News

After a construction period of approx. 10 years, the new Limmern pumped storage power plant (Switzerland) of “Kraftwerke Linth-Limmern AG” was commissioned with a ceremony at the end of March 2018.

With an output of 1,000 MW, the new power plant is the largest pumped storage power plant in Switzerland and has a height difference of 620 m. The dam, located at 2,470 m above sea level, is the highest dam in Europe.

For Switzerland and the international electricity industry, the power plant is a huge battery that can be used in an environmentally friendly way to stabilize the grid and to ensure peak coverage.

Together with partners, ILF Consulting Engineers had already been entrusted with the design of the underground facilities (powerhouse, transformer cavern, pressure tunnel, surge tank, access tunnel, energy discharge tunnel) in 2009.

Legend: Representatives of the engineering companies in front of a disassembled impeller

ILF is excited to announce the brand new book “SUSTAINABILITY – A Way to Abundance” by Dr. Corrado Sommariva. The book covers sustainability from various perspectives and presents a very promising vision of abundance based on the conclusion that profit can also be associated with sustainability and environmental protection. The book is a “must-read” for all who are interested in the super important topic of sustainability and is available at CRC Press as hardback or eBook.

Dr. Sommariva is a world-class expert for desalination and as Managing Director of ILF in the UAE in charge for the energy and water business. Moreover, in his function as Group Director Sustainability, he promotes sustainability advisory across the globe.

Engineers Without Borders Austria is a non-profit association which has set itself the task of implementing projects in the field of technical development cooperation. The members and contributors are of different age groups and fields of study/professions. Everyone works on a voluntary basis. Since 2015 there is a regional group in the Tyrol with currently about 40 members, among them architects, civil engineers, physicists, psychologists, linguists and many more. The regional group is currently working on the “EduZapa” project, which aims to rehabilitate a school in rural, poverty-stricken Mexico. The first implementation phase took place in the summer of 2017, with a further phase being planned for 2018. This project is financed exclusively by donations.

ILF supported the association with a donation at the end of 2017 and now intends to work more closely together. In particular, ILF plans to contribute to the technical project and design by making in-house expertise available to the project team.

If you would like to learn more about the project, please follow this link: http://www.iog-austria.at/iog_project/eduzapa-mexico/.

Already in 2014 the National Water Company (NWC) commissioned ILF Consulting Engineers to provide design services for the “South Dhahran Residential Project” of the Saudi Aramco national oil company. Scope of services for this new “Residential Housing Complex” is to ensure the necessary water supply as well as wastewater treatment and disposal for the future 70,000 residents.

The project encompasses a seawater desalination plant (100,000 m³/day), a 20 km long drinking water supply pipeline and a 17 km long wastewater collector pipeline to the new wastewater treatment plant (70,000 m3/day). The project furthermore envisages reusing the treated sewage effluent (TSE) for irrigation purposes via a 17 km long pumping main. A new 10 km long transmission pipeline DN 1,200 for wastewater between an existing and the new wastewater treatment plant is included in the project.

After the feasibility study ILF also carried out the EPC tender of the mentioned system components, provided support during contract negotiations and compiled contract documents. Currently the project is in the implementation stage where ILF carries out design review and site supervision.

All over the world changes in the climate are observed resulting in conditions that are too hot, too wet, causing a rise in sea levels, and an increase in the number of extreme events, such as storms, floods, droughts or landslides. Given the ever increasing importance of the topic, ILF has now published a White Paper titled “Climate Change challenges and solutions in infrastructure planning and adaptation”, which gives an overview of the topic and outlines solutions to cope with the challenges involved.

You are highly welcome to read the document that can be downloaded here.

ILF Consulting Engineers will be represented at the “Seventh International Conference and Exhibition on Water Resources and Renewable Energy Development in Asia” in Danang, Vietnam from 13 to 15 March 2018.

Florian Nagel will give a presentation as part of the “Finance and risk” session: “Development of Bankable Hydropower Projects in South-East Asia using Monte Carlo Simulation” on 13 March 2018. Furthermore, Lochan Devkota will present on “Sedimentation management: Impact of the Koshi Barrage & Embankments on River Morphology and Dynamics” on 15 March 2018.

The speakers will be happy to receive questions or get feedback. Let us know how we can help you tackle your challenges (florian.nagel@ilf.com or lochan.devkota@ilf.com)!

We look forward to welcoming you also at our stand (095). For further information please go to the website at: http://www.hydropower-dams.com/asia-2018-conference.php?c_id=303

Here you can find further information on our presentation at HYDRO Asia 2018.

ILF Consulting Engineers announces its participation in the annualA�Pipeline Technology Conference (PTC) held in Berlin from March 12 to March 14, 2018 as a Gold Sponsor.

