J Murphy and Sons

This category is open to any geotechnical company that can show excellence in the way it has used digital technology to improve systems, performance, processes or project delivery within its own business between January 2022 and January 2023. Entries in this category should focus on business-wide innovations and, where applicable, be used on multiple projects. Project-specific innovations should be entered in the Technical Excellence category. Entries could focus on a particular digital innovation - such as an initiative to improve safety, employment practices, collaboration or delivery - or present how digital innovation is fostered and encouraged across the business and the benefits this is driving. The innovation could be site or office based, and entrants should present clear evidence of how the innovation has delivered performance, cost, health and safety or reliability improvements for the business and how this benefits both clients and society.

Artificial Intelligence for Forecasting Tunnelling Productivity

Tunnel boring is essential for many construction projects, but a key challenge revolves around understanding the machine behaviour in the ground at the tender stage of a project. By understanding how the machine behaves, a more accurate forecast can be used, enabling better decision-making and a more accurate tender. Artificial intelligence was used for predicting machine parameters and for forecasting completion of a live project. The results were impressive, with its predictions being within two weeks of the end date, after being generated four months prior. Artificial intelligence was shown to accurately replicate the complex behaviour of the machine performance, even in ground conditions that it had not seen. This project demonstrated the feasibility of artificial intelligence and highlighted promising applications in tunnel boring to address productivity and improve efficiency