Worldsensing’s leading wireless monitoring system was among the award finalists with the Grand Paris Metro Project.

Worldsensing’s data acquisition system, Loadsensing, which is rapidly becoming the new standard for wireless geotechnical monitoring as it’s currently used to monitor over 30.000 sensors worldwide, was selected as one of seven finalists for the Innovation in Instrumentation & Monitoring Award category of the 2018 Tunnelling Awards. The Award Ceremony was held on December 6, 2018 at the Grange Tower Bridge Hotel, London.

New Civil Engineer Tunnelling Awards

The 9th Annual New Civil Engineer Tunnelling Awards celebrated global tunnelling expertise and project excellence. For the first time in its history, the Award Ceremony was held alongside the Tunnelling Summit, jointly creating Tunnelling Festival 2018. The event attracts thought-leaders, decision-makers and young engineers from the entire tunnelling community to network and share innovation and best practices.

The Innovation in Instrumentation & Monitoring Award category recognizes innovation and excellence in site surveying and monitoring on tunnelling projects. Entrants to this category were required to demonstrate and provide evidence to show how, on a specific tunnelling and/or underground project, innovative use of existing instrumentation and monitoring techniques or pioneering new technology is contributing to an improved outcome for the project team and/or client.

Loadsensing deployed at over 200 construction sites worldwide

Worldsensing’s award entry focused on the use of Loadsensing within the Grand Paris Metro Project which is expected to be completed by 2021. Over a period of just 3 years, Loadsensing has been rapidly adopted by the construction industry, being deployed in some of the biggest construction projects in the world such as the Grand Paris Extension. In total, Loadsensing collects data from 6,000 sensors in over 200 construction sites. The data acquisition system uses the IoT technology LoRa to wirelessly transmit data from a broad range of instrumentation and monitoring sensors along distances of up to 15 km / 9 miles line of sight.

Loadsensing in Grand Paris Metro Project

In the Grand Paris Metro Project, Loadsensing has been able to contribute to significant improvements in the following areas:

• Safety – Crucial data on the stability of the tunnels and surrounding areas are being accurately and regularly delivered, which ensures the safety of the employees and the citizens in the area. Loadsensing makes it easy to access real-time data from the sensors installed in-ground and helps measure the impact of the construction project. A monitoring program based on traditional methods like geodetic survey monitoring can only work when the movements reach the surface and the irregularity of the data acquisition makes accidents difficult to anticipate. With Loadsensing, any deviation from the expected measurements can be detected immediately, enabling contractors to quickly implement remedial or preventive actions.
• Performance – The metro expansion project is able to gather data on the stability of the tunnels in an non-intrusive way. Data collection units can even be connected to sensors inside metal-covered manholes. A wireless system that is able to monitor the preliminary phases of a project can bring a wealth of data and overall project visibility that was not previously available. With the easy to install, battery-powered and long-range Loadsensing wireless nodes, it is possible to collect automatic readings in near-real time from the beginning to the completion of the project.
• Sustainability – Minimal adjustments are required to connect sensors with the long-range Loadsensing data nodes due to their compatibility. The Grand Paris construction project saves not only on cabling costs since the data nodes can be operated wirelessly but also on manual maintenance as data nodes will run without intervention until the project completion.

Worldsensing customer Sixense took home the prize

The Innovation in Instrumentation & Monitoring Award was won by Worldsensing customer Sixense for its use of interferometric synthetic aperture radar, and InSAR satellite monitoring on the Crossrail project.
Worldsensing and Sixense have joint projects globally, with majority in France including the Grand Paris project.
View all winners and finalists.