The digitalisation of the Koralm Tunnel

PORR has been heavily involved in the Koralm Tunnel since shell construction began. After the breakthroughs came the task of constructing and commissioning 66km of the innovative Slab Track Austria system, which PORRcarried out as part of a consortium with the Rhomberg Sersa Rail Group. When installing the RBS plate, a type of base plate that is resistant to cracking, there was a major challenge to overcome: the target of producing 100m of RBS plates per day. With LEAN this target was actually exceeded. The construction site team increased its speed to 125m per day and even managed 278m on one day during the final stretch.

Right from the start, the Koralm Tunnel has brought together BIM-based planning and execution in an iterative coordination process. Together these elements have simulated the technical railway infrastructure work in order to ensure the exacting quality standards are met. This process requires agile project management to assess the key performance indicators and come up with appropriate measures for executing the work. Periodic LEAN meetings with the project team ensure that the assumptions made are evaluated in a timely manner.

All BIM applications are implemented using agile project management approaches and methods by the 25-strong team, with the aid of digital tools. The portfolio of services also ranges from internal resource planning to project control, an aspect involving close, shoulder-to-shoulder collaboration. The model-based working methods and agile project management improve the quality of planning and lead to an optimisation of logistical construction processes, even before the pre-construction lots are taken over to be set up as construction sites. The first signs of the success of these working methods are already evident: Based on the prioritised sample cross-cuts set out in the preliminary stages, technical facts have been discussed while simultaneously being integrated three-dimensionally and augmented.

“End-to-end digitalisation of processes from planning and project execution through to maintenance management and operations is an important objective for ÖBB. In order to take full advantage of the benefits of this kind of digitalisation, BIM is being applied as an integrative constituent of planning and execution in the large-scale Koralm Tunnel project,” says chartered engineer, Dr Klaus Schneider, the project lead responsible for overall coordination of the Koralm Railway at ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG.  The plan is to make the model information generated and processed as part of the preparation phase available in the application phase and during operation as well. The requirements of implementing the BIM and the associated processes will contribute to generating an as-built model that contains all of the content-related data needed to assess the condition comprehensively.

The Koralm Tunnel is a ground-breaking success. Not just for PORR, the Rhomberg Sersa Rail Group and ÖBB. But also, and most importantly, for all those people who will be able to get from A to B faster and more sustainably in future.

Technical background information on construction section 3 of the Koralm Tunnel can be found here.