News

Digitalization poses new challenges to be faced in road tunnels – challenges which require interdisciplinary action.

Coordinated by the Federal Highway Research Institute (“Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen” GER) and ILF, the bilateral research project Artificial Intelligence for Improvement of Safety of Tunnels and Tunnel Control Centers (“KITT”) is developing innovative solutions. By using data from Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) as well as Artificial Intelligence (AI), hazardous situations in tunnels, or anomalies in IT security, can be recognized more quickly and reliably.

ILF is proud to be able to apply its extensive experience of performing risk analyses in road tunnels and its own (self-developed) tunnel risk model TuRisMo to improve existing methods by using C-ITS technology.
The research project is being funded by the Security Research Funding Program (“KIRAS”) set up by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Regions and Tourism (“BMLRT”) and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (“BMBF”) as part of the call for Artificial Intelligence in Civil Security Research (“Künstliche Intelligenz in der zivilen Sicherheitsforschung”).

As part of a joint venture (JV), ILF has been awarded the contract for the preparation of tender documents for the Eastern Section of the 2nd S-Bahn Main Line in Munich.

This section of the line comprises approx. 3.4 km of tunnels, one underground halt and several civil engineering structures. ILF has also been involved in the design of the Western Section of the line since 2017. As part of different JVs, ILF was commissioned with the final design and the permit application design services for the overall project, the preparation of tender documents and construction design services for two underground halts.

The overall project, with a line length of approx. 10 km, contains a tunnel section with a length of approx. 7 km and three underground halts (with lengths between 230 m and 250 m, and a depth of approx. 45 m). The tunnels – two tunnels and one emergency tunnel – will be driven mainly by TBMs. The underground halts are being constructed using the cut-and-cover method, and for the platform tunnels, the New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM) is being used.

The Deutsche Bahn has taken the decision to extend the underground section of the line under the city center (by adding a new line beneath the existing one) because the S-Bahn Main Line in Munich was no longer able to handle today’s passenger numbers.

ILF is pleased to be able to present the design for the tunnel portals with the widest span in the company’s more than 55-year history.
As the leading partner of a planning consortium, ILF, on behalf of ASFINAG, has been working on the detailed design for the tunnel structures within phase 1 of the A26 motorway construction project near Linz.

The motorway tunnel constructed in phase 1 of the project has four lanes in some sections and a total length of 2.4 km, including access and exit ramps. The two main portals of the tunnel deserve special attention: The portals of the two main carriageways, which shall directly adjoin the fourth Danube bridge on both sides, span a width of about 25 m and have a shotcrete thickness of only 60 cm. The operating rooms are located directly below these main portals.

Overcoming the challenge of designing and finally realizing tunnel portals of these dimensions has only been possible thanks to ILF’s partnership with ASFINAG and the joint venture ARGE A26 that is responsible for executing the project.

Thank you for the excellent cooperation!

ILF has been commissioned as part of an engineering consortium (INGE Axe Bauleitung) for the construction supervision for the new Axenstrasse road project. The project is expected to run until the end of 2033.

The Axenstrasse road was built between 1861 and 1865 and is located in Central Switzerland. The road has been damaged several times by rockfalls and mudslides, which is why a new Axenstrasse road is now being built.

ILF has commenced its construction supervision work at the Gumpisch temporary bridge. The temporary bridge will be constructed in an area sensitive to rockfalls and will allow traffic to be diverted from the Axenstrasse road thus facilitating further construction works. Construction of both the major tunnel construction lots is due to start in 2025. The construction site from Ingenbohl to Gumpisch stretches over a length of approx. 8 km. In the tunnel-driving phase, up to six tunnel drives (main and counter drives) are to be supervised in parallel. Also in the construction phase for the entire project, several construction sites for lining works are to be supervised in parallel.

In order to deal with the natural hazards posing a threat to the availability of the Axenstrasse road, an early warning system has been introduced and contributes to greater safety during construction works. Work on the Gumpisch temporary bridge is taking place whilst there is ongoing traffic on the Axenstrasse road. Thanks to the good cooperation with the road operator AfBN, the client and the security firm that are helping to control the adjacent traffic, the work and traffic have to date been accident-free.

The Baltic Pipe has recently started transporting gas to markets in Denmark, Sweden and Poland, as well as to neighboring markets. ILF is proud to have contributed to the timely start of operation for this unusually complex construction project.

The interconnector between Poland and Denmark can transport gas in both directions, which not only opens up a new supply route for the transport of natural gas from the Norwegian sea, but also leads to a diversification of gas supply sources for many countries in the Baltic Sea region and in Central and Eastern Europe. Around 2.4 bn m³ of gas are expected to be transported by the Baltic Pipe per year over the next ten years.

ILF has supported the clients, Energienet and Ramboll, with numerous engineering services for the Jutland–Funen section. These included, among others, project management, Owner’s Engineering services, detailed design/construction design, tendering and construction supervision.

