Road monitoring is a critical component in ensuring road safety and more accurately predicting traffic flow. The implementation of real-time automatic incident detection systems is key to minimising response times to the presence of any type of event such as obstacles or animals, which can pose significant risks to drivers. In addition, constant monitoring of road conditions, specifically in areas susceptible to low temperatures, allows the identification of ice formation and critical points, and thus, proactive measures to prevent accidents associated with adverse weather factors.

ACCIONA is helping to shape the future of smart highways and roads through its experience, technical capacity and sustainable approach, which it puts at the service of the progress of the communities where it executes road projects, with more than 5,000km of roads in more than 25 countries. ACCIONA designs smart roads based on the interconnected concepts of sustainability, innovation and circular economy, building “talking” roads equipped with smart sensors that gather data to improve maintenance, increase traffic efficiency and enhance driver safety.The integration of road monitoring technologies facilitates more autonomous road management, supporting decision-making processes and optimising maintenance operations. This approach not only improves safety, but also promotes efficiency by reducing the need for manual interventions, enabling faster and more effective responses to road events.

ACCIONA is launching this challenge to identify solutions that optimise road management, enable the identification of events that pose a risk to road safety in order to obtain greater operational control and reduce response times. The solution must be able to monitor all critical points of the road and provide high coverage of the controlled section without the need to invade the road at any time. The technologies to respond to this challenge can be of a very varied nature: Computer Vision, Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS), Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS), IoT embedded in vehicles, satellites, or any other development, software, hardware that contributes to the monitoring of the road.

Nowadays, the remote acquisition and mapping of physical parameters of soils and road surfaces has gained importance in the field of road engineering, as it facilitates the collection of large-scale data, which, unlike conventional methods, which provide results from specific sites, allows real-time parameter estimates to be obtained over large areas. This allows for a more comprehensive and accurate analysis of crucial characteristics such as moisture, bulk density, salinity or surface roughness, which are essential for road design, maintenance and rehabilitation.

ACCIONA is at the forefront in the development of smart highways and roads, having built more than 5,000 kilometres of roads in more than 25 countries, reflecting its commitment to sustainable progress and technical innovation. Mapping road parameters using non-intrusive methods will enable real-time collection of critical data in the management of roads and other linear works. Conventional soil and pavement parameter measurement systems such as moisture, density and salinity provide results at specific, point locations, acquisition is slow over large areas, results are not always representative of a section under study.

These conventional methods require an operator to measure manually with a nuclear densimeter, a conductivity meter or other equipment at individual points directly on the road, or to take samples and proceed to their analysis in the laboratory, which means taking as many samples as necessary to characterise a section, carrying out the laboratory tests and waiting several days to obtain the result. They do not allow massive data collection and it is not possible to have a mapping of soil moisture that would allow a complete picture to be obtained. In the case of surface roughness, it is not currently being measured.

Real-time mapping of road parameters enables instantaneous collection and analysis of critical data for road infrastructure management. Real-time monitoring improves operational efficiency, optimises resource allocation, and raises safety and sustainability standards. Determining soil moisture, density, salt content and surface roughness with remote systems that allow homogeneous measurement is a competitive advantage in large linear works, with large extensions, compared to the current conventional system.

ACCIONA launches this challenge to identify a solution for mapping the physical parameters of soils and pavements in road layers by means of massive and instantaneous data acquisition by indirect methods. The solution must allow:

• Estimate parameter values in road section layers, from soils to cement-treated and asphalt-bound materials (i.e. embankments, sub-bases and bases).
• Determine the moisture, bulk density, salinity and surface roughness of material in road pavements and other linear structures.
• Know the distribution of moisture, bulk density, salinity or surface roughness in the soil, differentiating between different types of soil.
• Acquire data in a non-intrusive way without affecting the line of work, reducing the time needed for data collection.

Tunnelling involves risks associated with ground instability, which are often difficult to predict and which significantly affect the development of the project. Due to these geological instabilities, it is necessary to resort to ground improvement treatments to resolve incidents such as: presence of water pressure, instability of the excavation face, consolidation in fault crossings, advances in karst areas, junctions between the main tunnel and connecting galleries, etc. These treatments are often not included in the design phase, which means that they are not initially planned activities and have a negative impact on the execution time and cost of construction projects.

The implementation of new ground improvement treatment techniques in tunnelling projects presents a significant opportunity to reduce downtime in unplanned events, which in turn improves competitiveness in tenders. The use of more sustainable materials and the reduction in their consumption are essential in this approach, aligning with the current trend towards greener construction practices. In addition, these techniques contribute to the optimisation of processes and systems, thus minimising wasted time and increasing operational efficiency. These advances in ground treatment not only improve the technical and economic feasibility of tunnel projects, but also enhance environmental sustainability and construction safety.

ACCIONA is launching this challenge to identify solutions that offer innovative alternatives in the area of ground improvement treatments in tunnels. The aim of this challenge is to find new ground improvement treatment techniques that improve current treatments from an economic, implementation and sustainability point of view. To this end, any aspect related to the treatment technique can be addressed: design, inspection, materials, equipment, procedures, digitalisation, data management, etc.

