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No, we are not talking about the sandwich. Sorry.

In our previous blog post, we approached the subway from a historical perspective, today we approach from above and dig deep underground to find out how subway tunnels and stations can be built.

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There are different ways to build a subway. If you do a round in Vienna and look at different lines, you will find that this is sometimes also visually noticeable. The U6, for example, begins in Siebenhirten in an elevated position, runs till Meidling station above ground and then in places underground, partly in a lower position and at street level, to end in Floridsdorf as it began: in an elevated position. The reason for this is the part of the U6 running alongside the so-called “Gürtel” Street. This part was originally part of the old urban railway planned by Otto Wagner.

But apart from a few stations that are very atypical above ground, a subway is basically intended for the underground (even though not a single one of the Vienna subway lines is purely underground). While the original idea was to create more space for cars above ground, the desire for climate-friendliness and quality of living dominates today.

Back to the topic – how is construction going on in Vienna?

Three different types of construction are used in the construction of the subway in Vienna.

On the one hand, there is the open construction method that leads us to the Wiener Stadtgraben (anyone who has read our last post knows that there once was a city moat in, or rather, around Vienna, that could be flooded if necessary). To put it simply, the open construction works the same way it was used hundreds of years ago to build this trench:

You dig a ditch – and put the subway inside (if, by a lucky coincidence, you don’t already have a finished trench, which we had). Think of the U6 station Burggasse: dig up, put the rails in, put the subway on and off you go. Optionally, this ditch can then be “covered” above – as is the case, for example, at Vienna’s Naschmarkt.

In the course of the current work on the U2 and U5 lines, station structures such as lift shafts, ventilation and emergency exits are being built using the open construction method.

For the construction of the station tunnels, on the one hand, conventional driving according to the New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM)  is used.

This type of propulsion uses blasting or excavators. The blasting (or dredging), the removal of the rubble, the securing takes place in a cyclical procedure – and then the process starts again.

The construction of the actual tunnel section takes place with the help of a tunnel boring machine.

In contrast to conventional tunneling, the so-called continuous / mechanical tunneling takes place continuously, as the tunnel boring machine carries out the drilling and removal of debris at the same time.

The tunnel boring machine that is currently being used for the construction of Wiener Linien is 50 meters long and 6.5 meters high – and therefore significantly larger than my apartment.A huge drill head is used for the excavations, from which the demolition material is removed and the tube is secured and removed in further steps.And that at a remarkable speed of around twelve meters a day.

Obstacles to overcome

Sounds fast, but in reality things are of course more complicated than simply digging a tunnel in the ground.

In addition to all the geological challenges that make an “open-air” tunnel project exciting, there are a few other challenges in urban subway construction. For example basements, canals and buildings above, or the planning of escalators (you can find Viennas longest escalator in the station Zippererstraße (U3), with a length of 53 meters – but from an international perspective that is almost laughable. The longest escalator in the world in the subway of St. Petersburg measures 137 meters).

Elevator shafts for barrier-free access also have headache potential for architects and planners. And last but not least there are always archaeological finds to consider. In Vienna for example you can visit the Virgil Chapel on Stephansplatz, which was discovered during the construction of the subway station (fun fact: apparently this could only be entered through a hatch in the ceiling).

There is another anecdote about the construction of the Stephansplatz underground station, which sums up the difficulty of such a construction project: During the construction phase, many sensors were used to detect problems early – bummer that these sensors all sounded the alarm when the sacristan dropped something heavy in the cathedral.

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The next stop on our trip with the subway takes us from topographical low points to architectural high points. In our next subway article we will devote ourselves to excavations and the sometimes very artistic design of the station buildings.

It has been sufficiently clarified by now that time is money. But: whose time and whose money are we talking about? If the client wants to have a tunnel built as quickly as possible for as little money as possible, but the contractor wants as much money as possible for as little effort as possible, this harbors potential for conflict. With the time and performance-based compensation model “StilfOs”, construction projects could be carried out more cost-effectively and productively for both parties, says Dr. Michael Werkl from BWI Consulting Industrial Engineers for Construction GmbH.

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I’ve never been a fan of group work. Bringing several ways of working and thinking under one roof is difficult enough, but when each group member also has a different goal (personally I belong to the group which strives to achieve a positive grade with as little effort as possible; but for some reason unknown to me every group always also has a member of the “I want 100 percent party” and the party “Now I get to say more than you during the presentation, that’s not fair”), it gets really complicated.

It is similar with construction projects. While the client wants to handle his project as cheaply as possible, the contractor wants to get the highest possible price for his service. “In this area of tension, a remuneration and contract model develops – mostly based on the client – that should balance the opposing interests of the two contracting parties as well as possible. The increasing number of disputes about remuneration issues in construction shows, however, that conventional models often cannot optimally regulate the exchange of performance and remuneration, ”says Dr. Werkl.

An alternative is needed

Instead, what the industry needs is an alternative that, in Werkl’s opinion, is ideally based on incentives rather than penalties. One such method is the StilfOs model. “The use of StilfOs is generally recommended when time-dependent remuneration elements make up a significant part of the service. This is particularly the case with special civil engineering work. Successful use on many injection construction sites has paid off for both parties to the contract. “

[Note: Simply put, time-dependent factors are things (people as well as device costs) for which an hourly or monthly rate is charged, so the longer they are needed, the more expensive they get.]

Zugegeben, der Name geht nicht unbedingt ins Ohr. StilfOs setzt sich zusammen aus Stilfontein Goldmine in der ehem. Provinz Transvaal in Südafrika und dem Oswaldibergtunnel in Kärnten, wo es in Österreich 1987 zum ersten Mal zum Einsatz kam. Wie wäre es stattdessen mit WSM (We Save Money)?  (Monetäre Einsparungen Für Alle)? Nett klingt auch mein persönlicher Favorit, ProST (produktiver Spezialtiefbau). Oder natürlich LoVe (Leistungsorientiertes Vergütungssystem)?

Admittedly, the name is not very catchy. StilfOs is made up of the Stilfontein gold mine in the former Transvaal province in South Africa and the Oswaldibergtunnel in Carinthia, where it was first used in Austria in 1987.

However, it is not due to the unusual name that the model has so far not been able to prevail over others, says Dr. Werkl. “In my opinion, the reason for this is the fact that the model was often explained in too complicated a way. Those who have used the model, however, all report advantages for both contractual partners, ”emphasizes Dr. Werkl, who already devoted his diploma thesis at the Technical University (TU) Graz to the subject.

Challenge accepted! We make StilfOs easy to understand and start with an explanation that also makes Die Sendung mit der Maus go pale with envy!

StilfOs explained

In order to explain the model as simply as possible, we have transferred it from special civil engineering to another area of life, namely a comparatively simple apartment renovation:

The usual approach would be for me to hire a builder to provide me with a flat-rate estimate, which I accept. The risk here is that the renovation work will be delayed or turns out to be more difficult than originally planned by him, and thus his hourly wage will decrease. As an alternative to a cost estimate, he could offer me an hourly rate. But then I, as the client, may have the problem that the builder delays the work due to his particularly slow way of working and the costs increase for me.

