Today : Tue 7th Sep 2010

News

7th. March 2010
Solar Thermal Power Plants

The first solar thermal power plant to operate in the region of Extremadura, Spain is called Alvarado 1. It has a capacity of 50 MW, which is enough to supply electricity to 28,000 homes. Parabolic cylinder technology was used for this plant, which includes 184,320 mirrors arranged in rows along nearly 74 kilometers (46 miles) occupying an area of 130 hectares (321 acres).

This plant will prevent the annual emission of 98,000 tones of CO2 that would be generated by coal, while still producing the same amount of electricity. The advantage of using solar thermal power plants is that their maximum output is recorded during business hours and can meet the peak in urban demand caused by the use of air conditioning at that time.

Idom has carried out the Engineering, Procurement and Cosntruction of the Power Block and is currently working with Acciona in another power plant similar to Majadas del Tiétar (Extremadura).

26th. January 2010
Design and Innovation in SMEs

The new strategic model that the Government of Spain wants small and medium-sized companies to follow is to incorporate the culture of design and innovation into their business. The State Society for the Development of Design and Innovation (DDI) awarded Idom the assistance to implement this model in more than 120 companies from the regions of Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, and Galicia, in its journey towards the systematization of design and innovation processes. To carry out this project, the largest yet in design and innovation in Spain, Idom has put together a team of professionals trained in the best industrial design schools in the Netherlands, England, Italy, and Spain.

 

7th. September 2009
Midland Quarry Reclamation (United Kingdom)

Midland Quarry Project was “highly commended” in the ‘UK Project Over £1M’ category at the Ground Engineering Awards which was held in London on 6th February 2009. The former stone quarry of some 16 hectares is located approximately 1 km to the northwest of Nuneaton, Warwickshire - situated midway between the cities of Birmingham and Leicester in United Kingdom. Quarrying commenced about 1885 and ceased during the late 1990’s, when the quarry had developed as two distinct voids – a large deep main void which had partly flooded and a smaller parabolic shaped shallow void - both were surrounded by stockpiles of quarry waste. The project involved the construction of a 38 m high Reinforced Earth Slope (RES) between the main and shallow voids to allow filling of the shallow void to provide a plateau for future housing development. The RES comprised 500 mm thick layers of engineered granular fill reinforced with composite high strength synthetic polymer geogrids, which had a wrap-around face with coarse stone infill for the lower section to be submerged below the main void lake, with the upper section faced with topsoil to be grassed. Construction was undertaken using site derived crushed rock, quarry waste and some imported waste foundry sand from a nearby site in Rugby, thereby maximising re-use of materials. Merebrook was responsible for the general concept and the construction management of the project.

 

6th. August 2009
Vitoria new tram

The city of Vitoria (Spain) has recently joined the list of European cities which have bet on the light rail as a mean of transport of medium capacity to promote mobility in cities by public transport as opposed to private vehicles.
IDOM put the whole project together for the tram line and the Depot and Garage building and helped in the management of building and starting up the line, putting its experienced technicians from other tram projects in Bilbao, Granada, Tenerife, Seville, Porto, Barcelona and Madrid at the disposal of the Basque Government.

As part of the system implementation work, IDOM collaborated with Euskotan in the definition and development of a touchfree card system for payment and ticketing. According to the data, in the first two months of operation there were over 650,000 passengers on the line, an average of 11,000 passengers per day and a punctuality rate of 95%. A successful and sustainable transport system with a great future has been set up in the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz.

 

6th. July 2009
Technology Park in Atizapan (Mexico)

Atizapan de Zaragoza is a dynamic and active metropolitan municipality north of Mexico City, which grew rapidly during the industrial momentum experienced by Mexico in the 1980s. The Ministry for Economic Development in Mexico and the Mexiquense Council on Science and Technology (COMECYT) have chosen Atizapan to support the development of a pioneer technology park in the country oriented towards communication and information technologies. IDOM was hired to draw up the strategic plan to identify and select the park model and focus together with the zoning proposal in a Master Plan. The Technology Park lies on a plot of land covering 45 hectares in the Municipality and The Ministry for Economic Development in Mexico is currently promoting the Park among companies that might be interested in setting up there.

