Construction & Infrastructure - ALTEN Group

Construction & Infrastructure

Support throughout the life cycle of your projects

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From distribution and transport networks to energy production, infrastructure is undergoing profound change across all sectors. The need for responsiveness and efficiency is greater than ever, driving organisations to seek better solutions to optimise their performance in demanding environments.  

Our contribution to your success goes far beyond Engineering. Everyday, our experts can help you to solve, design, installation, commissioning, operations, maintenance and re-engineering problems. 

To meet the dual challenge of industrialisation and digital transformation in these environments, ALTEN has designed its Construction & Infrastructure to provide end-to-end support in managing all aspects of its customers’ projects, providing a cost-effective package for a fit for purpose design, construction and commissioning through to operations and maintenance management.  

Towards infrastructure renewal

Infrastructure performance is a key factor in the development of cities and regions. 

Many projects are planned to address the ageing nature of infrastructures, particularly in Europe. In the transport and distribution infrastructure sector, massive investment is being made in network modernisation and maintenance.  

This sustained increase in investment is paving the way for numerous growth opportunities, and with this in mind, companies need to seize the productivity levers offered by digitalisation.   

Systems are being modernised to optimise flow performance and meet these challenges.  With over thirty years of engineering expertise, ALTEN is supporting its customers to meet their performance challenges and accelerate their transformation. By combining our sector-specific and technical know-how with our technological and functional expertise, we can offer a complete and agile range of solutions.  

Study – Review of industry standards – Design – Set up
Construction – Commissioning – Maintenance Conservation – Digitalisation

Our expertise

Study and design

Objectives
To guarantee the management of your projects

To meet its customers’ challenges, ALTEN supports them from study phase through to detailed project design. We are involved in the entire project, from its definition to its organisation and follow-up. 

To guarantee key deliverables and their alignment with customer expectations, predetermined milestones, gate reviews and health checks are scheduled throughout the project. 

ALTEN’s service package is delivered by its teams of qualified engineers and experts equipped with all the skills required to carry out studies and project management: 

  • Technical skills 
  • Sector expertise (linear networks, nuclear and conventional energy, transport) 
  • Project management & PMO 
  • Contract management  
  • Integration and digital transformation 
  • Cybersecurity 
  • Incorporating best practice learned from similar projects 
  • Risk Management 
  • Feasibility Studies and Recommended solutions 

Reference
Renovation and standardisation of hydroelectric facilities

The ALTEN teams provide project management for the renovation and standardisation of their customers’ hydroelectric facilities. 

Our teams manage projects in all disciplines, including mechanical engineering, automation, instrumentation and control, electrical engineering and civil engineering. We are involved from the pre-project studies stage (preliminary studies, preliminary outline, detailed outline, pre-costing), and the tender phase, right up to project execution and continued lifecycle support. 

Construction and Commissioning

Objectives
To ensure the performance of facilities in complex environments

The ALTEN teams supervise construction and assembly at a wide variety of sites. To guarantee the viability of construction sites, ALTEN factors in the challenges of constructing and commissioning a facility right from the design stage, to anticipate future risks and optimise its performance. At the front end of the engineering phase, ALTEN embeds experienced expert construction & commissioning teams. Their role is to provide input in the constructability reviews and anticipate any issues that may arise before the manufacturing phase, or potential delays and additional costs.

We build our approach around our customers’ performance objectives, to ensure that costs and deadlines are met. Our package covers the complete completion database, the design of the inspection check sheets, test plans, their development, and their implementation, from the functional phase to the operational phase. 

ALTEN provides a detailed execution plan, level 1-5 schedules, including progress cost and schedule reports and dashboards with KPIs to ensure our clients have full visibility at each step of the project. 

In order to comply with local workplace laws and standards, a Safety Management Systems (SMS) shall be in place for the duration of the program. The objective of the SMS is to provide safe working practices based on identified risks, project requirements, environmental considerations, statutory and industry compliance, and continuous improvement, thereby ensuring a safe working environment. With a zero-incident target to prevent injury or damage to any asset, all personnel working on the site under our management shall comply with the requirements of the SMS. 

