More intelligence in infrastructure

"The Dutch infrastructure is becoming more and more intelligent. Artworks, rail switches ... they will all be fitted with sensors that generate data from now on." Speaking is Robert Voûte of CGI. The internationally operating automation company supports organizations in the digitalization transition they need to make.

CGI is originally a Canadian ICT company and operates worldwide with nearly 80,000 employees across 400 offices in forty countries. CGI also has broad representation in the Netherlands with 2,500 employees in seven offices. "We are active in a large number of sectors and provide a full portfolio of ICT services. Specifically for the infrastructure sector, we work a lot on behalf of governments, the Kadaster, large infrastructure contractors, Rijkswaterstaat and ProRail."

Contract partner

"In the infrastructure sector, we are not the subject matter expert, but we are expert in the sense of knowing what is going on and how to build smart computer or automation systems on or around that," Voûte continues. He gives an example: "For Rijkswaterstaat, for example, we are a contract partner of the Areaal Informatie Rijkswaterstaat (AIR) program." ProRail has a similar program with SIGMA for the management of their assets, particularly the location of the railroad line. CGI is actively involved in that as well. "Track rods lie loose on the ballast bed," Voûte states. "They shift out of their original position and have to be pushed back to their original designed location over time. We built the system in which the line of rails is monitored. In doing so, we do not take the measurements ourselves, but process all the measurement data so that ProRail has insight into the status of the rails and what needs to be done to get them back into position." 

Platform edge height Rotterdam CS.

Naiade

SIGMA is not the only project that CGI is carrying out for ProRail. Voûte: "We are also closely involved in Naiade, a program in which the geographic and functional data of all spatial rail objects, such as a buffer, points, level crossing or overhead line, are kept in an integrated manner. Based on a standard software solution, we built a custom suite for and with ProRail that is slowly but surely transforming into a 3D solution. The subsurface, the bed of the track, the space 50 meters to the left and right of the track are also digitally measured and visualized in Naiade. Contractors performing work on or near the track also benefit from a single source of integrated data."

Digitizing

 Voûte believes the infrastructure sector is going to take another serious digitization step. "Based on sensor data, infrastructural works can be better maintained and deviations can be spotted earlier. This requires an awful lot of ICT to process all the data, control processes and so on. As CGI, we therefore notice that we are automating more and more operational processes in the infrastructure, whereby the underlying architecture of the software must be very robust. Mission critical is a core value for us in the infra and so is cyber security. The far-reaching automation must not lead to a malicious person being able to take over the control of a pumping station, for example." 

"Location- and time-based data are already inseparable from infrastructure, an importance that will increase," concluded Voûte.