5th. June 2009
Automotive Intelligence Center (AIC)

The AIC opened its facilities in January (in Bizkaia, Spain). IDOM drew up the architectural design, the project detail and managed the building site of this complex international benchmark in the automotive industry.Innovation, in the broad sense
of the word, will give the most relevant edge in the automobile sector, which has always managed to reinvent itself throughout its history; however, it now has to play a more decisive role thanks to new requirements for quality, safety, the environment and vehicle comfort. Cooperation with vehicle manufacturers and among suppliers will
be a key element for taking on the above-mentioned challenges.

The recently-opened complex consists of 19,000 m2 builtup floor area divided into three buildings: the main building and two development units. The main building is conceived as a huge aerodynamic roof that gathers, groups together and shelters the R&D&i units of different companies that are setting up as well as different spaces for common use built to promote synergies among the units: a laboratory with boxes for team research work, training zones, and a large multipurpose hall (events, exhibitions, product presentations, etc).

6th. May 2009
Fast-growing SME’s in Latin America

Fast growing SME’s are companies that produce a high yield for investors, promote regional development, generate satisfaction in managers and employees and contribute to creating jobs. Venture capital companies, public authorities and researchers are deeply interested in fast-growing companies. Unfortunately only three to five per cent of SME’s that are set up have the potential to generate significant wealth and employment. In order to obtain deeper knowledge and characterisation of fast growing SME’s, the Multilateral Investment Fund (FOMIN) in collaboration with the Science and Technology Division of the Inter- American Development Bank (IDB) launched a study in Brazil, Chile and Mexico. IDOM won this contract thanks to its experience in business innovation, its multidisciplinary focus and its international presence. Six case studies were carried out in three countries for the assignment: Brazil, Chile and Mexico. The preliminary conclusions were presented at the OECD SME and Business annual work group, held at the Kauffman Foundation in May 2008 in Kansas City, United States. The hypotheses drawn from the case studies were then validated by a survey of a larger
group of fastgrowing SME’s in the three abovementioned countries. The IDB has published
the results in the beginning of 2009.

14th. April 2009
Innovation projects for hospitals

Today, the procedure to determine the ocular deviation is completely manual (using prisms) and the error is huge. IDOM has developed a new diagnostic system that use the highest technology to provide a revolutionary precision: the “Ocular Motility DIGitizer” (DigMo Project). This project is only an example of IDOM’s commitment to innovation within the health system. The Firm is developing an Innovation Management System for the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God at Barcelona, in collaboration with the Barcelona Professional Association of Doctors and with the support of the Government of Catalonia’s Ministry of Health as a model to be followed by other hospitals. The project approaches innovation within the hospital from a systemic perspective based on six main lines of action that include: health services, medical devices, information and communication technology, physical infrastructure, hospital organisation and management and finally knowledge management. The project will also take into account the R&D activities performed by the hospital.

9th. March 2009
Shopping Centre in Riga (Latvia)

Sia Patollo, a Latvian company of Norwegian and English capital, is developing a shopping centre in Riga. The centre consists of seven floors with a terrace and underground parking. The gross leasable area (GLA) is 40,000 m2 and will include 220 shops and restaurants. The developer is expecting 30,000 visitors a day. The work began in December 2007, starting with the construction of a peripheral wall based on a pile system. The developer contracted IDOM to review and coordinate the installation design (air-conditioning, plumbing, electricity, fire detection and extinguishing systems, telephony and gas), and to supervise, assist and manage the start-up of these installations. They subsequently asked IDOM to coordinate the internal design. A team of seven people were based in Riga for five months. Two of these have remained there to provide technical assistance for the work over the next two years. The scope of the service will include collaboration in the Project Management. The development company has other projects in progress in Russia –St. Petersburg and Ryazan– and has contracted IDOM for the conceptual design phases.

 

11th. February 2009
The Heredia Digital Project (Costa Rica)

IDOM has completed the feasibility study for the Heredia Digital Project established using development funds from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI). The Heredia Digital Project is part of an initiative established by Empresa de Servicios Públicos de Heredia (ESPH SA) to enter the telecommunications market with the aim of providing triple play services (telephone - Internet - television) using the latest technologies available on the market. The ESPH SA currently offers services for water supply, drainage, electricity supply and public lighting in the region of Heredia, which is located a few kilometres from the capital of Costa Rica, San José. The establishment of a Free Trade Area between Central America, the Dominican Republic and the United States has led to the liberalisation of the telecommunications market in Costa Rica and the current boom that the country is experiencing has therefore resulted in increased interest in this type of study. Over the last few months IDOM’s Telecommunications department has been preparing an analysis allowing ESPH SA to assess the feasibility of them entering such a competitive and changing sector as telecommunications. The know-how acquired by IDOM during the liberalisation of this sector in Spain was of great signifi cance during this study. The study was structured around the following fi elds of analysis: legal, market, technical, fi nancial, environmental and socio-economic. In line with current technological trends, the study was aimed at the provision of triple play services (telephone - Internet - television) using fi ber-to-home solutions. This requires the evolution of Costa Rican networks towards Next Generation Networks (NGNs). The study will provide suffi cient information for the decision-making process on the creation of a new telecommunications operator in Costa Rica.

