OHLA announces the 2022 Technological Innovation Awards
January 13, 2023
OHLA has announced, in a ceremony attended by its CEO, José Antonio Fernández Gallar, the names of the winning employees of the 2022 Technological Innovation Awards, focused in this edition on innovations and proprietary developments in the field of construction and services.
The company has awarded prizes in three categories: Best Technological Innovation on Construction Site, Best Technological Innovation in Service and Best Digital Innovation in Internal Process to proposals submitted by employees of its Construction subsidiaries and its Services area of activity. All of them are being implemented in Spain and the United States by the company and represent, in some cases, important innovations for the sector.
In the Construction area, the winning project presents a very significant advance in the field of bituminous mixes for roads thanks to the use of recycled material from the milling of bituminous mixes in wearing courses. This is a novel technology in Spain and of great value, since every year, in about 70% of the country’s asphalting works, the wearing courses are treated (more than 12 million tons of material are used for this purpose).
With regard to advances in the field of Services, the award-winning initiative, COORDINAL, is a differential platform within the integrated management of green areas, and joins others already launched in this division, such as VERA, a virtual social center, focused on the social and health care sector.
This is complemented by the achievements in process efficiency through digital tools, also developed in-house, such as the integrated fuel management of machinery and fleet, which the company will be able to extend to all its markets.
Winning projects
The Best Technological Innovation on Construction Site went to the pavement technology team of Elsan, an OHLA subsidiary specializing in asphalt and construction, for the use of recycled material from the milling of bituminous mixtures in wearing courses.
The jury, made up of part of the company’s management team, recognized the technological level of the initiative, which is new in Spain, and the impact it could have on the positioning of Elsan itself and the OHLA Group in the field construction and maintenance of roads. The project has made it possible to develop an innovative material that boosts the circular economy, promotes savings on construction site and has a significant impact considering that, in Spain, about 70% of asphalting works are carried out each year on the wearing courses (more than 12 million tons of material are used for this purpose).
In the Best Technological Innovation in Service category, the award went to COORDINAL: Gestión Integral de Zonas Verdes (COORDINAL: Integral Management of Green Areas), for the GIS technology platform for the integrated management of urban services in green areas developed and implemented within the Albacete Green Areas Service provided by Ingesan, the leading subsidiary of OHLA’s Services division.
The jury valued the level of integrated management and customization that this proprietary development allows compared to other market solutions, as well as its potential for scalability and even commercialization.
The Best Digital Innovation in Internal Process went to the initiative Total Fuel Management Solution for Machinery and Fleet. This is a self-developed methodology, implemented in Florida (USA) as the first location, which allows for comprehensive and efficient management of all aspects related to fuel management of machinery and fleet. The jury highlights the advantages demonstrated and the exportability of this solution that combines proprietary processes and various digital technologies to exceed the functionalities of the available market solutions, which only partially cover some aspects of the process.