If, on the other hand, we were to design my renovation work according to the StilfOs principle, the costs would be divided into three points in a simplified manner:

1. 1.) Flat rate
   There is a basic flat rate that covers certain standard services once (for example planning, commissioning the various trades, delivering the materials to my apartment and the final cleaning – costs that can be calculated very easily.

2. 2.) Time-dependent factors such as equipment & personnel
   A certain hourly rate is generally charged for these. So far not unusual. However, the hourly rate charged is below the builder’s cost.
   For example, the builder himself pays 100 euros / hour for his floor layer, but he only bills me 70 euros. At first glance this is a loss for him.
   But of course the difference is not lost – because it is taken as a surcharge to the next invoice item, the Performance:

3. 3.) Performance
   The Performance includes all components such as the installed square meters of parquet and is only billed when a service is actually provided.
   So if the floor layer is not performing (because I did not care to provide electricity OR because the builder wasted time by exchanging holiday photos with him), there is no service either.
   As soon as the service is provided, i.e. the floor is laid, a fee per square meter PLUS the surcharge calculated by the time-dependent factors is due.

So I am very motivated to ensure that the construction site runs smoothly and to make the necessary decisions quickly – otherwise I will pay unnecessarily for time-dependent factors (point 2). The builder is just as interested in working productively, since he works for the purely time-dependent factors below his own cost – i.e. makes a loss if he cannot make up for this with the corresponding surcharge on the services (point 3).

Calculated using the example of the floor layer, the costs for the renovation could look as follows:

* This point is calculated from the installed amount of parquet (50m2) in combination with the levy (30 euros) -so 1,500 euros- PLUS the respective costs charged for working time to me by the client (i.e. 70 euros for variant 1, 350 euros for variant 2 and 700 euros for variant 3).

It is very easy to see: If the work takes longer, it becomes more expensive for everyone involved. The more productive you work, the better it is for everyone.

Easily built into unit price contracts

StilfOs can easily be implemented in a unit price contract as part of a tender. “The essential service items are singled out, with the allocation of the time-dependent portions in the selected amount then being made to these items. In turn, unit prices are billed, which have been modified accordingly by the allocation of the StilfOs model ”, says Dr. Werkl. The effort is “limited if you convert the time-related costs to the essential service items.”

No risk, much fun

Everything speaks in favor of StilfOs. So why is it still rarely used? This is where the human factor comes into play. “In practice, the assessment of risk is always only possible by taking probabilities into account (probabilities of occurrence), which is difficult for us humans,” says Dr. Werkl. The result are irrational decisions made on the basis of gut instinct.

What is the probability of getting into contact with a floor installer who does not realize that he is paying extra himself if he works unproductively? In reality it is very unlikely, but in the mind of the client (for example due to negative personal experiences) the probability it is much higher. The same applies to the craftsman, who may have had to deal with uncooperative customers on his last three construction sites, because of which he has a negative attitude towards the current client. With the StilfOs remuneration model, both parties are interested in productive work, because otherwise they both pay extra.

“When we surveyed risk awareness with regard to remuneration models, we found that many persons involved actually make irrational decisions when they make uncertain decisions. Dealing with the topic of probability is very difficult for many people and logical decisions are not always made, ”said Dr. Werkl. “Since the interests of alternative remuneration models such as StilfOs are brought into line, the overall risk for both contracting parties can be minimized.”

Together into the future

Basically it is the task of the two contractual partners to agree on the level of the levy and the resources to be jointly determined. However, the determination is only successful if the client also has technical and operational know-how, says Dr. Werkl. He is sure that a partnership approach not only in monetary matters will gain more and more importance in the future in the construction industry.

Our blog entry shows: In complex work, an alternative model is beneficial for everyone. Dr. Werkl has already been able to observe that the construction industry is moving in the direction of partnership-based project management.  Specifically, he attaches this development to the fact that, for example, the Austrian Construction Technology Association (ÖBV) published a guideline for alternative contract models in May 2021, in which the StilfOs model is also mentioned.

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If you want to know more about StilfOs, it is best to read Dr. Werkl’s article about this in the December 2020 issue of VÖBU magazine.

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About Dr. Michael Werkl:

Michael Werkl was already fascinated by the interface between technology and business during his studies at Graz University of Technology (industrial engineering – civil engineering). Like many others, he was seduced by the lectures of Professor Gert Stadler (who brought StilfOs to Austria and the Graz University of Technology …) to special civil engineering, where he was able to handle exciting projects in Europe with Insond / Züblin.

He was particularly interested in the topic of risk in special civil engineering, which ultimately led to him spending an additional four years with a corresponding dissertation at TU Graz to investigate how people deal with the assessment of probabilities and risks.

The entry into the construction industry consulting took place immediately afterwards and, after passing the examination to become an expert, led to the foundation of the BWI Beratende Wirtschaftsingenieure für Bauwesen GmbH, which he now leads as a managing partner. His focus is on the construction industry support of projects and expert work in international arbitration proceedings. Dr. Werkl is involved as an author of specialist publications and lectures on construction-related issues.

The passionate tennis player is married, has two children, lives and works – if not internationally – in Graz.

It is common knowledge that a lot of communication is lost online. Video conferences and phone calls can only partially replace a get-together in the real world. It was all the nicer for some of our eguanas to be able to spend two days at the Geofluid in Piacenza (September 15-16) in beautiful Italy. How did they fare at the first fair since Corona?

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For over 40 years, the Geofluid trade fair has been attracting stakeholders from the civil engineering industry to sunny Italy. Held in beautiful Piacenza, a small town in northern Italy that is known for its churches in the Lombard-Romanesque style, the fair has much more to offer than pizza, pasta and a picturesque setting. In 2018, more than 355 exhibitors and more than 11,000 visitors, almost 3,000 of them from abroad, gathered on an exhibition area of ​​32,000 square meters. Canceled last year due to corona, this year we were particularly looking forward to attending the industry get-together and being able to find out about innovations in special civil engineering.

The early bird catches the worm, and in order not to miss the flight to Milan, “the first thing to do was to catch the S-Bahn to the airport at 6:20 a.m. – not always my time”, says Peter.

Thanks to Michael, who is a very experienced traveller, it was then quick and easy to head for Milan, “where we then lost 1.5 hours to get to our rental car … The waiting time was used to take in first impressions of Italian coffee and to absorb it intensely Prepare the upcoming talks.” A 3G proof was requested at all stations of the trip and also checked by means of a QR code – uncomplicated and well organized, „but showing and keeping all invitations / tickets was a challenge for me!“, drew Peter résumé. He was able to experience firsthand the worklife of our not-yet-customers, who still have to work with paper. Unfortunately, SCALES is not yet available for all areas of life – but we are working on that 😉

Digitization and data management on the advance

Not only in terms of 3G proof, but also in terms of content, there was great interest in “digitization topics and data management in general”, says Michael. “It felt like a lot of non-Italians were at the fair, I heard that from other exhibitors too. So it is actually the industry get-together in Europe.”