 

15th. January 2009
49 Dwellings and Nursery in Bermondsey

The proposal presented by IDOM was awarded with the first prize in a competition organised by Southwark Council. The site is part of the Bermondsey Spa Regeneration Area and is situated next to St. James’s Church. The main target of the project is to maintain a visual and physical connection between St James’s Road and the churchyard gardens, opening up new pedestrian links between the central area of Bermondsey Spa and the nearby underground station. In order to achieve this, the building is broken in two elements, creating a void space in between that becomes the main protagonist of the project. The scheme provides a total of 49 housing units, ranging from studios to 3 bedroom flats, and a nursery to replace the existing. 25% of the units are affordable. The relationship with the natural surroundings is a key element of the project. Timber and copper facades and extensive use of planting are proposed, whereas generous balconies will maximise the connection between the units and the exterior.

 

3rd. December 2008
Design of Pressure Tanks in Saudi Arabia

Al-Zamil Heavy Industries, (ZHI) is a prominent petrochemical equipment manufacturer located in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Design and review shop drawings for more than thirty ASME Sect VIII, Div 2 pressure vessels for Saudi Arabia’s Khursaniyah Gas Plant Project (KPG). The design pressures for the vessels ranged from 1060 psi (7308 KPa) to 1840 psi (12686 KPa). Fatigue analysis due to thermal transient loading was an important part of the design requirements. The total weight of these vessels exceeded 5,300,000 pounds (2,400,000 kg). AEC-IDOM completed the assignment on schedule to the complete satisfaction of ZHI. Having successfully completed the Khursaniyah Gas plant Project, AEC-IDOM was retained by ZHI once again to design the vertical Deethanizer Column for the Yanbu Gas Plant Expansion Project in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in accordance with the requirements of the ASME Section VIII, Div. 2. The vessel design pressure was 455 psi (3137KPa). AEC-IDOM’s design responsibility included the design of support saddles to hydrostatically test the column in a horizontal position as well as the design of the attachments to lift the vessel. The Deethanizer Column weighed approximately 2,200,000-pounds (1,000 t.), had a diameter of approximately 26-ft (7.9 meters), an overall height of more than 145-ft (44 meters), and wall thicknesses up to 5-inches (127 mm). In addition to its domestic projects, AECIDOM also completed ASME pressure vessel design and analysis for projects in Venezuela and Colombia. The design pressures ranged up to 7500psi (51710 KPa). Vessel shell thicknesses went up to 6.625 inches (170 mm).

 

7th. November 2008
IDOM Acquires the Merebrook Company

IDOM has recently concluded the acquisition of the British company Merebrook, whose headquarters are in Belper (Derbyshire) and with offices in Orpington (Kent), Malmesbury (Wiltshire) and Cardiff (Wales). This operation has significantly increased IDOM’s presence within the UK, since it has had a permanent office in London since 2001. Up until now, IDOM’s activity within the United Kingdom has centred upon Architecture, carrying out projects both in the British Isles and the rest of Europe. In addition, professional services have been Offered from London to Spanish companies with interests in the United Kingdom, as well as to British companies interested in investing in the Iberian Peninsula or Latin America. The integration of Merebrook into the IDOM Group provides the possibility of extending these services throughout the United Kingdom since this company specialises in environmental consultancy, civil engineering, structural calculations and health and safety. As the integration is consolidated, the other areas of IDOM activity will show their full potential. The acquisition of Merebrook strengthens IDOM’s presence in the Anglo- Saxon market since they also acquired the AEC Engineering company in 2006. This company has its registered address in Minneapolis (Minnesota, USA) and has offices in Richmond (Virginia, USA) and Calgary (Alberta, Canada).

