News

ILF to assess and study the The German Development Bank (KfW) recently appointed ILF Consulting Engineers to perform a feasibility study / project screening for their Multi-Sectoral Investment Program (MIP) in Gaza.

The objective of this program is to evaluate several approaches for promoting the use of renewable energy sources and energy-saving technologies in Gaza, and to determine strategies that can achieve the greatest possible impacts. Hence, this program is primarily directed towards the population of Gaza, who shall benefit from having an improved energy supply.

For further information on the project, or if you want to know more about how we can help you tackle your challenges, please contact us at info.muc@ilf.com.

Die deutsche Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) hat kürzlich ILF Consulting Engineers beauftragt, eine Machbarkeitsstudie / Projekt-Screening für ihr multisektorales Investitionsprogramm Gaza durchzuführen.

Ziel dieses Programms ist die Beurteilung von verschiedenen Ansätzen zur Förderung der Nutzung erneuerbarer Energiequellen und energiesparender Technologien in Gaza sowie die Festlegung von Strategien, die die größtmöglichen Wirkung erzielen können. Daher ist dieses Programm hauptsächlich auf die Bevölkerung in Gaza ausgerichtet, die von einer verbesserten Energieversorgung profitieren soll.

Für weitere Informationen zum Projekt oder wenn Sie mehr darüber erfahren wollen, wie wir Ihnen helfen können, die Herausforderungen zu meistern, kontaktieren Sie uns bitte unter info.muc@ilf.com.

Dear Clients and Business Partners,

We are all currently facing unprecedented moments in history with the worldwide spread of the Corona virus (COVID-19).

At ILF Consulting Engineers, we are taking utmost care of our people and at the same time are continuing to focus on how to best support our clients and business partners.

We are following the guidance of the World Health Organization (WHO) and of local governments, and are closely monitoring the changing circumstances across our office locations. In line with the ever-changing situation, we are taking the necessary decisions, such as restricting travel and face-to-face business meetings, and adapting our working practices accordingly.

Our clients’ projects and operations are extremely important to us. Based on our highly flexible approach, combined with our collaborative business culture and our ability to work remotely, we remain fully committed and able to continue rendering services for our valued clients and business partners.

Although these times are extremely demanding, we are well prepared, and highly confident that together with our clients and business partners we will successfully overcome the upcoming challenges and even strengthen our resilience capabilities.

Stay healthy and best regards

Klaus Lässer
CEO

ILF Business Consult, in cooperation with the national gas transmission operator Uztransgas, has successfully launched the Gas Master Plan project, funded by the Asian Development Bank.

The initial project objective is to develop mid and long-term strategies for the development of the gas transportation infrastructure in Uzbekistan; while the ultimate target is to achieve sustainable development of the gas sector and energy security within Uzbekistan and Central Asia. At project completion, Uzbekistan will be positioned to become a prospective Gas Hub of Central Asia.

In the photo: ILF Business Consult Managing Director, Dr. Andreas Linke and Senior Project Manager, Yeszhan Khamitov. Picture dated February 2020.

With the support of ILF Consulting Engineers, assuming the role of Owner’s Engineer, the Mtkvari Hydro Power Project in Georgia, which is managed by Mtkvari Hesi LLC and financed by the Georgian Co-Investment Fund, has reached one of the most important project milestones.

On February 6th, 2020, the breakthrough of the longest and widest tunnel in Georgia to date has been completed. Excavation of the 9.6-km-long and 6-m-wide tunnel was achieved using a Hard Rock Double Shield TBM.

The total design capacity of the Mtkvari HPP is 53.0 MW and its expected annual energy generation is 251.5 GWh, which equates 1.9 % of Georgia’s total electricity consumption. The tunnel excavation constitutes a major achievement within the construction process and its completion will allow the final stage of the HPP construction to commence.

In 2015 ILF Consulting Engineers was awarded an Owner’s Engineer contract by Senelec and KfW for the implementation of eight photovoltaic and hybrid power plants in Senegal. Now, only four years after the start of the project, these first of its kind projects in Senegal and West Africa are in operation; the last power plants will be commissioned early 2020.

These PV and hybrid power plants are some of the largest in West Africa and are lighthouse projects for the distribution of these technologies in Africa. The aim was to reduce Senegal’s dependency on light fuel/heavy fuel oil imports, reduce the cost of electricity as well as to improve the quality and the reliability of the electricity supply in Senegal.
Furthermore, the electrification of rural areas and the social & economic development of these regions should be promoted. With eight power plants being located all over the country, seven remote cities with a population of up to 50,000 inhabitants each can now be supplied with greener energy 24/7. The project consists of one grid-connected 23MWp PV power plant (supplying among others the international airport of Senegal), four PV/Li-ion battery/diesel hybrid systems and three PV/diesel hybrid systems.

As part of ILF’s role as OE, ILF was responsible for the conceptual design, tendering, construction supervision and commissioning as well as for supervising the plants’ performance and the O&M Contractor during the first year. For further information, please contact us at info.muc@ilf.com.

Besides diverse challenges that we faced, the year 2018 that is drawing to a close also brought us many encouraging developments. All in all, a sense of great satisfaction and gratitude prevails regarding what we have achieved together.