Normally Geofluid takes place every two years, most recently in 2018 – we reported about it in a blog post back then. Due to Corona, however, it was postponed from 2020 to 2021. “The highlight of the fair for me: eguana was recognized – that means we were able to leave a lasting impression on our previous conversation partners!”

At the exhibition, manufacturers from all over Europe have the opportunity to present new devices and measurement techniques, digitization approaches and technologies. The focus lies on the specialization in drilling and underground construction, the exhibitors come from all areas of underground construction. Their activities include the exploration of the ground and the extraction of raw materials, special foundations, soil consolidation and various geological, geophysical and geotechnical investigations. Exhibits were technologies and equipment for the exploration, extraction and removal of subterranean fluids; machines and devices for surveying, special foundations and tunnel construction; and tools for monitoring and analysis.

Focus was on the exchange of visitors, from the company owner to the marketing manager to the consultant – a point that we as a data management company support, as cooperation is a pillar of our work. We also communicated at the trade fair that we stand for open data processing. “That was very well received,” says Michael happily: “You could tell that many companies are advocating openness and that proprietary solutions are increasingly a thing of the past.”

Quality time with the team

The last big meeting was two years ago – but apart from the mask requirement, not much has changed since 2019, says managing director Philipp. “There have been some exciting initiations for cooperation and in general the topic of digitization and data management in special civil engineering is much more present than it was a few years ago. A personal highlight for me was the time together with the team. From visiting the trade fair to jogging with Karl and Michael (although you have to say that Karl didn’t even break a sweat) to having dinner together and a beer or two. “

Spending time with the team was also the best experience for our miner Karl. “For me it was my first visit to the trade fair with eguana. As a person with an affinity for Italy i loved the fact that the “Geofluid” took place in Piacenza – espresso, cappuccino, pizza, dolce, … I of course knew the colleagues from the office and from the team events, but two days with an overnight stay allow again deeper insights.” He was able to observe a passion for fast cars and a general lack of orientation in one person (no, I’m not talking about me here), while another colleague made an impression as a master of buffet catering and a third one revealed a fetish for Chain drives.

Karl was also particularly impressed by “the range of drilling rigs – from small machines to real colossi. The very large machines in particular were new to me in terms of their dimensions. “

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On Thursday evening we finally went back to Vienna. “The long departure, caused by heavy rain, almost prepared you for home,” says Peter. And at the end there was still enough time to buy fridge magnets and chocolate for those who stayed at home in the duty free area. We don’t always have to be innovative pioneers 😉

Too much of a good thing? Can also happen with injections. If too much material is injected into a crack, the gap can tear even further. Together with the Graz University of Technology, we are trying to find out as part of the HYJACK research project when the point has been reached at which one should say: Okay, that’s it, period.

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Building a tunnel sounds pretty easy to the layman: Take a shovel and dig a hole in a mountain. Just like the Dalton brothers periodically did in the Lucky Luke comics to dig out of prison. Of course, things are not that simple, and if the Daltons had actually acted like this on their escape, the tunnel over their heads would probably have collapsed and Morris and Goscinny would have had to come up with new opponents for their cowboy.

For the mountain to remain stable during the tunnel construction, to keep it from collapsing and water from entering (also not a nice end for the four unequal-sized brothers), injections are used to fill the small torn areas.

Still too simple to be true?

It is. Because if too much material or too much pressure is used, the cracks are not only filled but on the contrary they are enlarged even further. This means that more resources are required, injection times are longer than they need to be and the construction work is being delayed.

But when is the point where you should stop injecting? Together with the Technical University (TU) Graz  we have been investigating precisely this question in a research project since June 2020. Our civil engineer and developer Cesare Schwabl paid a visit to Graz University of Technology in August to get an overview of the current state of affairs.

Point of no return

“We want to find out whether you can read from the measurement data when the point has been reached at which it is best to end the injection process,” he explains. We have been dealing with the topic for a number of years, and approaches to this were already presented at the Nordic Grouting Symposium 2019. On the part of the TU, the HYJACK project is accompanied by project manager Scott Kieffer from the Institute for Applied Geosciences and test manager Manfred Blümel from the Institute for Rock Mechanics and Tunneling.

“It is important for us to know the details of the data that we process and, above all, to understand it,” emphasizes eguana managing director Philipp Maroschek. “That is why we examine construction processes with our customers, partners and research institutions. As a result, we know the challenges our customers have to face and can help them and master their challenges together with them.”

Put simply, the HYJACK test setup consists of a stone cylinder that was cut into two. The upper half is pressed against the lower half with pressure. A cavity runs through the middle of the lower half. During the course of the experiment it is filled with water. If enough pressure is created in this way, the upper cylinder lifts slightly from the lower one despite the counterpressure. This point in time as well as the applied flow rate and pressure are precisely documented and analyzed with a series of sensors and thus provides information about when the injection should be interrupted.

Sustainably better

The test series will run until the end of 2021 – until then, further tests will be carried out and we will collect and analyze data. The aim of our joint research work is to develop an algorithm can detect the rupture of fissures during injection processes at an early stage and intervene to control them, instead of just correcting them afterwards, as is currently being done. In the future, civil engineering should be of higher quality and resources should be used more sustainably.

The time has finally come: the city of Vienna is getting its sixth underground line! It bears the number five – curious enough for a blog post, one might think, but there are so many more exciting things to write about the subway. Therefore, in the next few weeks we will be devoting a series to the sub-areas of the tube. We start with a brief history of the subway.

Once upon a time …

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A metropolis needs a subway, just like soup needs its salt. Whether that’s true or not is an open question. However, it is a fact that the world’s largest cities rely on the subway as a means of transport. Only two of the ten largest cities in the world have no metro network: Jakarta (the capital of Indonesia) and Karachi (the largest city in Pakistan).

 

The oldest underground network in the world, the London Underground, opened in 1863 and celebrates its 160th anniversary in two years. At that time, the tunnel route was still used by trains hauled by steam locomotives, but this was not copied internationally. The electric locomotive, which Siemens would finally present at the Berlin trade fair in 1879, was already too close to the breakthrough.

Apparently nothing stood in the way of the underground – but because underground construction was much more expensive and cumbersome than building a viaduct, the first routes of this type were practically elevated railways. It was to be more than a decade before the very first underground railway opened in London on November 4, 1890. That triggered a real boom. Cities around the world have followed London’s lead in hopes of solving their traffic problems.

Vienna is different

The plans to build a subway in Vienna are even older than the London Underground, dating back to the 1840s.

Some cities start a subway from below – but Vienna is known to be different and has first tackled the construction of the subway from a bird’s eye view. In (or originally: around) Vienna there was a moat for a long time. An exciting story in itself: it could be flooded if necessary, was used as a pasture area and for a short time even as a zoo.