Learn more here:   The project – Baltic Pipe Project (baltic-pipe.eu)

ILF and PGNiG Termika S.A. have signed a contract for the preparation of a feasibility study for the creation of an electrical connection between the Siekierki CHP plant and the Piaseczno–Mory transmission line in Poland.

The study shall investigate the feasibility of constructing a new 220 kV double-circuit line running from a new 220 kV switchyard to a cut in the 220 kV Piaseczno–Mory line, as well as a line to connect a new gas/steam unit to this switchyard. As part of the study, three different switchyard location options and several variants shall be presented. ILF will also give a recommendation on the optimal solution, taking all relevant planning, technological, social and environmental aspects into consideration.

“We always consider the impact on local residents and the environment in our work. We are focused on minimizing the impact on housing developments and valuable natural areas. In terms of planning for the timing and the amount of investment required in this project, we aim to make good use of existing infrastructure corridors from other transmission line facilities, and will consider different technological options – namely overhead lines and cable lines, as well as an option combining these two technologies.”
Rafal Blankiewicz, Managing Director of ILF Poland.

Providing efficient solutions for using existing snow-making infrastructure to additionally produce and store energy is also part of ILF’s portfolio – and exactly this is what has been done during one of our projects in the Kitzsteinhorn ski area (AUT).

The Gletscherbahnen Kaprun AG, with ILF’s help, has been relying on sustainable energy for years. In addition to the photovoltaic systems on operations buildings in the Kitzsteinhorn ski area, the Grubbach small-scale power plant also produces its own power from meltwater. The first construction stage of this combined pumped storage and hydroelectric power plant, with two turbines, was put into operation in 2012 – and a third turbine has recently been added to provide electricity in summer and snow in winter.
The special feature of this autonomous power production is that when the lever is moved in autumn, water is pumped through the pipes from the large high-altitude reservoirs “Mooserboden” and “Wasserfallboden” directly into the snow-making systems in the Kitzsteinhorn ski area. This means that no additional storage reservoirs need to be created for snowmaking in the high alpine part of the Kitzsteinhorn ski area.
In spring, on the other hand, the meltwater from a large catchment area is collected in the Langwied catch basin and continuously fed, via a 2-km-long pipeline and over 460 m in altitude, to the power plant. Here, three turbines convert 300 L of water per second into electricity, which generates 1.2 million kWh of green electricity in a regular year. This amount corresponds to the annual electricity consumption of approx. 350 households.

How does a pumped storage plant work?
A PSP temporarily stores surplus energy in the form of potential energy (elevation potential energy) in a reservoir. The water is pumped into the storage reservoir by electrically driven pumps so that it can later be used to drive the turbines and generate electricity. Surplus electrical energy from the power grid is taken during periods of low demand and fed back into the grid at peak load. Essentially, there is a lower and upper basin between which water is moved up and down – the lower basin can either be an artificial storage reservoir, a natural lake or a watercourse. In the simplest case, electricity is either generated by operating the pumps in reverse (turbine mode) or by using separate turbines, for which a wide variety of designs and sizes come into question depending on the operating conditions.

Swissgrid has commissioned ILF, as part of the engineering consortium KiWa220 (@Suisseplan Bau, @Boess Gruppe), to plan and design the extension of the high-voltage line in the Zurich South area. In order to increase the security of electricity supply to the city of Zurich (CH) and the left side of Lake Zurich, the current line will be upgraded to 220 kilovolts (kV) and connected to the grid in the South.

In the first project section, the cable will be laid underground along the motorway. Subsequently, the cable will be pulled through the conduit blocks already in place in both tubes of the Uetliberg Tunnel. In the third project section, a new 2-km-long energy tunnel, with a diameter of approx. 4 m, will be driven using a tunnel boring machine.

ILF has been chosen by the Canadian Hydrogen Fuel Cell Association (CHFCA), on behalf of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), to conduct a survey and develop an evergreen database of existing and planned hydrogen production facilities in Canada, including those currently under construction.

Together with the CHFCA, our team developed a comprehensive survey that was distributed to companies with existing and planned hydrogen production facilities in Canada. The questionnaire gathered information amongst others about hydrogen production, distribution systems, technology and carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS); all of which was then entered into the database.

Visit the CHFCA’s website to explore the database: https://www.chfca.ca/canadian-hydrogen-production-evergreen-database/.

One of ILF’s long-term projects – the Metro Warsaw project – has taken a great step forward: We are proud to announce that the conceptual design for the new M3 metro line in Warsaw is complete.

In this key project for the residents of the Polish capital, ILF is responsible for the pre-design works, including the conceptual design, determination of the impact zones of the metro facilities on adjacent buildings, and the hydrogeological and engineering-geological documentation. In addition, ILF has prepared the functional and user program as well as the technical specifications for the execution and approval of works.

