Unpiloted Systems
No one’s left in the dark
Automation and data synchronization light the way to tunnel success
After each blast, the scanner captures a 3D view of the tunnel face and excavated surface and Amberg Navigator immediately compares the point cloud measurements to the design on the tablet. Image credit: Maxime Bocrie, Eiffage.
By Mary Jo Wagner
As a tunnel surveyor with Eiffage , a French civil engineering construction company, Christophe Poloni knows a thing or two about uncertainty. “I’ve worked on many underground projects and the one thing they have all had in common is the uncertainty of not knowing what we would find,” says Poloni. “We plan and prepare as best we can but the unpredictable nature of geology can surprise us at any moment. So tunnel construction requires versatility, agility, efficiency and accuracy.” Since late 2022, Poloni has needed all four of those attributes to successfully navigate the dark, dirty and cramped quarters of the Bjønnås Tunnel (Bjønnås) in Eastern Norway. One of seven tunnels being built for the 17.5-km, E18 four-lane motorway that will connect the towns of Langangen and Rugtvedt, the Bjønnås is a 2.5-km twin- tube tunnel that will have 10, 15-m-long cross passages and three technical buildings, each of which is 16.8-m wide. Valued at EUR 516 million (NOK 5.2 billion), the E18 Langangen-Rugtvedt project is one of the largest ongoing infrastructure projects in the country. To meet tight tolerances, high expectations and an intense pace, Poloni and his survey colleagues sought out enabling technology that would provide field autonomy to production crews and real-time analytical and reporting tools to maximize efficiency both in the tunnel and in office. “In tunnel construction, ‘delay’ is a dirty word,” says Poloni. “No one wants to wait for surveyor support, but we can’t be everywhere at once. With the different sites and dynamic nature––literally––of the project, we wanted to adopt technology that would enhance tunneling efficiency and tracking, reduce downtime and streamline data flows.”
Armed with Amberg Technologies’ Tunnel Solution, a cloud-enabled software suite that automates and simplifies tunnel work, Poloni and his team have been able to steadily advance the Bjønnås excavation, minimizing downtime, reducing costs and optimizing collaboration. The right tech From the outset, the project’s customer, Nye Veier, a company owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Transport, made it clear that technology would play a significant role––the design would be 100 percent model-based, 3D scans and 2D profiles would be required after every tunneling step, a cloud-based common data environment and collaboration platform would be used to connect all stakeholders, and detailed digital reports would need to be produced daily. In Amberg Tunnel, teams can view and export data in whatever format they need. Here is a 2D color map of a tunnel section showing design deviations. They can export this as a PDF to share with teams or extract profiles from the scan and create profile reports for Nye Veier. Im-age credit: Amberg Technologies
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csengineermag.com
Summer 2024
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