But back tot he topic. As the city grew in size, it quickly became clear that a ditch in the middle was no longer in keeping with the times: the Turkish sieges were over, the city limits had long since shifted and Europe had stabilized – so what could be more obvious than filling it up. But in the course of these considerations, voices were raised as early as the middle of the 19th century that would have liked to see a tube for a “Vienna city railway” in the ditch. With real horsepower, of course …

But often planned is only half built, and with typical Viennese nonchalance, the project was first discussed in many facets and pushed back to the sidelines again and again. Instead, fifty years later, it was decided to build an above-ground, steam-powered light rail. These light rail lines are still partially preserved today. Today’s U4 and U6 are based on them. At the beginning of the 20th century, new plans were presented for the construction of a railway, this time running underground, but the beginning of the First World War and the subsequent economic crisis put an end to all considerations in this regard.

Brown lines

These plans were brought up again decades later by the National Socialists.

Austria was annexed to Germany in 1938, and for propaganda purposes Vienna, with a little cheating, became the “largest city of the Third Reich in terms of area”. By incorporating surrounding areas, Vienna received four additional districts, most of which were reversed after the end of the war and transferred to Lower Austria.

Hitler had big plans for the German Reich, especially for Berlin, his future world capital “Germania”. Everything should be bigger and better than ever before – including the subway. Another subway was also planned for Vienna. Again, however, it did not get beyond test drilling.

Step by step

After the end of the war, the underground caused conflicts between the Austrian parties. It was only when Munich began building an underground train in the 1960s that everyone gave in to the pressure of competition from Germany. Munich opened the first section of the route in October 1971, just in time for the start of the 1972 Summer Olympics. In Vienna it took until 1978 for the U1 to officially open.

The U2 was opened in 1980, the U6 in 1989 and the U3 in 1991. The network has been continuously expanded since then and today comprises 78.5 kilometers and 104 stations. The reason for the disorderly numbering is that the plans for the subways have existed for a long time, but the implementation of the construction projects could only be realized over time. This is also the case with the U5. Originally it should have led from Hernals over Schottenring to Stadion – the Schottenring-Stadium section has been taken over by the U2 in 2008. Often conceived, never worked out, no one really believed in the construction of the U5.

The end is nigh

Now it is actually to be built and will be the first driverless underground in Vienna to take the U5 route from Elterleinplatz to Karlsplatz and take over the route of the U2 line from the Rathaus station. At the same time, the U2 will be extended from Rathaus to Wienerberg. With a depth of 37 meters between Neubaugasse and Pilgramgasse it is going tob e the deepest subway in Vienna – at the moment it is still Altes Landgut at 31 meters.

(By the way: Wiener Linien have recently reached the necessary depth at Matzleinsdorfer Platz.)

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Today’s blog post thus ends with a topographical, but by no means personal, low point. At the next stop on our journey we will devote ourselves to the question of how to actually go about building a subway and what obstacles and methods there are.

A German proverb says „On the back of a horse, true happiness can be found.“ It should rather read ‘Unhappy horses lie under the ground’. One of these horses was disturbed in its last rest and brought to the surface by Hendrike Gramatke. eguana asked the construction manager at Stump-Franki Spezialtiefbau GmbH what else is hidden in the Berlin underground – and why she cannot get past beautiful gemstones despite the conscious decision to work in a male domain.

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Hendrike is currently working with jet grouting, DSV or HDI for short (high pressure injection) in Berlin in an injection team. In this process, a water-cement suspension is pumped into the ground at a very high pressure of around 350 bar. “Imagine this: 1bar is 10m water column, 1bar corresponds to the pressure of diving 10m deep,” explains Hendrike. “The suspension is injected into the ground with a rotating rod with one or more nozzles on the side,” while the injection is slowly pushed upwards, “which usually creates a cylinder-like body.” This strengthens the foundations and/ or limits the flow of water. If you string together many columns with an overcut, a DSV sole is created.

 

“First of all, we drill into the depth in which the base or column is to be produced. The path for the boom is cleared with relatively little pressure. When you encounter an obstacle, you don’t know whether it’s a stone or something else“ says Hendrike. You notice if an obstacle is particularly hard, but you cannot differentiate between similar materials. “At the final depth, we apply pressure. Suspension is then pumped into the ground at around 350 bar or more and all of the material in the corresponding area is rinsed out. “

A former boss once said to her: “Doctors and civil engineering specialists have one thing in common: their malpractice is buried underground.” But there are other things that lie underground, as Hendrike has realised several times.

Sticks and stones and bones

When rinsing, different things are pumped up, some of which have stuck in her mind. “At some point there was a thigh bone.” A return is normally not particularly exciting, a gray soup – the bone was noticeable just because of its shape. After a rinse with clear water it was obvious – a thigh! It was followed by a rib, the rib was followed by a pelvic bone. “There was a bit of excitement here,” recalls Hendrike.

The rib bones were followed by experts – they were not rinsed out, however, but informed about the find by the client. “They looked at the horse and dated it, but didn’t find it as interesting as the rest of us.”

Sometimes you come across material that cannot be pierced or rinsed out. If the obstacle is too hard, the drill breaks off – just like with DIY drilling in your own home when you hit a steel wall. When that happens, you try again a little further away. If that doesn’t work either, you change position again, but once again it wasn’t possible to drill any deeper. “At some point we noticed that the obstacle was spreading over a larger area, so we ame back with an excavator.” A slab came to light, and the whole thing turned out to be a bunker. In Berlin, where underground bunkers are not too unusual, “people from the Berlin Underworlds came by.” The association deals with the research and maintenance of underground facilities, organizes tours through bunkers, deals with war relics – “but they said that we could tear it away because it was  not interesting.“

“Unusual things like that are often found in excavation pits in the center of Berlin ” Hendrike puts into perspective. Sayings like „Have we found the amber room now?“ are plentiful. One regularly hears stories from colleagues about spectacular things that were found years ago.

Risk of confusion and explosion

As a former theater of war it is not uncommon to come across weapons in Berlin in addition to bunkers, Hendrike remembers the story of a colleague: “In Berlin, before any work in the ground can be done, a firefighter has to carry out an explosive ordnance survey.” In the special case the sounding did not yield any alarming results, so the surprise was great “when the excavator made the excavation and threw the earth on the truck. It looked very strange” – and turned out to be a bomb. As a result, the city and the S-Bahn were closed and the probability that the explosive device could go off was assessed, the type of bomb was determined, etc. “The bomb stayed on the truck and was driven to a place for old people Bombs. “

What – after a previous exploration of form and magnetic image  – looks like an ordnance does not always have to be one. In Hendrike’s case, potentially explosive devices have always turned out to be fire extinguishers. She has seen such finds three or four times. “In Berlin there are a lot of things that were simply buried by rubble due to the war,” says Hendrike. Fire extinguishers still worked with a different extinguishing agent in the 1940s (carbon tetrachloride was used until the 1950s, when it was discovered that it damages the nervous system and internal organs – and also helps to deplete the ozone layer), but they were already of a very similar form like today.