Our sincere thanks go to our esteemed clients and business partners for their constructive cooperation.

Wishing you a peaceful holiday season and a healthy and prosperous 2019!

ILF Consulting Engineers will be present at the STUVA conference (International Forum for Tunnels and Infrastructure) taking place in Frankfurt/Germany from 26 to 28 November 2019.

Visit our booth C147 in exhibition hall 5.1 (Messe Frankfurt am Main, Germany) to learn more about our competence and experience and talk to us about how we can provide you with comprehensive support in the field of tunnel planning and design.

We would also be pleased to welcome you to one of our lectures:

• 26/11/2019 at 11:15: Bernhard Kohl will present the new report “Prevention and Mitigation of Road Tunnel Related Collisions” from the Safety Working Group of the World Road Association PIARC
• 26/11/2019 at 12:00: Sebastian Höser will report on the “Major Project Stuttgart 21: Kriegsberg Bifurcation Structure in the Bad Cannstatt Tunnel – Strengthening the Outer Lining, Reinforcement Measures, Sustainable Outer Shell”
• 27/11/2019 at 14:30: Hubert Heis, Momchil Venkov and Benjamin Riedl will report on “Tunnel Safety – A Review of Specific Differences in Guidelines and Codes of Practice Country-by-Country as well as Practical Scrutiny Based on a Comparison of Tunnel Lighting”
• 27/11/2019 at 15:00: Harald Kammerer and Michael Barth will report on “Possibilities for the (Partial) Use of Road Tunnels Given Reduced Capacity: Structural, Operational and Organisational Measures – The RITUN Research Project ”

We are looking forward to your visit and many interesting discussions! For further information please go to the website https://www.stuva-conference.com/

ILF Consulting Engineers will be present at the “Abu Dhabi International Exhibition & Conference”. With 145,000 trade visitors and 2,200 exhibiting companies, ADIPEC is the biggest oil and gas exhibition in the world.

You are cordially invited to visit us in Hall 14 at booth 14248.

In 2017, ILF Consulting Engineers was awarded a contract for the detailed design services of Section 1.5 – Permit Application Procedure (contract section 4 South), better known as “Wolframstrasse”, by a joint venture consisting of the companies Kunz, Leonhard Weiss and Kurt Motz. This challenging section is an integral part of the large-scale project “Stuttgart 21”. It is an approx. 450 m long rapid transit railway tunnel, predominantly constructed using the cut-and-cover method, which constitutes the S-Bahn link from the North to the central station.

It is worth mentioning that about 100 m are to be constructed in an existing tunnel while keeping the railway operational. Throughout the entire construction period, two of the four rail tracks will be kept in operation. Additional challenges arise from the location of the contract section in the immediate vicinity of the railway station, from avoiding interruptions of traffic in Wolframstrasse, from construction works carried out in existing structures and from the low overburden of a sewer main that crosses the tunnel. To date all challenges have been tackled and the design services are taking place in accordance with the specifications of the joint venture.

After the completion of the construction works at Stuttgart 21, the entire platform area, the track area and the existing tunnel will be removed to make room for a new city district.

Keyera Corp. (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) recently awarded ILF Consulting Engineers the mainline FEED & Detailed Engineering contract for the estimated CAD 1.3 billion KAPS project.

KAPS is a natural gas liquids (NGL) and condensate pipeline system that will transport growing production from the Montney and Duvernay fields, in northwestern Alberta, to Fort Saskatchewan, north of Alberta’s capital city Edmonton. Keyera has partnered with SemCAMS Midstream ULC, owned jointly by SemGroup Corporation® and KKR, to develop this pipeline system.

Based on the current scope, KAPS will consist of a 16-inch condensate pipeline and a 12-inch NGL mix pipeline, associated pumping stations, including provisions for future expansion. The total mainline length per current scope is foreseen to be approximately 550 km. KAPS will initially be constructed from northwest of Grande Prairie and connect to Keyera’s Fort Saskatchewan Fractionation and Storage Facility (KFS).

For more information on Keyera and the KAPS project, please visit: https://www.keyera.com/titanweb/keyera/webcms.nsf/AllDoc/D0FAA0BD6634A315872583830043B445?OpenDocument

ILF will present itself at HOKO 2019 fair at the University of Applied Science in Munich and is looking forward to meet a lot of interesting and interested students as well as Young professionals personally. Our standnumber is A-33.

Furthermore we would like to inform you that we will give a lecture at 3 p.m. on the topic: „If petroleum gas, hydrogen, high voltage underground cables or photovoltaic-hybrid – how to plan the power supply of the future with ILF”.

See you there!

ILF Consulting Engineers is pleased to announce that Dr. Matthias Beisler, ILF’s managing director in Southeast Asia, will chair the International Conference on Shotcrete for Underground Support – ECI SUS XIV 2019 in Thailand, November 17th -20th, 2019.

ECI SUS XIV aims to pool the consolidated knowledge and experience from engineers, researchers and project managers from across the world, in order to share and discuss state-of-the-art technology and best practices in rock engineering, rock support methods, TBM tunneling and deep excavation. Several highly experienced experts from ILF Consulting Engineers will also give keynote speeches and technical presentations and will be pleased to engage in discussions with you.