 

2nd. October 2008
Vehizero's New Factory in Mexico

2nd. September 2008 Vehizero, a Mexican company that designs hybrid freight vehicles, plans to construct an assembly plant in the state of Aguascalientes (Mexico). IDOM contributed to the design of the layout and the master plan of the new factory, whose installations are designed to produce a volume of 8,000 vehicles per year. In the first phase, the assembly plant will be built with a floor area of 4,200 m2, distributed in several zones including the assembly line, storage room, powerhouse, auxiliary services and sheds, as well as the development of 10,000 m2 distributed across 5 hectares of land.

 

2nd. September 2008
The Hotusa Group’s Hotel in Germany

2nd. September 2008 The Hotusa Group’s Hotel in Germany The Hotusa Group will construct two hotels in Munich and one in Berlin, with 237, 205 and 221 rooms respectively. They are scheduled to open in 2009 or 2010. These openings are part of the group’s plan for international expansion, which includes opening twenty new hotels in the next three years. The company is searching for opportunities to set up in Prague, Paris, Mexico, Argentina and New York, as well as in several Spanish cities. These hotels have street-level entr y, five to eight floors and a lower level. All are situated in central areas, near train stations. The finishing touches, facilities, and construction solutions are considered to be high-quality within the hotel sector. According to Hotusa’s aims, these would be four-star hotels with qualities that could reach five-star level. After Hotusa had purchased the land, construction was carried out under a turnkey agreement with local contractors. In the case of Hotel Munich, whose construction began in Februar y 2008, the budget was 23 million euros, the contractor is Adolf Lupp GMBH & Co, and the architecture firm GFB of Berlin was contracted for the architecture and project direction. For this project, IDOM carried out Project Monitoring functions and played a role of technical assessor. This function involves the periodic generation of authorisation reports providing information about the authorisations that Hotusa requests relating to works certificates or any other incurred cost related to the project. In these reports, the main significant events that might arise during the project, which would therefore be of interest to the financial entities, are identified and analysed. They also reflect compliance with technical regulations, the advance of the work plan, forecasts of large hirings, and the appearance of unforeseen events.

 

6th. August 2008
Wind farms in Brazil

IMPSA, a share company from Argentinian capital, has charged IDOM with completing three wind farm projects in the state of Ceará, Brazil. The Ceara Project has awarded a contract to construct three wind farms that will have a capacity of 99.6 MW and provide more than 400 GWh/year: Volta do Río (42 MW), Praia do Morgado (28.8 MW) and Praias de Parajuru (28.8 MW). The first two parks are located 300 km north of the city of Fortaleza, while Praia do Parajuru is 100 km south of the same city. The three parks are found in the best wind zone in Brazil.
The machines IMPSA selected for its parks are made by IMPSA BSH. The 1.516 MW series is used in Praia do Morgado and in Praias de Parajuru, and the 1.5 MW series in Volta do Río. A voltage of 34.5 kV was chosen for the wind farm’s internal grid to reduce transport losses and to minimise the investment. Each wind turbine is provided with a 0.69/24.5 kV transformer in an adjoining prefabricated shelter. The work carried out mainly consists of specifying the cartographic and geotechnical needs, an environmental study, a logistical project, and the basic project for the three wind farms, their corresponding substations, and the necessary evacuation lines.
IMPSA subsequently entrusted IDOM with the construction of the roads, foundations, transformers and 34.5 kV internal grids in each of the three parks. Given the low resistance capacity of the soil on which the wind farms are constructed, it was necessary to design pile foundations. A multi-disciplinary team composed of technicians from the São Paolo and Zaragoza offices completed the work over five months.

 

10th. July 2008
The Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF).
A innovative approach.

The MIF was created by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) to help contribute to the development of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean in their transition towards a global market economy. The MIF is a pioneer in using capital investment funds as a development tool to provide companies with access to financial options that are normally reserved for large corporations. In 2006, MIF financed a total of 900 projects, with contributions that exceeded a billion dollars. The MIF is aware of the challenges existing in the near future: leadership in Latin America and the Caribbean, innovation, the generation of added value, transparency, excellence, speed and efficiency. It is for this reason that it has embarked upon a process of strategic reflection aimed at promoting a model of sustainable development, which will enable the organisation to obtain greater efficacy and efficiency in its activities, as well as improved economic and social impact within the region. IDOM has worked alongside the MIF in this process of strategic reflection, performing a detailed analysis of the organisation and its processes. This culminated in the creation of a proposal for a management model enabling the MIF to respond to its clients more quickly, thus creating a more agile and efficient organisation and to remain at the forefront of economic development in Latin America and the Caribbean.