Well, well, well, what have we here?

Old wells are less exciting. “They go down into a certain depth and ensure that we cannot close our soles,” says Hendrike. But that is more annoying than spectacular. “We recently dug up an old battery, but unfortunately no diamond deposits yet. But what often happens and what you wouldn’t expect in Berlin: We often find amber. The biggest that was found was the size of a child’s head. “

Even though the amber is not washed to the surface in a beautiful, bright orange color, it is still easily recognizable to the trained eye, says Hendrike. The fossilized tree resin always occurs in relation with coal, which is foundin the Berlin underground. Highly drilled coal is easy to identify due to its black color and fibrous structure. As soon as they spot coal, „the boys are more attentive.”

Fop or stop

When Hendrike is informed that a bomb has been found, her first question is “mostly whether it’s true or whether you’re kidding me – someone will try that all the time, we all have fun at work after all.” Once the authenticity of a bomb has been confirmed, it is clarified where the find was made and who has already been informed, so that Hendrike can take the necessary steps and contact the responsible authorities.

Depending on how big the find is and where it is located on the construction site, you can either continue working elsewhere or the construction process will be stopped – until the respective authorities have finished their investigations. “It always depends on how the authorities react. If the find catches their interest and they let archaeologists come to see it, then it will take time. “

In the case of projects that initially require an okay from city policy to begin with, everyone usually wants it to be built and completed as quickly as possible afterwards. “Nobody wants it to drag on forever.” If you can’t work, but staff and equipment still have to be paid, you can work out how long you can afford a construction freeze, says Hendrike, who is currently looking after a construction pit for a sole of around 6,500 square meters.

Quite a lot of underground in which to find hidden treasures.

We keep our fingers crossed that it will be the Amber Room!

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Dear Hendrike, thank you for your time and expertise – and above all your patience. It’s exciting to see what comes to light during a conversation about DSV in Berlin. Bunkers, bombs and bones, I really didn’t expect that.

About Hendrike Gramatke:

Hendrike Gramatke was born in Lower Saxony, but has lived in Berlin ever since she began her dual studies more than ten years ago. The now 32-year-old went straight to civil engineering after completing her degree in civil engineering. At that time she made a conscious decision to work in a classic male domain. Her love for jeans and sneakers instead of skirts and high heels has paid off, as those would probably not be pracitcal on the construction site.

Scientific information is often difficult to understand, full of technical terms and and complicated formulas. We have talked to civil engineer Jan Onne Backhaus about evolutionary algorithms for our current article in a way that everyone – from geneticists to computer scientists to elementary school children – can understand it. Promise.

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When the Queen of Hearts said to little Alice “In this country you have to run as fast as you can if you want to stay in the same place”, she wasn’t thinking of evolution – but author Lewis Caroll was. In 1973 Biologist Leigh Van Valen ultimately created an evolutionary biological theory from the  statement, according to which organisms are in a constant “arms race” with one another. It is time for the construction industry to move with the times as well, thought Onne and developed an algorithm that creates more efficient processes and more precise forecasts for the construction sector.

Evolution is actually quite simply explained a development, the change of characteristics of a population over the course of generations, where, in the optimal case, they get better and better through selection, recombination and mutation. The principle is mostly understood in a biological sense, but can also be applied to other areas, e.g. the construction site. “Evolutionary algorithms are about solving a problem the way evolution does it,” explains Onne using an easy-to-understand example: “Assuming that a dog breeder would want to breed dogs with very long legs. Then you would choose from the dogs you have those who already have very long legs and cross them with one another. From the puppies of this parent generation, the next step would be to select those individuals who have the longest legs and cross them again. “

“The process approaches the optimal solution with an increasing number of iterations. It is important to understand that in the end we usually get very good solutions, but often they are not optimal solutions in the mathematical sense. In civil engineering, however, they often don’t have to be. It is usually enough if they are almost optimal”, emphasizes Onne.

Game, set, victory

One technique that is used again and again in construction is the so-called Monte Carlo simulation, named after the infamous casinos of Monaco. The method was developed in the 1940s by scientist Stanislaw Ulam, who got the idea while playing a round of solitaires and wondering what the odds of a successful Canfield solitaire (a casino game with very low odds) at 52 Cards were. “After spending a lot of time trying to estimate them by pure combinatorial calculations, I wondered whether a more practical method than “abstract thinking” might not be to lay it out say one hundred times and simply observe and count the number of successful plays. This was already possible to envisage with the beginning of the new era of fast computers”, Ulam is quoted in” Stan Ulam, John von Neumann, and the Monte Carlo method “(Eckhardt, Roger (1987)).

This technique solves problems that cannot be solved analytically or only with a very large expenditure of time, with a large number of random experiments. “Assuming we have a construction site,” Onne gives another example, “where a lot of different activities are carried out. However, these activities or processes do not always take the same length. Sometimes it rains and a task takes longer, other times the team is very motivated and the construction process is shortened. These processes are often very interdependent. For example, the roof of a hall can only be built when the walls are already in place. This makes it very difficult to estimate the average expected total construction time, even if you know the stochastic distribution of the individual processes. This is where the Monte Carlo simulation comes into play. As part of the simulation, we calculate a large number of total construction times, whereby in each run we draw the random duration of each individual process from a set of possible process times. The result is then a large number of theoretically possible total construction times. With the Monte Carlo simulation, we assume that such total construction times, which we have calculated very often, will also be realized with an increased probability. In order to calculate the expected, mean total construction time, we only have to calculate the mean value of the calculated solutions. “

From theory to practice

Testing these theoretical considerations in practice is not that easy, says Onne. For the simulation, input data has to be collected and digitized. “So it is necessary to either collect it yourself or to find someone who is already doing this – and is also willing to share their data. In my very specific case, I was lucky enough to run into a Renesco GmbH project manager, Sewerin Sabew, at a conference. He told me about his injection project in the Feuerbach tunnel and the collaboration with eguana. “

As part of the Stuttgart 21 construction project, a two-tube tunnel leads from Stuttgart’s main train station to the Feuerbach train station. The tunnel is partially located in the anhydrite-bearing mountains, which made several thousand sealing injections necessary to prevent water ingress. For everyone of these injections, eguana collected process parameters such as flow rate and pressure via SCALES and automatically derived the corresponding manufacturing and secondary processes. Together with various metadata, these were daily made available to Onne in a corresponding format in a separate cloud. “All in all, it was documented down to the second what each pump had done for every second of the project.” It was clear to Onne that a real treasure trove of data had been recovered, and he immediately set about utilizing the potential of the digitized data.

“First of all, I programmed a model that is able to predict the construction times and construction costs of the more than 300,000 injections. The model works with statistical distributions for the duration of the individual processes (injecting, relocating the pumps, etc.) and also takes maintenance cycles and downtimes into account, for example due to technical problems.” An extended version of the model even takes into account the geometry of the two-tube tunnel one – for example, the injection units could get in each other’s way in the narrowness of the tunnel.

