and track work and safety conditions for employees. The use of drones also allows us to simultaneously use other outdoor applications such as landfill calculation, site control and photogrammetry.

To improve the environmental parameters of the work, ACCIONA focuses innovation on searching for circular economy solutions.

Often in the work, material is discarded that is under the layout of the infrastructure and that does not meet the necessary technical or constructive characteristics. In order to use these trace materials, we have developed solutions that allow the use of available soil in the layout of linear works, especially roads promoting industrial symbiosis through agreements between companies that are a part of the value chain.

Thanks to these agreements, we use waste as secondary raw materials, such as paper waste in soil stabilisation, or steel waste to eliminate the problem associated with acidic soils in Australia. 

The most important constructive solutions we innovate in are composites and concrete with improved performance.

ACCIONA has accredited experience of more than 15 years working with composites both in the design phase of the infrastructure with these materials, in its subsequent construction, and in conducting quality controls of these parts. Some projects completed include the bridge over the A 67, the Almuñecar footbridge, the Port of Valencia lighthouse and the twin bridges over the M 111.

We also innovate in concrete with initiatives related to solutions to corrosion problems and increasing the durability of infrastructures in adverse climatic conditions. ACCIONA focuses its efforts on the use of hydrophobic coatings and the combination of synthetic fibres to increase concrete's structural capacity.

We developed the Land Movement Platform to respond to all work where land movement is a significant part of the project.

As a result, we are able to track in real time the tasks associated with those movements, and we have an effective tool to measure and optimise the productivity of the resources involved in those tasks. Its advantages are ease of deployment, its ability to integrate with any type of machinery, and the flexibility of ad-hoc configuration for each project.

We encourage industrial symbiosis between companies in the construction value chain that allows the use of waste as secondary raw materials, improving efficiency and having positive economic, environmental and social impacts on the work.

Paper waste for soil stabilisation has been applied as well as steel waste to eliminate the problem associated with acidic soils in Australia.

The use of waste materials from other industries as substitutes for raw materials such as lime and cement in construction work has enabled us to achieve significant savings in construction projects in terms of soil stabilisation.

We are studying sustainable solutions for concrete that performs better in extreme climates.

One example is the wind farm in Reynosa, Mexico, where we reduced the structure's foundation cost by 5 % because it required less concrete.

The knowledge garnered in concrete technology over these years has led to savings of more than EUR 0.5 million on construction projects.

We developed a new technique of geological recognition over short ranges and in real time for TBM tunnels that reduces geological uncertainty without affecting the production cycles or tunnel digging yields.

In addition to a laser to avoid over-digging in conventional tunnel boring.

We developed the Land Movement Platform to respond to all work where land movement is a significant part of the project.

As a result, we are able to track in real time the tasks associated with those movements, and we have an effective tool to measure and optimise the productivity of the resources involved in those tasks. Its advantages are ease of deployment, its ability to integrate with any type of machinery, and the flexibility of ad-hoc configuration for each project.