The building permit for the Karolin Station on the M2 metro line – another project in which ILF is one of the key players – has also recently been received and the stations Ulrychów und Bemowo have since been opened.

To transmit wind power from the windy North to the South, SuedLink, a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line consisting of multiple underground cables, is to be built in Germany.
The SuedLink is approx. 700 km long and will be implemented by the two project developers TransnetBW GmbH and TenneT TSO GmbH, with two 2 GW connections each starting in Schleswig-Holstein and running via Baden-Württemberg to Bavaria.

The project developer TransnetBW GmbH has submitted the first permit application documents for the southernmost permit application section, E3, to the Federal Network Agency. ILF, as the regional engineering office, has assisted with the preparation of these documents. The Federal Network Agency has already confirmed the completeness of the documents and the process of making the documents available for public review has been initiated.

What’s special about permit application section E3 is that this section of the transmission line runs through the Südwestdeutsche Salzwerke AG’s mines. The special structure in the mines will be connected via two new shafts, which will be almost 200 m deep. With the initiation of the final phase of the approval procedure, the foundations for an early start to construction of the SuedLink in the Heilbronn region have now been laid.

In the North, ILF, as the responsible regional engineering office, has also contributed to the permit application documents for permit application section A2 – the first northern section of the transmission line – being submitted to the Federal Network Agency in due time by the project developer TenneT TSO GmbH. The particular challenge in this section was to integrate the requested alignment for the two underground cables into the design documents for the special structure ElbX, an approx. 5-km-long tunnel structure between Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony that runs under the River Elbe.

The Municipal Water and Sewerage Company commissioned ILF to prepare comprehensive design documentation for the final stage of the construction of the Vistula collector In Warsaw.

This largest transit and retention collector in Poland’s capital is expected to mitigate the negative effects of climate change on the city. Besides transporting wastewater, the new infrastructure facility will also temporarily store excess rainwater and therefore decrease the risk of flooding and reduce storm overflows into the Vistula river. The existing storm sewers as well as the sewer collectors to the Farysa facility and the pressure pipe from the Powiśle pumping station will be connected to the new collector. The collector, with a capacity of 50,000 m3 and base diameters from 1.2 m to 3.2 m, will be about 9.5 km long and will be constructed at a depth of 6 to 15 m below ground. For the construction of the collector, state-of-the-art trenchless microtunneling technology will be applied.

“ILF’s task is to prepare comprehensive design documentation for the third stage of construction of the Vistula collector – specifically, from the connection chamber with the Bielański collector to the Farysa facility, along with the pumping station and the necessary̨ associated infrastructure,” explains Marcin Przepiórka, Managing Director from ILF Poland.

The investment is part of a broader project co-financed by EU funds and implemented by the Municipal Water and Sewerage Company in Warsaw. Completion of the project documentation (construction design and detailed designs) is scheduled for late 2022.

ILF is involved in the construction of the largest wind farm in the Polish waters of the Baltic Sea – OWF Baltica 2 and OWF Baltica 3. The project is carried out by PGE Baltica together with Ørsted under the Offshore Program.

The Baltica-2 OWF will have a capacity of up to 1,498 MW; the Baltica 3 OWF a capacity of up to 1,045 MW. The works are going on and the planned start of green energy production is 2026 (Baltica 3) and 2027 (Baltica 2). The lifetime of the wind farm is expected to be around 30 years.

ILF is responsible, among others, for the feasibility study, building permit design and obtaining a building permit for the Baltica 3 and Baltica 2 Offshore Wind Farms grid connections.

As part of an energy research project, ILF has carried out a specific technical, economic and ecological evaluation of an innovative EDCSproof energy concept for Wiesbauer, an Austrian sausage producer. EDCSproof stands for “Energy Demand Control System – Process Optimization For industrial low-temperature systems” and is a collaborative research project led by the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) and involving eight scientific and industrial partners.

The primary goal is to develop an online control concept for industrial energy supply systems. This concept shall support the integration of renewables through the use of energy storage, create “flexible consumers” for electric grids, increase efficiency through optimal control of the overall system, and utilize waste heat by using high-temperature heat pumps (<150°C). Hence, it is a concept for decarbonization which recognizes the possibilities of digitalization.

The evaluation carried out by ILF included an investment calculation based on possible installation locations and the integration of the respective components in the power supply system taking into account the route of the existing piping, spatial conditions and other project parameters. ILF compared the EDCSproof energy concept with Wiesbauer’s existing energy concept (CO₂ savings, reduction of primary energy factor, cost reduction, etc.) and detected an energy and production cost saving potential.