More accurate than the construction schedule

Onne’s model was then compared with the real construction site data to determine whether the prediction was correct and the model provided the right results. “It was really exciting for the site managers,” said Onne, delighted about the response that his work had received. “Until then, they mainly used the data to document the many thousands of boreholes, to ensure their quality and roughly extrapolate construction progress into the future.” To formulate statements about the future (“With a probability of 95 percent we are done on day X and that costs us Y euros ”) was not yet possible.

“After the model delivered good results, we started optimizing. A big question was what the optimal number of machines and their optimal period of use would be with a view to the total construction time and construction costs. This is where the evolutionary algorithm and the Monte Carlo simulation came into play. ”With his model, Onne was able to show that the number of machines was well chosen, but that there were still a few among the millions of hidden parameter combinations that “ the project result would have further improved. Finding these solutions without simulation would have been next to impossible.”

It was too late for the Feuerbach construction site. But the gain in knowledge of what can be salvaged from data treasures and what more flexible models allow in calculation and construction contract can be an asset for future projects.

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Our thanks for today’s blog post go to Jan Onne Backhaus on the one hand for his expertise and his ability to put the most complicated processes into simple words – on the other hand, our thanks also go to Ella, his short-legged dog lady, who made the search for descriptive examples so easy!

About Jan Onne Backhaus:

Born in Hanover, Onne loves culture clash – maybe one of the reasons why he spent a semester abroad in Vienna in 2004? The civil engineer, MBA and doctoral candidate from the Technical University of Hamburg not only likes to expand his horizons in geographical terms, but also in cultural terms, which is why he likes to attend Spanish courses in his free time, meditate or win prizes at the International Toastmasters (which, admittedly, has got nothing to do with slices of toasted white bread but is the name of an NPO promoting the art of public speaking).

As a senior consultant at Drees and Sommer, he has recently been optimizing construction sites with lean construction – another of his heartfelt topics.

About Ella: 

When she’s not chilling on the sofa, she prefers to spend her free time in nature. Excavators are one of her greatest passions.

No, there are no canaries in the center on the mountain (ZaB, www.tunnellinghub.com) – there is no Balrog either. However, attentive miners can encounter foxes and snakes, explains Robert Wenighofer, research assistant at the Chair for Subsurface Engineering at the Montan University Leoben. Together with university professor Robert Galler he took us on an mental tour of the ZaB, a realistic, true-to-scale research and training facility. Due to the corona, there was no possibility of an official opening, but research, teaching and learning are already taking place deep underground in the middle of the Eisenerz Alps – and practice-oriented training is being raised to a new level.

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Zentrum am Berg (ZaB) – a research, development and seminar center for the construction and operation of underground facilities

Underground systems are essential components in the transport and energy infrastructure sector. Tunnels help handling inner-city and supraregional traffic and ensure security of supply. At the same time, they represent a cornerstone on which future successful economic development will be built. The shift of traffic and supply to underground infrastructure (which is visible everywhere) makes tunneling a major economic driver. The relocation brings major challenges for the construction, transport and energy companies with it, but also for the emergency organizations with regard to production and maintenance as well as warranty of the safety for their users.

However, there is no underground facility for research, development, instruction and training purposes for the further development of private companies and the relevant universities. The devastating tunnel fires around the turn of the millennium in particular demonstrated the need for much more interdisciplinary cooperation in order to master them. This fueled the efforts at the Chair of Subsurface Engineering at the Montanuniversität Leoben to develop a test center that allows research and training in safety issues on a 1:1 scale. Studies on a mere laboratory scale are of limited informative value and a realistic research environment produces more realistic research results.

The Styrian Erzberg was mined underground until the 1980s, leaving many floors with old cavities and tunnels. One of these floors is ‘Dreikönig’, where the Zentrum am Berg (which translates into ‚centre on the mountain‘), the research, development and seminar center of the Montan University Leoben for the construction and operation of underground facilities, is located (Figure 1).

For the students oft he Montanuniversität, practice has always played an important role, even before the ZaB. Part of their studies was characterized by laboratory components; practical experience was collected in the professional environment of relevant companies. The possibility of a test center with realistic dimensions, however, takes practice to a completely new level, says Robert Wenighofer from the Chair of Subsurface Engineering, describing the project.

The Dreikönig floor is characterized by a very distinctive underground network of old tunnels and easy accessibility away from the mining operations of VA-Erzberg GmbH, which offered advantages over other underground mines located in Austria and led to this choice of location in the late 2000s. With the development of the idea (2006) the way led via a feasibility study, the planning and official procedures to the construction in the years 2016 to 2020. The teaching during the construction period succeeded by involving the students of the chair for subsurface engineering at the Montanuniversität Leoben in the construction operation.

However, the employment of student staff already took place in the planning phase before the tendering of the building project, so that a balance of tasks between the planner and the client of the project could be found that was conducive to the training of the students. The young colleagues experienced a currentless environment in complete darkness and tunnels not secured by retainings. As a result of thunderstorms falling outside, increased humidity and cold in the tunnels, they were periodically fogged and partly broken in the periphery. There are still sections of “currentless environment in complete darkness” in the ZaB; according to Wenighofer, these are suitable as  “zero connectivity environment for underground training of security forces or armed forces.” The idea behind that is preparation for smoke as well as power and ventilation failures in case of underground attacks. The trainings “enable exercises under the influence of an area where sound and electromagnetic radiation (radio signals, communication, etc.) are subject to strong attenuation. In this environment one is confronted with different sensory perceptions than in the open field. “

Tunnel fire tests, excursions, seminars and courses (such as courses for blasts and shotcrete operator courses) were already held during the construction phase, and modern, non-contact measurement methods such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Fotogrammetrie were integrated into the construction process. After the end of the construction phase, it was now possible to continue the tunneling work by means of tests with construction equipment and training for miners. A major planned expansion of the underground facility is a subway station that is to be used for underground safety training.

Miners and security forces predominate in the training courses at the ZaB. The center is not used for cave exploration, as this takes place in unsupported cavities. “At the ZaB, the issue of safety is predominant in underground construction and in the operation of underground facilities”, says Wenighofer. “As a safe and extremely flexible construction method, the construction of NATM (New Austrian Tunneling Method) prevents collapses or fractures, as we call it. Thanks to advance exploration and route selection, no unexpected voids have occurred so far. “

A day underground

According to Wenighofer, there is no typical workflow: “Overall, the working days are quite different. Sometimes manholes are torn open in order to insert sample carriers for pipe materials from tunnel drainages and to measure pH values. Sometimes there are tours of a wide variety of university and non-university subjects. Sometimes fire tests take place with e-cars, explosions, smoke, fan tests, geotechnical monitoring measurements, etc. ” What does not exist, however, is the typical canary that warns of gas in the mountain – instead there was “ a construction site fox with its prints still visible in the concrete in the tunnel. Another time, during th construction phase, there was a snake.”