During this years PTC, our experts will present our technical expertise in emergency response concepts (Dr. Michael Kasch).

You are most welcome to visit us at stand 42 in exhibition hall 1 (Estrel Convention Center, Berlin, Germany) to learn about our competences and experience in the field of pipeline engineering. Let us know how we can help you tackle your challenges (info.muc@ilf.com)! We are looking forward to your visit.

For further information, please visit the website at http://www.pipeline-conference.com

Together with partners, ILF Consulting Engineers has been involved in the site supervision of the Koralm tunnel KAT2 contract section on behalf of the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) since 2010. After the start of the construction works in 2011 and the start of the TBM drive in 2013 the completion of the excavation works was celebrated on 18 Feb 2018. This means that over a period of 59 months of tunnelling some 17,145 m of tunnel were excavated for this contract section.

Forming part of the Baltic-Adriatic Axis, the Koralm tunnel shall, after its completion, contribute to significantly reducing travel times in passenger traffic and to improving the conditions for environmentally friendly railway freight traffic. The 32.9 km long single track railway tunnel was divided into three contract sections, with the 19 km KAT2 section being the longest one.

ILF is both in charge of the site supervision and of the technical management of the joint venture for the site supervision.

In January this year the official ceremony for the Deutschlandstipendium 2018 was hosted by the Technical University of Munich. More than 150 donors and 650 scholarship holders of the Deutschlandstipendium took part in the festive event. The scholarship program launched by the Federal Government in 2011 promotes students who are expected to achieve high both at University and in their professional lives.

Together with the Adolf Feizlmayr Foundation ILF participates in the program by funding a total of twelve scholarships that cover a broad spectrum of different engineering disciplines. These range from electrical and information technology engineering to mechanical, civil and environmental engineering. Besides Germany and Austria, the scholarship holders come from Canada, Venezuela, Iraq, Syria, Hungary and Italy.

Through the ILF-internal ai???Club of Young Engineersai??? the scholarship holders get in direct contact with ILF employees and are given the chance to participate in various ILF events. Individual assignments as working students, interns or prospective graduates are meant to provide the scholarship holders an opportunity to get to know each other in a direct working environment at ILF.

After an advance period of approximately one year, the Eppenberg Tunnel was broken through on February 2, 2018.

The Eppenberg Tunnel is part of the Swiss Federal Railway Line between Aarau and Olten which is being widened to four tracks. The tunnel was advanced with a mixed shield tunnel boring machine over a length of 2.6 km and will have a total length of 3.2 km long upon completion of the construction works. The Eppenberg Tunnel is scheduled to be put into operation by the end of 2020. It will provide a significant increase in capacity of the main artery from Zurich to Bern.

Together with partners, ILF Consulting Engineers was awarded a contract for the project works (basic design to construction design) and the site supervision works as part of an overall planning mandate for the 4-tracking of the Aarau–Olten railway line. In addition, the mandate comprises the railway technology works after completion of the civil works.

Pictures about the breakthrough: http://baudoku.1000eyes.de/cam/sbbeppenberg/tunnel4/

In late 2017 BBT SE commissioned a bidding consortium led by ILF Consulting Engineers to perform the monitoring of the ground and surface water resources of the Brenner Base Tunnel.

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The monitoring of ground and surface water resources of the longest underground railway connection in the world is performed across borders both in Austria and in Italy along the entire 64 km long route. In total, at 1,200 measuring points measurements and samples are taken every four weeks, with maintenance and management of 100 partly very complex data logger installations in groundwater, springs, creeks and rivers.

ILF has been assisting BBT SE with the monitoring of ground and surface water resources for many years. For the Brenner Base Tunnel project ILF has carried out many different design services since 1977.

In the year 2017 that is drawing to a close, ILF celebrated its 50th anniversary. Besides diverse challenges that we faced, the year 2017 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 2018!

After a two-year construction period, the breakthrough of the western and east tubes of the Oberau Tunnel (Germany) was celebrated.

The 3 km long western section is part of the Garmisch-Partenkirchen bypass. After completing the construction works, scheduled for 2021, the Oberau Tunnel will be the longest twin-tube road tunnel in Bavaria.
The EUR 230 million bypass shall divert traffic going to the holiday destination of Garmisch-Partenkirchen around the village of Oberau.

ILF Consulting Engineers has been supporting the motorway authority of Southern Bavaria in the design of several project phases for many years. Currently, ILF is responsible for reviewing the construction design and for providing site supervision as well as site management services.

On November 30, 2017, Jens Kottsieper and Michel Kneller will be presenting a white paper on decentralized hydrogen production from renewable energy for the transport sector at the ÖGEW/DGMK Autumn Conference in Vienna, Austria.

