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Minister Harbers (I&W) presents InfraTech Innovation Awards
Amid great interest, today - on the second day of the largest infrastructure trade fair in the Benelux - the winners of the 15th edition of the InfraTech Innovation Awards were announced. Minister Mark Harbers of Infrastructure and Water Management presented the awards to construction company Max Bögl, engineering firm Antea Group and a partnership of government, business and education in the province of Gelderland.
Jury chairman Maxime Verhagen (Bouwend Nederland) praised the quality of the 64 entries. "Should the entrants be able to develop their innovation further they are going to make a big difference in both the Netherlands and Europe. Piece by piece, these innovations are making the world a little better. They aim for fewer emissions, better accessibility and a healthier world. They prove that things have to be different, but fortunately they can be different."
Minister Mark Harbers presented the Innovation Awards. He quoted Albert Einstein who once said that "logic gets you from A to B, but imagination can get you anywhere. And we need that imagination to shape the future we want and can live in. To keep our country livable, things must be done differently and smarter. The winners of these awards prove that it can be done."
Max Bögl won in the Product Innovation category with a modular viaduct. This viaduct consists of an abutment made of reinforced soil construction. The span consists of steel girders and cover plates made of cementless geopolymer concrete, which are ground to the nearest 0.1 mm, giving a seamless connection, waterproofing and eliminating the need to apply asphalt. The deck plates are tensioned with steel cable, making them easy to detach. The advantages of such a modular viaduct are the very short construction time, low-cost production due to series manufacturing, quick exchange of individual bridge elements and low maintenance costs.
Antea Group developed a way to design artworks using artificial intelligence, winning the innovation prize in the Poces innovation category. What means weeks of calculation for a structural engineer is only a matter of hours for an algorithm. Based on artificial intelligence (AI), Antea Group built a new generation of design tooling. The company developed a genetic algorithm for optimizing foundation designs under tunnel tours. By adding AI to parametric design, Antea is able to calculate thousands of variants within one day. In doing so, the computer uses AI to choose an increasingly better design that uses fewer and fewer raw materials, which is more sustainable and cheaper: the most optimal design. Meanwhile, Antea Group is working to make 'Genetic Designing' possible for other applications.
According to Antea, with Genetic Design "the revolution in engineering has begun. In a fraction of the time we can design leaner and thus more sustainable, minimize our consumption of raw materials and thus achieve minimal CO2 emissions. The already scarce knowledge in the infra is thus used more efficiently. In view of the climate, the replacement task and capacity shortages, these advantages are of enormous importance for the future of our society."
The Sustainable Fuel Chain is a collaboration of (semi-)government, business and education and is winner in the Sustainable Cooperation category. Within the cooperation, Waterschap Vallei en Veluwe together with Gashouders is realizing a filling station for biogas delivery to projects of construction company GMB in the region.
The first local fuel chain has been realized from the Renkum sewage treatment plant to a construction site nearby. This reduces emissions of CO₂, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter at both the sewage treatment plant and the construction site. Gashouders directs the chain, in which the excess biogas from the water board's treatment process is no longer flared, but collected by a Gashouders filling station. Here the biogas is converted to a zero impact fuel and delivered to regional projects of contractor GMB. Buse Gas B.V. is taking care of the development of containers for biogas storage and Koninklijke van Twist is supplying the gas engine for a hybrid aggregate, running on locally produced biogas. The HAN (University of Arnhem and Nijmegen) is conducting research into the positive environmental impact of the chain.
In December, 9 out of 64 entries were nominated. All nominees can be found here.