The detailed conference program can be found on the ECI website (https://bit.ly/2Zdk2JV). Please do not hesitate to contact the conference chair (matthias.beisler@ilf.com) if you have any questions.

ILF Consulting Engineers was commissioned by a well-known client to investigate the installation of a turbine for energy recovery in a potential crude oil pipeline system. Not only did this investigation have to make sure that the energy recovery system would not have a negative impact on the conveyance of oil, but also take account of the fact that pipelines are normally operated using different flow rates under changing pressure conditions.

To read more on the results of the investigation and the associated commercial aspects, take a look here or see the current issue of the International Oil & Gas Engineer.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at info.muc@ilf.com.

As part of the Scaling Solar Program, the IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, has signed an agreement with the Government of Togo to develop several grid-connected solar power projects with a combined capacity of up to 90 MW. Being the 6th country to join the IFC’s Scaling Solar Program, in Togo the Government is seeking to increase capacity so that growing energy demands can be met whilst at the same time reducing costs.

ILF Consulting Engineers has once again been chosen by the IFC to be the Technical Advisor for the implementation of this lighthouse project in Togo. Once completed, it will be Togo’s first utility-scale solar development of this kind.

For further information please contact us at info.muc@ilf.com.

The Hinterglemmer Bergbahnen have been able to start filling the expanded Hochalm II storage reservoir (Austria) on time – a modernization which has taken two years. The water reservoir for the snowmaking system of the Hochalm area was expanded in two construction stages. Works began on 4 June 2018, and water started flowing into the Hochalm II storage reservoir on 30 August 2019. Filling of the storage reservoir, which can hold 251,300 m³ of water, began on schedule.

By delivering innovative design and a clever construction sequence, ILF Consulting Engineers has been assisting its long-standing client with the expansion and strengthening of the Hochalm snow-making system since 2016. “The close cooperation with the Hinterglemmer Bergbahnen enabled our team to deliver an innovative project to secure snow conditions in Hinterglemm for future ski seasons,” says Gerhard Pumpernik, Head of the Department of Ski Resorts and Alpine Engineering at ILF.

ILF would like to thank the Hinterglemmer Bergbahnen for their confidence in ILF and congratulates them on accomplishing this milestone.

To us, protection of critical infrastructure includes more than just having a “secure” laptop or on-site security. In our latest article, our experts present a holistic approach to protecting critical infrastructure against a multitude of threads.

Read more on our website or in the latest issue of World Pipelines Extreme.

For further information please contact us at info.muc@ilf.com.

ILF Consulting Engineers attended a ceremony held in the city of Kara-Suu (Kyrgyz Republic) at the end of May, at which special vehicles purchased as part of the “Improving Water Supply and Sanitation in Kara-Suu” project were handed over. The key speakers at the event were the Mayor of Kara-Suu, Kutugali Kozubayev, the Akim of the Kara-Suu district, Tilek Matraimov, the EU Ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic, Eduard Auer, and the EBRD Director for Central Asia, Neil McCain. Werner Redtenbacher, Head of the Water and Environmental Engineering Department at ILF, gave an update on the project’s progress.

The project is funded by loans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank and by a grant from the European Union. It consists of four different packages. ILF, the leader of a consortium of various partners, is responsible for the design and procurement of works for the rehabilitation and expansion of the water production facilities, the rehabilitation of buildings at the Telman wellfield site, and the rehabilitation and expansion of water and wastewater networks (Package 1), as well as the reconstruction of the wastewater treatment plant (Package 2). Packages 3 and 4 include the purchase of special vehicles and the supply and installation of equipment.

The Engineering News Record (ENR) annually publishes a ranking of design firms according to turnover. Like last year, ILF Consulting Engineers has once again been ranked 60th in the “Top 225 International Design Firms” category, in which firms are ranked as per their turnover in 2018, excluding their shares in the respective home market.

In the “Top 150 Global Design Firms” category, which ranks firms as per their total turnover in 2018, ILF ranks 135th.

For ten years now, ILF Consulting Engineers has been supporting SOS-Kinderdorf (SOS Children’s Villages) to give children and young people a loving home.

“The cooperation with SOS-Kinderdorf is something which is very close to our hearts, because after all, children are our present and our future. We are delighted if ILF can help support children, young people and their families, who find themselves in difficult situations, and if our donations can help them find their way out of crises”, Josef Mayr, one of the managing directors at ILF Consulting Engineers Austria GmbH. It is our heartfelt wish at ILF to continue this partnership in the coming years, and thus achieve positive things together.

“Thanks to the support of private donors and companies, over the last 70 years we have been able to come a step closer to achieving our goal. I would therefore like to sincerely thank ILF for their contribution”, Manuela Mader, SOS-Kinderdorf.

Even after 70 years, SOS-Kinderdorf still has one over-arching goal: “To give every child a loving home” – be that in the care of alternative families or by supporting families in need. In total, SOS-Kinderdorf in Austria provides a new home for around 1,800 children and young people, and supports more than 4,700 children and their families.