In order to meet the climate objectives of the 2015 Paris Agreement to further reduce CO2 emissions, it will be necessary to increase the renewable energy share in the global energy mix. One potential solution would be to convert surplus renewable energy to hydrogen through a process of electrolysis, store it and make it available to the transport sector. Mr. Kottsieper and Mr. Kneller will also present key findings and lessons learned from the Demo4Grid project that is currently being implemented in Innsbruck, Austria.

You can have a look on the white paper here: https://www.ilf.com/news/publications/

The Schaftenau–Radfeld Junction in the Lower Inn Valley (Austria) forms part of the northern feeder line to the Brenner Base Tunnel. The upgrade of this section is part of four-tracking the line in the Lower Inn Valley.

With this project, the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) and the Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT) intend to increase the line capacity and eliminate bottlenecks for the Brenner Base Tunnel to achieve full efficiency. In addition, the project will bring traffic relief for the Lower Inn Valley and reduce travel time, as design speeds of 230 km/h will be possible.

The line will have a total length of approx. 20.5 km including 11.7 km in mined and cut-and cover tunnels and 5.6 km in open-track sections. Furthermore, the project will include the construction of four trough structures with a length of 3.2 km.

ILF Consulting Engineers will be responsible for preparing the design documents for the preliminary authorization of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) pending legal permission for the mined tunnel near Angath. Together with partners, ILF will also be in charge of the cut-and-cover tunnels and trough structures.

ILF Consulting Engineers will be present at the HYDRO 2017 in Seville, Spain, from 9 to 11 October 2017.

Reinhard Fritzer and Eva Manninger will be giving a lecture about the “Atdorf pumped-storage plant: Three weeks of public discussion and a milestone in the permit application procedure” at session 12d “Pumped storage: Potential, plans and case studies”.

Furthermore, Serafino Weissenbach will report on “Hydraulic design: Alto Maipo hydropower project” at session 4 “Civil engineering: Design”.

The speakers will be happy to receive questions or get feedback. Let us know how we can help you tackle your challenges (reinhard.fritzer@ilf.com, eva.manninger@ilf.com or serafino.weissenbach@ilf.com)!

For further information please go to the website http://www.hydropower-dams.com/hydro-2017.php?c_id=88

After a construction period of three years the Arlberg Tunnel on the S16 Arlberg Road (Austria) was officially reopened to traffic.

Having a length of approx. 15.5 km, the longest road tunnel in Austria was equipped with 37 additional escape routes and another eight emergency lay-bys. In total ASFINAG invested EUR 154 million in the safety upgrade of the tunnel, and has applied state-of-the-art technologies (high-pressure water mist system, thermal scanner at both portals, AKUT system, etc.) in the tunnel.

ILF Consulting Engineers was entrusted with the project management and the supervision of the electromechanical installations and control systems.

In July 2017 ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG commissioned ILF Consulting Engineers, together with partners, to provide permit application and EIA design services for the railway project Nordbahn Wien Süßenbrunn–Bernhardsthal in Austria.

With a length of approx. 66 km and two tracks the project forms part of the “Pontebbana Axis” that is classified as an “interoperable high-speed railway line” in the ÖBB network.
By increasing train speeds to 160 km/h it shall become possible to travel from Vienna to Prague in three hours and 45 minutes. Furthermore, non-stop travel time of trains between Vienna and Břeclav shall be reduced to 60 minutes.

ILF Consulting Engineers was commissioned by WindLandKraft GmbH to carry out the project management and design services for the Großinzersdorf Wind Park in Lower Austria (Austria).

The required services encompass the project and construction management up to the completion of the overall wind farm (incl. construction management of plant assembly), construction design and preparation of tender documents/award of works for access roads to wind farm, construction site and wind farm cabling.

ILF Consulting Engineers participated actively in this yearai??i??s international conference ai???ai???Shotcrete for Underground Support XIIIai??i??ai??? in Irsee, Germany, from September 3rd to 6th 2017. The conference is an excellent forum for new developments in rock engineering, tunneling, underground space and deep excavation.

ILFai??i??s Dr. Matthias Beisler, co-chair of this event, talked about ai???Multi layered shotcrete design for tunnel constructionai???, which attracted a lot of interest from the attending international experts.

In the course of this event the location for the next conference in this series was announced. SUS XIV in 2019 will be organized in Bangkok (Thailand) under the auspices of ILF and chaired by Dr. Matthias Beisler.

Legend f.l.t.r.: Prof. H. Klapperich (TU Freiberg), A. Spiegl (ILF), Dr. M. Beisler (ILF-Thailand), Prof. D. MAi??hner (FH MA?nster), P.Ngamsantikul (Thailand Underground & Tunneling Group), Dr. Guojun Li (Singapore Metro Consultant), Dr. J. Fu (Central South University, China)