In tunnelling, a detailed understanding of the ground is essential. This includes geological characterisation to select appropriate excavation methods, management of geotechnical risks such as collapse and groundwater, structural design that adapts to geological conditions, efficient choice of machinery, and minimisation of environmental impacts. A thorough geological analysis beforehand is crucial to ensure the safety and efficiency of the tunnel project.

TBMs are machines with very high excavation performances, but they are still very sensitive to geological uncertainty along the route and to unplanned events such as: faults, caverns, water pockets, boulders, foundations, etc. This geological uncertainty is the biggest cost overrun in a TBM construction project. Therefore, it is of great importance to know the geological conditions ahead of the excavation face to avoid performance losses or critical failures in the TBM, as this knowledge will allow to automatically adjust the operating parameters or to execute the most appropriate treatments for ground conditioning.

ACCIONA is launching this challenge to identify a geological reconnaissance or exploration system, both at the level of sensorisation and at the level of interpretation and visualisation software that will enable a geological characterisation of the terrain to be carried out. This system must provide new geological reconnaissance techniques for tunnel boring machines ahead of the excavation face, both from the surface and from the machine itself. The requirements for the solution are:

• Non-intrusive solution to the environment
• Does not affect machine productivity
• Enable consistent and coherent identification of profound changes in terrain characteristics.

The TBM has emerged as the safest method of excavation in a context of technological advances in geotechnical engineering, improved working conditions inside tunnels and the use of ventilation systems, among other developments. One of the key components of the TBM are its cutters.

The cutters are subject to critical working conditions due to the effects of pressure, impact and abrasion of the ground, which means that they need to be replaced and repaired periodically, depending on the characteristics of the ground. In addition, the cutter wheel of a TBM is a hostile environment due to the presence of dust, water and its difficult access and maneuverability.

ACCIONA has broken several world records for TBM production and has helped to place this machine at the heart of tunnel engineering. The company uses some of the largest TBMs on the planet in its tunnel construction projects, up to 15 metres in diameter and around 100 metres long, which it adapts according to the terrain in which they operate. The performance of a TBM project is conditioned, among other factors, by the efficiency of its cutting tools, which determine the contact force against the ground through a combined process of thrust, torque and rotation. Therefore, the benefits of this monitoring system would be as follows:

• Remote system with no need for cutter wheel actuation.
• Identify problems before breakage. Improve cutter life.
• Minimise cutter inspection.
• Prevention of “cascade failures”.
• Progress prediction, improving excavation performance and reducing project timescales.

ACCIONA launches this challenge to identify a solution that defines a complete monitoring system, both for the hardware components integrated in the TBM and the interpretation and visualisation software that allows the degree of wear of the TBM cutters to be predicted in real time. The solution should be able to identify the following aspects related to the cutter:

• Cutter bearing blockages.
• Cutter ring wear.Individual pressure of the cutter against the ground.
• Vibrations induced to the cutter during excavation.
• Wear prediction based on project geology.

Trends in the construction sector go for a larger internationalization of construction works, volume increase, and their economic impact. Nevertheless, they facilitate existing barriers that impede a technical and efficient solution at the right time. On the other hand, we are seeing an increase in requirements in regards to standards and demand of a full digitalization of the entire process. The lack of digitalized data and flexibility of the current tools imply a thorough and inefficient verification of all measurements… this process increases the costs for the time spent in data procurement and entails a lack of traceability of the transmitted data, which can provoke mistakes. How can we improve the measurements in lineal works? How can we know the status of progress of the work units through real measurements?

During the construction phase of a tunnel, the excavated area tends to “shrink” (convergence) during the hours/days after the digging. If the convergence is excessive, this implies an elevated risk to the stability of the construction work.

Currently, in order to verify the inexistence of convergence issues, two manual methods are used. However, both systems require a large number of staff and the measurements to be done daily. On top of this, the excavated section of the tunnel must be circular but with irregular finishing, thus an added difficulty.

Since its conception, its implementation and through its completion, a constructive process generates a vast amount of information from an administrative, economic, labor, and technical viewpoint. All of this data is generated from several distinct sources and is treated at different levels by people with diverse technical expertise. The process creates an internal know-how which on occasions the firm cannot capture and exploit due to the intrinsic nature of the information generated.

For that reason we must find solutions that allow us to extract value from all the documentation and the knowledge generated having in mind that it is semi-structured data we are talking about. How can we make ACCIONA’s internal knowledge more accessible? How can we improve the knowledge of the client’s requirements? How can we obtain information on the applied solutions of our processes in the face of usual problems that arise in the day-to-day of work? How can we find relevant points in the contracts? How can we obtain information on real-time of all the active bids? How can we get updated information on the constructive works of ACCIONA from around the world?

ACCIONA, in all of its operations in Construction, has the obligation of ensuring at least 100 years of the material life that they use.

We seek a solution that offers a certifying system and/or warranty of the durability, in order to show enough and sufficient solvency.

In infrastructure construction projects where earthworks predominate, soil occasionally needs to be moved and/or treated and then compacted to specific density/moisture conditions. Drying soil increases overall project cost due to delays and materials (additives) and/or machinery costs.

Can you bring an innovative and cost-efficient way to dry wet soil in this civil engineering innovation challenge?

The following additional properties should also be considered:

• Enhance the workability of soil Preserve or improve the mechanical performance of the original soil
• Maintain or increase the usage of in situ soil (reducing cost of hauling, dumping and soils from borrow pits)