ACCIONA INVESTS IN MACHINE LEARNING, FORTUNNEL CONSTRUCTION

FORECAST
The company partners with SAALG Geomechanics to predict natural ground movement during the execution of construction projects.

RIYADH, JULY 12TH, 2023. ACCIONA has become the lead investor of SAALG Geomechanics, a software and engineering startup that predicts natural ground movement during the entire construction cycle with a large volume of data.
ACCIONA, as a strategic partner, will allow SAALG Geomechanics to apply its Daarwin analysis software to the field of tunneling, in which ACCIONA has extensive experience, as it has a dozen tunnel-boring machines (TBMs) currently operating in different projects of high complexity around the globe.
The technology company has raised €3.65 million through an operation partially funded by the European Commission’s EIC Accelerator program, in a mixed model of capital investment and subsidies, with ACCIONA as the lead investor and Credit Andorrà as a financial supporter. SAALG Geomechanics aims to raise new capital to reach €5 million subsequently.

For ACCIONA, this bet on SAALG Geomechanics is a success story for its open innovation program called “I’MNOVATION”. Through this initiative, the company allows startups to collaborate on real projects by applying their innovative solutions for the progress of society and environmental protection. SAALG was one of the companies that decided to apply for the program. After a successful pilot project in direct collaboration with the business teams, ACCIONA has agreed to invest in it. This investment confirms the company’s commitment to innovation and the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

AUTONOMOUS TBMs
Tunnel-boring machines (TBMs) have emerged as the safest tunneling method in the context of technological advances in geotechnical engineering, improving working conditions inside tunnels and using ventilation systems, among other developments.

Over 30% of tunnel construction projects worldwide experience geotechnical difficulties that lead to cost overruns or delays, with an average additional cost reaching more than 55% of the original budget. The new functionalities of the Daarwin software, based on machine learning algorithms, make it possible to predict a TBM’s forward speed, detect geotechnical anomalies in advance, assist TBM pilots in optimizing tunneling phases, and gather information for use in future projects. The new functionalities of this solution, which represent a significant increase in safety, efficiency, and sustainability, are the first step towards the autonomous TBM.

ACCIONA has broken several world records with TBMs and has helped to place this machine at the center of tunnel engineering. The TBM used at the Dubai Metro Route 2020 that bored through the hard sand to connect the residential area of Discovery Gardens with the industrial area of Dubai Investment Park, completed the 3.2KM of the tunnel in a record seven months –with a maximum peak of 37m of advance in one single day–. This fact can show how amazingly efficient the work was performed.

Since its creation in 2016, SAALG Geomechanics has been involved in more than 50 civil engineering, large building, and mining projects worldwide: tunnels, extensive excavations, and roads in more than 15 countries. Since 2020, its Daarwin software has been used, for example, as a strategic innovation tool for the UK’s High-Speed Two (HS2) project, the largest European high-speed rail infrastructure project.