The aim of our support is therefore to secure the technical, organisational, and contractual aspects of the entire construction process. 

Maintaining operational readiness

Objectives
Maximising plant and equipment availability, reliability and anticipating risks

We draw on our systems engineering expertise to support our customers in their operational maintenance projects. Our teams are made up of experts in methods and project management, covering maintenance and new works.  

To provide our customers with cost-effective solutions, ALTEN tailors the best maintenance method, whether preventive, routine or based on an inspection regime. An average time is also anticipated between breakdowns to maximize plant uptime. 
ALTEN also applies a structured failure elimination process for investigating the facility reliability, availability events and threats. This allows to prevent reoccurrence and eliminate potential failure occurrence.

By implementing a continuous improvement maintenance and inspection strategy requires ongoing review, optimisation to ensure the activities executed remain correct, effective, and efficient to meet the requirements of the facility safety and availability. 

The Facility Maintenance and Reliability Optimisation process manages the following areas: 

  • Inspection Strategy 
  • Maintenance Materials Strategy 
  • Maintenance Strategy 
  • Failure Elimination. 

Finally, to support the selected maintenance program, more detailed services can be provided to protect your equipment, such as: vibration analysis, oil analysis and thermographic analysis.

Once the facility has been handed over, we can intervene quickly and agilely on any type of site in operation, drawing on our know-how of operations, processes, and infrastructures: 

  • Follow-up of interventions for re-commissioning 
  • Drafting and updating intervention methods and ranges  
  • Supply logistics for sites in operation 
  • Spare parts and obsolescence management 
  • Procurement of long lead items to match the maintenance schedule requirements 

We are also involved in the technical drafting of documents, drawings, and process digitalisation, in particular by transposing models into augmented reality maintenance environments or virtual reality training. This is useful for pre- planning the scope of work offsite to identify tools, equipment, and access to the work area. 

Reference
Maintenance plan methods improvement

Teams from the ALTEN Group were tasked with improving the maintenance plan methods of two metro lines, with regard to infrastructure and rolling stock.

The work focused on a continuous improvement process by revising the maintenance plan, including updating the existing maintenance instructions, creating new maintenance procedures, managing interfaces with production on maintenance aspects, and operational tests linked to changes in repair methods before validation. The project was finalised with updates to all documents and maintenance tracking in the Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS).

Digitalisation

Objectives
Using digital as a growth lever

ALTEN offers a complete range of solutions that integrate digital tools and technological advances to accelerate its customers’ digital transformation strategies. 

  • Integration of the Building Information Model (BIM), the digital twin that makes it possible to model a construction system in advance, integrating static and dynamic data to improve project planning and risk management. Our specialist BIM teams can help you structure your projects and integrate different planning approaches of varying complexity (4D to XD).  
  • Towards Construction 4.0: the ALTEN teams can help you make the most of technological advances to stay one step ahead of developments in the sector. Our package incorporates a wide range of technological tools, including predictive maintenance, virtual reality, and AI. Our Smart Factory 4.0 research program offers the best practices of tomorrow’s Industry, adapted to smart plants and smart buildings. Our customers therefore benefit from significant advantages in terms of time management, costs, and environmental impact, from design to operation. 

Reference
Platform / train inferfaces digitalisation

To secure and optimise the management of its network, ALTEN carried out a project for one of its customers to digitise platform/train interfaces. The work initially focused on developing a tool for calculating the platform’s nominal dimension according to the operator’s frame of reference, thus making it possible to define the minimum space to be set aside for the equipment on a case-by-case basis. A data acquisition system is used to constantly monitor the geometry of the tracks, which includes the creation and updating of topographic work reference systems (levelling, 3D monitoring of facilities).

The study also covered the analysis of new surveillance systems which are being tested prior to deployment by the operator.