Product Innovation of the Year

Alice Technologies and Implenia
Windworks infrastructure wind farm project

Jelsa is the largest quarry in Europe. It is being repurposed into a production facility to build concrete foundations for floating offshore wind farms.Implenia enlisted support from ALICE Technologies, the provider of the world’s first AI-powered construction optioneering software, to optimise its site layout, test specific constraints and find the best solution that can be easily repeated each year.The team found that planning was ten times faster than traditional methods. Through optimisation with ALICE, Implenia was able to boost foundation production levels by more than 40%.

Align JV
Align Kern Tunnel Services Dismantling Gantry

The Align C1 Tunnel Boring Machines have now completed the 16.1km Chiltern tunnels. The 32km of services used during the TBMs excavation require removing, while other works in the tunnel must continue simultaneously. With such an unusual length of services to be dismantled, Align, a joint venture including Bouygues Travaux Publics, Sir Robert McAlpine and Volker Fitzpatrick, has been working with KERN Tunneltechnik ltd to design a tunnel services dismantling gantry. This is a raised mobile platform designed to remove the ventilation duct, tunnel slurry pipes and associated brackets safely, ergonomically, and efficiently to handover the tunnel to new activities.

Brilliant Ideas
ALIMATS and Half-Loader Spreader Module

Fully load tested innovations, the patented ALIMATS® System and Half-Loader Spreader Module work in conjunction with each other to safely spread load under the crane outriggers. For the crane lift to be safe, the mat material has to be both stiff and strong. This is often critically overlooked within industry, posing real challenges, including potential catastrophic failure of lift. Manufactured from certified Aluminium via extrusion method, the truss profiles provide very stiff and strong modules. The innovations are backed by research, development and testing. Altrad, Kier, BAM, Balfour Beatty, Costain, ISG, Mace and Severfield use them across multiple sites.

Brilliant Ideas
Inflatable Safety Net Recovery System

Our innovation is an inflatable Safety Net Recovery System, and the question we’d like to pose, is: "If one of your colleagues fell injured or unconscious into a safety net – how would you rescue them"? Totally unique, the Recovery System is construction’s fastest way of recovering an operative who has fallen into netting but can’t get themselves out. Rescue, using this life-saving innovation, takes just 3-minutes. Available in two sizes, with recovery from a floor-to-floor height of around 2.5m, and 4.5m. Severfield and Millbank Concrete Products are our newest customers to see the benefits of this system on site.

Foresight
AI-enabled Construction Project Management for Major Projects

Foresight’s construction project management platform helps owners and contractors deliver major projects on-time and on-budget by automatically identifying priorities, risks, and action plans in Primavera P6 or Microsoft Project schedules. We place the schedule at the heart of project execution, enabling project managers, controllers and schedulers to make data-driven decisions. Leveraging AI, machine learning and natural language processing, Foresight unleashes predictive insights about delay risks and work prioritization. Our secure, scalable and user-friendly platform revolutionizes your planning and execution by creating proactive ‘look-ahead’ action plans, igniting dynamic collaboration, staying head of risks, learning from past projects, and enhancing schedule visibility/reporting.

Heathrow Airport
Cargo Tunnel Refurbishment Project – Installing low voltage busbar

During the design phase of Heathrow’s Cargo Tunnel Refurbishment Project, the Principal Designer was tasked with providing a resilient power supply to the tunnel systems, while adopting a Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) approach. The design team has collaborated with Heathrow’s technical leaders to design several busbar solutions for Heathrow Airport to replace traditional cabling and replace with low voltage (LV) busbar. This has resulted in many benefits within project, providing a stable supply, reducing the number of cables within the tunnel and switchboard requirements as well as providing cost and time benefits during installation.

Milwaukee Tool UK
MX Fuel Forge

MX FUEL™ FORGE™ provides all the power of corded and petrol-powered light equipment but also produces zero emissions. With the elimination of fumes and emissions, this new platform allows the user to improve their carbon footprint, as well as improving health and safety, as harmful fumes, noise and vibrations associated with the running of light equipment are eliminated. This increases productivity as it allows users to work indoors, trenches, tunnels or mines, without any petrol headaches. This new system saves the end user time with refueling and starting up but provides a cost saving on petrol consumption and engine maintenance.

Niftylift
HeightRider 15 Hydrogen-Electric (HR15 H₂E)

The HeightRider 15 Hydrogen-Electric (HR15 H₂E) is a low-weight, all-electric, 15m boom from Niftylift and the world's first MEWP to integrate Hydrogen fuel cell technology.This revolutionary innovation allows it to operate indefinitely with zero carbon emissions, even on construction sites where charging facilities are unavailable. It addresses the urgent demand in the construction industry for sustainable, high-efficiency work platforms while offering lower running costs, improved ease of use, and enhanced operator safety.By outperforming its competitors and delivering substantial environmental benefits, the HR15 H₂E is a testament to Niftylift's vision for a greener, more efficient future.

Panthera Group
EnviroHoard - net zero carbon hoarding solution – multiple projects

EnviroHoard™ is an innovative low carbon, closed loop solution to site hoarding and the UK’s first verified net zero carbon via Life Cycle Assessment to EN 15804:2019. Designed to save trees from being cut down for single use hoarding, it uses 100% recycled uPVC panels, part recycled galvanised steel framework and low carbon blocks. Since launch in 2021 it has helped to save an estimated 1,150.2 tonnes of CO2 - the equivalent of driving a diesel car around the world 17.2 times; saving 1,196 x 50–60-year-old trees from being cut down and a pledge to plant 3,824 trees.