Winners of the second edition of the Innova Awards

The 37 initiatives received, all aimed at improving the results of subsidiary companies, covered a broad range of fields of application and technologies; they offered solutions both for toll road concessions and for light rail lines and ports. Twenty-six of these were covered by the category of executed or ongoing innovations, and eleven represented innovating ideas not yet at an execution phase.

As regards the fields of application, the topics covered by the proposals received include improved energy efficiency, greater safety in toll transactions, optimization of resources for conservation and shorter time in assisting road incidents. In turn, new applications of IT and new software and hardware are present in many of these innovations and ideas, as well as new lighting technology or new solutions for mobile equipment in road conservation tasks.

The following proposals were rewarded in the participating categories:

Best technological innovation or process

• First prize to the “Disaster recovery center” proposal, developed by Óscar Alfredo Flores Olvera at the Opcom subsidiary (Mexico).
• First secondary prize to the “Improvement in the horizontal signaling maintenance process” project, proposed by Alexander Ever Conejo Campos, Operadora de Carreteras (Peru).
• Second secondary prize to the “Phantom work supervision” initiative, presented by Alejandro Ordóñez Cabrera and Relu Pancilescu as the main authors, Metro Ligero Oeste (Spain).

Best Idea

• First prize to the “Full use of the braking energy generated by the Citadis fleet in the Light West Rail Line operation” project, developed by Luis Alfonso Díaz Vélez and María Victoria Alba Díaz.
• First secondary prize to the “Software for IRI improvement” initiative, proposed by Ángel Montes Jiménez, OHL Concesiones.
• Second secondary prize, shared by the “Sustainable (rainwater) toll stations” and “Wastewater recovery for irrigation” projects, whose main authors are Óscar Enrique Ruiz Enciso and Mario Eduardo Lagos Escamilla (the first), and Marco Hernández León and César Rodríguez Rosete (the second), all employees of the Mexican subsidiary Operadora Circuito Exterior Mexiquense (Opcem).

Along with these prizes, Metro Ligero Oeste has been rewarded as the Most Innovating Company of the OHL Concesiones Group, and Rafael Álvarez Loranca as the Most Innovating Supplier.

Promoted by the Exploitation and Corporate Services managements of OHL Concesiones, the Innova Awards are used to acknowledge those persons committed to innovation and development, who are able to make business lines more profitable and improve security, infrastructure service and reduce environmental impact.

The winning Innova projects offer solutions both for toll road and light rail line concessions.