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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.

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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.

We are delighted to have made it into the Top 50 in the ENR Ranking of the Top 225 International Design Firms.

The list of the International Design Firms is based on the revenue achieved by companies outside of their domestic markets. In 2022, ILF is ranked 47th.
Among the top 150 global design firms, ILF has achieved 124th place, with the ranking in this category being based on the overall revenue of the companies.

We would like to thank our numerous clients for the confidence they place in us! We will be happy to continue supporting 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, your reliability, your creativity and your great dedication we have achieved this together.

Thank you very much!

ILF was commissioned by the political municipality of Niederglatt (Switzerland) to perform the civil engineering works for a stormwater drainage system.

This paperless project was successfully executed in a consortium with B+B using the BIM2Field method. The microtunnelling works (DN 1400) over two reaches with a total length of 350 m were completed in July 2021. The civil engineering works have also been completed and included various shaft structures, an intake structure below the river water level and various adjustments to the existing sewer system.

Despite delays of around three months due to lowering of the groundwater level in the difficult subsoil conditions, ILF was able to complete the works within the originally planned time frame.

ILF joins the global movement of companies measuring and disclosing their impacts on the environment, society, economy and governance in accordance with international reporting standards.
The Sustainability Report 2021, which is now available, helps ILF to identify its strengths and weaknesses and to define mid- and long-term goals to reduce our environmental footprint and promote corporate sustainability.
We are proud to have taken this first step in making ILF more sustainable.

Read the complete ILF Sustainability Report here …

ILF is proud to be part of the Woodsmith Project – as a design consultant, working for Strabag’s UK branch to deliver the project for their client Anglo American.

The project in the Woodsmith Mine (ENG) comprises a 37-km-long Material Transport System (MTS) tunnel with a diameter of 4.7 m as well as associated caverns and ventilation shafts. Mined polyhalite will be transported through this tunnel, in an environmentally friendly manner, via conveyor belts underneath the North York Moors National Park, directly to the materials handling facility in Wilton for further processing. The polyhalite obtained will be used as fertilizer.

ILF has been providing detailed design services for the “Ladycross” steel lining shaft and the associated secant pile shaft in the same location.
In addition, ILF has carried out a CAT III check of the “Lockwood Beck” steel lining shaft design, parts of the MTS tunnel as well as the primary and secondary lining of the sprayed concrete lining tunnels.

NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation), Nigeria and ONHYM (Office National Des Hydrocarbures et Des Mines), Morrocco, are progressing with the plans for their mega-project Nigeria–Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP). The NMGP, an onshore and offshore gas pipeline crossing the land and waters of 16 countries along the Atlantic coast, shall bring Nigerian gas to North Africa and further to Spain for the European market. The pipeline will not only supply the local markets with reliable energy, it will also support industrial and economic development, create a competitive regional power market and benefit all West African countries and their economies.

ILF and DORIS Engineering are delighted to carry out the Project Management Consultancy services for the FEED Phase II of this project. ILF and DORIS can make use of their combined expertise and provide fundamental support to the clients in the delivery of this strategically important project.

The PMC services cover the Onshore and Offshore Pipeline and Compressor Station Engineering, the Engineering Surveys, the Environmental & Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) and Land Acquisition Studies (LAS) and the Project Implementation Framework. The project explores the potential for using renewable energy resources to power the pipeline and reduce the project’s carbon footprint.

“With ILF having already been part of the Feasibility Phase and FEED Phase I of this world-scale project, the award of Phase II to us demonstrates the confidence that our long-term clients ONHYM and NNPC have in our Project Management Excellence and Reliability in delivering world class projects,” said Carles Giro, Area Manager Industrial Plants of ILF.

When completed, the over 6,000 km long gas pipeline will be the longest offshore pipeline in the world and the second longest pipeline ever. It has a planned diameter of 48″ offshore and 56″ onshore, with a planned throughput of 30BCMa.
The project coincideswith the “Decade of Gas Master Plan” that Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari launched in 2020. On the Moroccan side, this landmark project is part of the South–South cooperation upheld by King Mohammed VI.

On behalf of the Swiss Federal Roads Office, FEDRO, ILF took the lead in the local site supervision in an engineering consortium for completing the works at the Belchen rehabilitation tunnel.

The project includes the connection of 11 cross passages to the existing central tube, two service tunnels between the existing and new portal control stations, two crossing passages for the emergency services at the tunnel entrance, a smoke partition wall and an access ramp to the isolated construction site.
The excavation works with a 13.97 diameter TBM taking place at the same time as the structural construction works for the 3.2 km long tunnel were very complex with regard to logistics, design, planning and construction.