It takes a little less than an hour to get from the university to the ZaB – too long to stop by for a quick visit, but short enough for a “day trip”. Wenighofer has not yet found his personal favorite place, “the system is too new for that”, but “the fire tests with e-vehicles have been the most exciting so far.” Wenighofers most shaping insight during the preliminary exploration for the route planning and the construction phase was that “other professions such as geology and geophysics have much more confidence in the strength of bonds in a rock that has not been provided with retainings than I do.”

Sustainability aspects also play a role underground. Recycling of excavated material is becoming more and more important, and “energy research on underground storage media such as compressed air and water is also a mainstay of the scientific world of the ZaB.”

ZaB provides a remedy

In short, the ZaB provides a remedy for daytime research, which is suffering from the urgent high availability of tunnels, by providing several hundred meters of representative environment in the form of underground infrastructure for various modes of transport road tunnels (2-lane) and railway tunnels as well as the existing tunnels of the Erzberg (Figure 2) and for in-situ tests. Construction measures to date include the construction of the pre-cut railway tunnel (Figure 1) in summer 2016, the establishment of operating buildings for training and ventilation purposes, and the main driving of railway and road tunnels (September 2017 to May 2020).

With the implementation of this forward-looking project, Austria gains a unique selling point of use for all of Central Europe. With this project, Austria is signaling a forward strategy that will achieve positive effects for the business and science sectors, opening up a wide range of possible uses that combine research and development from a wide variety of disciplines.

Wenighofer is certain that the future will be shaped by more underground infrastructure for mobility purposes, which is why he would like the ZaB to see more of the security forces exercising underground hazards (as can be seen in Figure 3) and thus “safety facilities in underground systems (fire extinguishing / breakdown niches in road tunnels, subway) for everyday road users could lose the nimbus of strangeness/untouchability. “

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Many thanks to our guest authors Univ. Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.mont. Robert Galler and DI Robert Wenighofer from the Chair of Subsurface Engineering at the Montanuniversität Leoben for the exciting contribution!

 

 

“Wherever he saw a hole he always wanted to know the depth of it. To him this was important. ”

The path of Thorsten Kratz might not lead all the way to the center of the earth, but nevertheless into unknown depths. In the best manner of science-fiction-prophet Jules Verne, the civil engineer and project manager at Thyssen Schachtbau GmbH, sets out to explore the subsoil – with exploratory drilling.

The aim of these drills is to collect drill cores or cuttings to gain knowledge about the location, thickness and mineral content. On the basis of those informations, decisions about the dismantling and the dismantling process can then be made. In tunneling construction, exploratory drilling is also about obtaining information about tectonic fault zones, mountain sections carrying mountain water and the like.

At shallow depths of up to 100 meters, drilling core extraction with single core tubes and double core tubes is still relatively easy. In this process, the drill core is recovered by removing the drill string. At depths of up to 2,000 meters, the so-called cable core process is used, in which the drill rod plays a protective role while the inner core tube is recovered using a cable winch. The drill cores that are recovered are between 26 and 102 millimeters thick.

We asked Thorsten Kratz how such exploration wells work, talked about exciting projects and obstacles and took a look into the future.

Curtain up for the contemporary Professor Lidenbrock!

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eguana: What differentiates you and your drilling from the competition?

Thorsten Kratz: The complexity of a drill results from its destination and the given framework conditions.

Challenging goals and framework conditions are, for example:

*) Drilling depth> 100 m –> Powerful drilling rigs

*) Water or gas carrying –> Complex borehole closure device (preventer)

*) instable Borehole –> Casing or cementation program

*) drilling accuracy –> deflected or controlled drilling

*) underground drilling site –> little space, limited infrastructure, explosion protection

*) drilling direction horizontal –> no supporting effect of the flush

*) Drilling fluid –> Mud fluid (water / air) + additives

As soon as one or more of the points mentioned above apply within the project requirement, special drilling equipment and personnel are required in order to be able to carry out the drilling at all. Thyssen Schachtbau GmbH carries out a large number of these highly specialized drilling projects. To name a few:

*) Horizontal, deflected core drilling in potash and rock salt mining under preventer protection (gas) with drilling depths of up to 2,500 m

*) Oriented core drilling in rock salt with air flushing up to 450 m

*) Horizontal exploratory drilling under prevention protection (water up to 100 bar) in tunnel construction with drilling depths of up to 300 m.

*) Erosion-resistant overburden boreholes up to 150 m

*) Vertical, controlled core drilling with drilling depths of up to 1,200 m for the exploration of deposits or locations of future mine shafts

*) Vertical and horizontal controlled freeze drilling down to depths of approx. 800 m for carrying out ground freezing

*) Inclined, controlled large hole bores with a diameter of> 300 mm and drilling depths of up to 800 m as pilot bores for raise bores.

Every time I want to screw something to the wall at home, I am sure to choose a spot where drilling is impossible. To make things really frustrating, this usually happens at the second hole, making my wall look like a slice of emmental cheese. How is it with large-scale drilling? Does it also happen that you have already made it halfway and then come across an impenetrable layer of rock? Or do you get through everything?

It would be nice, but certainly a lie, to say that we can drill through any rock or mountain. Every drilling process is subject to device-related or process-related application limits. In difficult conditions, the basis of a successful drilling is good planning and work preparation as well as experienced drilling staff.

However, the past shows that even then a drilling can fail.

For example, we were unable to drill through a large fault zone with the contractually required core drilling process, since, due to a lack of borehole stability, no irrigation circulation came about and the drill string subsequently got stuck. In this special case, changing the drilling method to an overlay drilling, in which the casing is carried directly with the drilling process, was the solution.

 

If we were in Hollywood, such an exploratory drilling would be sure to trigger an exciting catastrophe: starting with a simple gas leak and releasing primeval killer bacteria to reversing the earth’s rotation (presumably because the drill touches an acupuncture point in the earth’s crust unfavorably ). What is the reality like – are there reasonable scenarios to be “feared”?

The risk of a borehole damage is particularly given when drilling against high water or gas pressure. The term Borehole damage means that the medium flowing into the borehole flows out of the borehole in an uncontrolled manner. To prevent such situations, we work with so-called “borehole closure devices” or preventers, as they are basically known from the oil industry. Depending on the application, the modular structure of such preventers enables drilling with water ingress of up to 200 bar pressure. In the event of an incident, the drill string can be cut in seconds with a so-called shear preventer, thus closing the borehole completely. This type of preventer cannot be compared with the annular space preventer and spade gate valves used in the construction industry.

As with water inflows, drilling in gas-bearing rock requires technical adaptations: On the one hand, a preventer is usually also used, which can, if necessary, lock the gas inflow in the borehole. It is also necessary to carry out electrical and electronic system parts (drive, sensors, etc.) with explosion protection.

 

Have you ever come across a completely unexpected drill core? Do you sometimes find really exciting things? A small diamond deposit?