Please see our White Paper for more details, contact persons and additional information about energy efficiency (only available in German): https://www.ilf.com/de/whitepaper-eeff/

As part of the ongoing Vestfoldbanen railway upgrade scheme, the state-owned Norwegian railway infrastructure company Bane NOR is constructing 10 km of new double-track railway between Drammen and Kobbervikdalen.

In 2018, ILF was hired by the Norwegian contractor Veidekke Entreprenør AS as the designer of the most technically challenging section of this project: a 290 m long tunnel mined in difficult geology below the groundwater table – the Soil Tunnel. ILF prepared the tender design, supported Veidekke during the Competitive Dialogue competition, and developed the conceptual design as well as the detailed design of the soil tunnel. This includes a BIM model that is integrated into a combined model of all of the works within the contract.
ILF staff from our offices in Austria and Norway attended the breakthrough ceremony for the Soil tunnel top heading together with more than 200 other guests.

ILF is proud to be part of such a remarkable and prestigious project.

ILF is responsible for providing EPCM services for Synthos’ project to expand the production capacity for InVento products. The EPCM services which ILF is providing include the design, bidding and procurement processes and construction management for the project. ILF’s tasks also include the creation of a 3D model of the project for all phases and disciplines.

Rafał Blankiewicz, Managing Director of ILF Consulting Engineers Polska, on EPCM projects: “Our company has experience in managing investments in the EPCM model. We successfully completed our first project using this formula in Poland between 2007 and 2010, at a time when the model was still quite unknown.”

ILF has completed the building permit design for the construction of the second production line at Synthos and has obtained the building permit. In the near future, ILF will recommend the contractors for the individual purchase packages and will begin the process of taking over the construction site. The new production line is scheduled to be completed in the first half of 2023.

***
InVento is an ecological product used in thermal insulation, manufactured using an ecological geopolymer additive which acts as a factor reducing the heat transfer coefficient and thus improving the thermal insulation properties of final building products. InVento products are characterized by full recyclability and contain 30% recycled content coming from post-consumer waste in their formula.

SparkSpread (formerly Inframation), a global platform providing business intelligence on transactions worldwide, has ranked ILF among the Top 10 Technical Transaction Advisors in the energy, environment, power and transport sectors (September 2022). In the overall comparison of Technical Transaction Advisors, ILF is also ranked 12th.

We would like to thank our numerous clients for the confidence they place in us!
We look forward to continuing to support you in the realization of your various projects in the future. We would also like to extend a special thank you to our more than 2,500 ILF-ers.
Thanks to your commitment, reliability, creativity and great dedication, we have achieved this top-10 position together.

Thank you very much!

Together with one of ÖBB Infrastruktur AG’s and DB Netz AG’s partners, ILF has been commissioned with a new project as part of the four-track upgrade of the Northern Feeder Line of the Brenner Base Tunnel. This project comprises the route design and project planning works needed for the submission of the environmental impact statement (in Austria) and the conceptual design (in Germany) for the Kirnstein–Schaftenau cross-border section. The approx. 13 km long cross-border Laiming Tunnel is the core element of this upgraded section.

In addition to the Laiming Tunnel, the respective adjacent open-track sections and the associated traffic facilities are also being designed. All of the design services will be carried out using the BIM method and the scope of these design services can also be extended to include the detailed design phase (in Austria) and the basic design phase (in Germany).

Having already been involved in the previous design phases for this section, in particular in the route selection procedure, ILF is pleased to be able to continue working on this complex project in the further design phases.

The section being upgraded forms part of the Northern Feeder Line of the Brenner Base Tunnel, which will be the longest railway tunnel in the world when it is completed. Thus it constitutes an indispensable part of the Scandinavian–Mediterranean Corridor (Scan–Med Corridor) from Stockholm to Naples – the most important North–South railway link in Europe.

ILF has prepared the feasibility study for the Gas Interconnection Poland–Lithuania (GIPL) and is pleased to announce that commercial operation of the pipeline has now begun.
The gas interconnection, which is approximately 508 km long, enables gas to be transported both from Poland to Lithuania and from Lithuania to Poland. Full-scale commissioning of the GIPL project is scheduled to take place in autumn of this year.

ILF is extremely proud that its work has contributed to strengthening Poland’s energy security.

Click here to learn more about this project in detail… 

ILF has been supporting and providing technical advice for Engineers Without Borders Austria (IOG), a non-profit association for technical development cooperation, since 2017.

From 2021 until 2024, the IOG project team, together with the Tyrolean partner association “Zukunft für Tshumbe” (Future for Tshumbe), are planning to implement a water project for a primary school and kindergarten in Tshumbe (DR Congo).
This TSHUWA project shall comprise facilities for wastewater treatment, rainwater drainage, sustainable drinking water abstraction and state-of the-art rainwater storage.

The IOG team, which includes committed ILF staff, have been helping with the technical design for this project. They have planned and designed the constructed wetland wastewater treatment plant and the rainwater storage and drainage facilities.