We have already carried out exploratory drilling for a mining company in an open-cast diamond mine in Botswana, but unfortunately we were not able to recover any high-carat diamonds from the kimberlite vent with the drill cores that were extracted.

Basically, it is in the nature of things that unpredicted geologies are encountered during exploratory drilling. It’s rarely spectacular, but often technically challenging, which is what makes the work so exciting.

Does the hole stay open at the end? Is it very tempting to drop a stone and listen to when it hits?

If further use of the borehole is planned, piping is usually installed after the borehole has been completed. If this is not the case, boreholes are often filled with cement and thus sealed.

What kind of projects do you have going on in this regard? Exciting completed projects or interesting findings?

In the area of ​​exploration wells, my focus is on our project on the Semmering Base Tunnel, construction lot 1.1. The difficult geology is quite a challenge, and not only from a drilling point of view. It repeatedly calls for creative solutions.

Another exciting project, which unfortunately will probably soon be interrupted indefinitely, is the Brenner Base Tunnel. Here, exploratory boreholes are sunk out of the exploratory tunnel in the direction of advance. Water pressures of over 100 bar are forecast, which require the use of special prevention technology.

In Serbia we recently drilled raise bores into a limestone quarry. The shafts with a diameter of 3.50 m and a depth of approx. 120 m serve as rubble shafts for the quarry and primarily reduce wheel-based transport, which, above a certain distance, brings economic and emission disadvantages with it. In addition to technical challenges (e.g. in relation to the lack of stability of the mountains) the issues relating to logistics, mining permits and material supply in a non-EU country with a remote project location could be mastered.

A look into the future – what will things look in five years?

As far as drilling technology is concerned, no technically significant leaps in development are to be expected in the coming years. Rather, the focus will be on using the drilling data that are already frequently recorded and contractually required. The basis lies in an efficient as possible digital drilling data management, which houses some optimization potential. The digitization of the drilling data reduces the documentation effort and increases the quality of the data at the same time. The transparency and usability of the data enable the identification of problem areas, the analysis of performance and consumption quantities and thus form the basis for calculation, controlling and construction site management in general. In further steps it is possible to define process assignments based on the drilling data, visualize processes accordingly and automatically generate measurement and accounting sheets for the customer.

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“Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real,” Jules Verne once wrote. We have not yet made it all the way to the centre of the earth, but coming as far as Thorsten has, was nothing more but a distant dream during Vernes lifetime. At the end of the 1970s, the to date deepest borhole in the world penetrated to depths of over 12 kilometers, and yet only scratched the earth’s crust. Around 6,000 kilometers are missing to the actual center of the earth – but who knows what the future will bring. Perhaps the science fiction prophet, who dreamed of submarines as early as the mid-19th century, will be right with a trip to the center of the earth.

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About Thorsten Kratz:

Like Professor Lidenbrock, Thorsten Kratz comes from Germany. The mining engineering graduate worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Mining Studies I at RWTH Aachen University in the research field of conventional shaft sinking during his doctorate. After completing his doctorate, he moved on to work for Thyssen Schachtbau GmbH, where he is now working as a project manager in the Alpine and Balkan region for infrastructure and mining projects with a focus on tunnel and shaft construction, raise-boring, exploration drilling and injection technology. His main project is the Semmering Base Tunnel, construction lot 1.1, which he has been involved in since the beginning as a member of the technical management.

Just as the Good Witch of the North needs her Munchkins and supervilllain Gru can’t work without his Minions, we at eguana sometimes need a little help from our friends, namely our widgets. They support and beautify eguana SCALES. Find out all about what widgets actually are and what our special widgets can do in this blog post.

Just like cookies, widgets are familiar to most people by name only: They know the words and can roughly put them in the drawer that also contains terms such as HTML and XY *. If you consult Wikipedia, a widget is a ” software application or component made for one or more different software platforms”. The term itself is made up of the two words “window” and “gadget” (freely translated a technical gimmick – we remember Inspector Gadget from the television series of the same name). The widget literally opens windows into deeper data structures through simple entries – that is, they only work as part of a system or an app, and not as independent structures. They have a visually appealing appearance and can mostly be found in overviews or (as with us) on dashboards.

It has always been our goal to develop a dashboard (which is a kind of display board) with useful widgets and important key figures. To do this, we first needed a corresponding database on which we could base the performance indicators and thus the meaningfulness of the widgets.

Window to the soul of the construction site

Our project manager Michael Ouschan remembers: “We started with the dashboard in 2018. At that time there was essentially a single widget: namely a link to process management in order to be able to display pie charts of different machines and compare their use. It wasn’t until 2019 that we really expanded the dashboard and invested a lot of time in internal development. On the one hand, new widgets have been added, on the other hand, new functions, for example the option to arrange the windows on the dashboard variably, or the option of clicking back in previous periods in some widgets in a timeline and thus being able to view the construction progress from start to finish. “

Ten such widgets are now available in the eguana SCALES dashboard, which each user can arrange as they see fit. For example, for keeping an overview of the machine use and its efficiency, for viewing trade-specific key performance indicators (KPIs) in real time, for keeping an overview of the withdrawal quantity for water retention, various statistics and forecasts including Monte Carlo simulation, productivity or degree of completion of the construction sites, or for keeping an overview to easily inform about the weather on the construction site.

The little guys are responsible for different things. The widget that is probably the easiest to explain is the weather display. It is useful for both everyday life and leisure, including daily construction reports. With our widget, the current weather conditions of the construction site, place of residence or the next holiday destination can be set very easily via GPS data and arranged directly next to the other construction site values.

Michael’s personal favorite is the “degree of completion” widget: It shows the percentage of the construction sites completion. User and project manager alike enjoy watching the number grow and seeing how many of the planned jobs have already been completed.

The performance overview of material consumption and current progress can also be seen at a glance through our widgets. Daily, weekly, monthly and total values, whether on departure, from the headquarters or directly in the construction container on the construction site: Browser on, SCALES in and dashboard bäm! It couldn’t be easier.

Sometimes more is more

It doesn’t stop with these widgets. “We now have a good foundation, but new widgets are constantly being added,” says Michael. And for them, in turn, the opportunity to present new performance indicators.

“So that we know in which direction our developments should go, we are particularly dependent on feedback from our partners and customers,” is Michael’s direct appeal to customers. We were able to derive many possibilities for future improvements, for example in the context of our “Lessons Learned” workshop. Because, as always, it counts to develop and offer things that are actually needed in the construction. And who is closer to construction than our customers themselves?

In order to be always up to date with regard to new widgets and their functions, our customers are informed directly by us by means of release notes in SCALES. When it comes to particularly cool features, we also like to call our customers or proudly show them off during training.

The current database is decisive for the widgets in the dashboard – the windows are therefore live. This can sometimes be forgotten in the heat of the moment. If the customer, the technical support and the developer all scratch their heads and don’t understand why the numbers have changed overnight … then you know it’s time for the weekend!

* Insert anything you want – the author doesn’t know it anyway

 

 

Cover picture: No-longer-here, Pixabay