 

17th. June 2008
Complex Radio Communication Systems

A trunked radio system is a complex type of radio system that is used to maximize available capacity in a two-way radio system. Trunking is used by many government entities to provide two-way communication for fire departments, police and other municipal services. The Vitoria (Spain) Town Hall awarded the consultancy contract to IDOM for the technical design of a Digital Trunked Radio Network and a Control Centre for the Local Police service.

TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) was selected as the radio communication system since this is a standard system specifi¬cally designed for use by the emergency services given its capacity for user management, response times and possibilities for extension. Based on a list provided by the Town Hall of available sites for storing transmission equipment, IDOM performed a radioelectric coverage study to identify the number and location of sites required to achieve a sufficient level of coverage to meet the requested requirements.

As a result of this study, IDOM designed a network with three sites, which are connected to one another, and the Data Switching Exchange via a 2 Mbps capacity ring. Three of these connections were designed with microwave links and the fourth via optical fibre. The Data Switching Exchange installation was designed in the same location as the Police service control centre, which currently takes calls from citizens and its own officers. In order to maximise the potential of the installation, a communications management and integration system was designed in the same location, thus enabling the following: interconnection with the existing telephony system, integration with analogue transmitters (redundantly), integration with the Local Police IT network, terminal monitoring via GPS, incident management and the application of registration numbers and National ID Card queries from the mobile terminals.

22th. May 2008
European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT)

At the end of 2006, the ESO (European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Observatory) established the reference design for the E-ELT and launched the detailed design project with a budget of 57 million euros. IDOM was then awarded the contract for the preliminary design of the building and foundations for the telescope. The building consists of a hemispherical dome with a 96 m. external diameter that rotates along with the telescope for observation on top of a 17 m. high concrete cylindrical wall. The large opening required for observation (45 m. wide and elevating from 30 to 90º) as well as the size of the building presents one of the greatest challenges in the design. This challenge mainly affects the doors, which finally are to be formed by two spherical surfaces which are 26 m. wide and can extend up to 100 m., travelling horizontally along four tracks mounted on to the dome structure. It also affects the design of the windscreen, a screen used to protect the telescope from wind during observation and the main crane (20 t.). The company has opted for innovative yet inherently simple and robust designs, thus minimising development and operational risks. The nozzles used for air-conditioning in the internal chamber (which should be refrigerated during the day so that the internal temperature is the same as the external temperature when observation is started) have been installed in the fixed part of the construction, so that refrigerating fluid should not be transferred between the fixed and mobile part, which would require special couplings between pipes. The thermal control system also has a series of airtight seals along the mobile joints (between the dome and fixed building and between the doors and dome). The design and associated studies were presented on 19 February at the ESO installations in Munich.

 

 

20th. April 2008
III International Architecture Congress ACXT-IDOM

Under the heading Processes, the III Architecture Congress was held in the Centro de Cultura Contemporánea of Barcelona on the 11th and 12th of April with the attendance of more than 300 professionals. The speeches presented at the Congress were presented by 17 experts, among whom were Javier Neila, Professor of Construction a ETSAM (Technical School of Architecture of Madrid); Salvador Rueda, director of the Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona; José Ballesteros, editor of the magazine Pasajes; Manuel Gausa, architect and member of the group Actar; Ignacio Paricio, Professor of Construction at ETSAB (Technical School of Architecture of Barcelona); Daniel Sánchez Crespo, director of the Video Game Master programme at the Universidad Pompeu Fabra; Spiro Pollalis, a professor at Harvard University; Hanif Kara, structural engineer and member of the group Adams Kara Taylor, and Bjarke Ingels, who presented the work of the renowned Danish architecture firm, Big Architects.During the Congress the awards for the international competition of Final Year Projects were presented, giving out €5,000 euros and a certified diploma. The four young people awarded, two English and two Spanish, won because of the high quality of their respective projects. The jury was made up of Iñaki Ábalos, Doctor of Architecture and Professor of Projects at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid; Anatxu Zabalbeascoa, historian and journalist specialising in architecture; Javier Quintana, Doctor of Architecture and Director of the Fundación Rafael Escolá; Jesús María Susperregui, Architect and Associate-Director of ACXT; Jesús Llamazares, Doctor of Architecture and Member of ACXT; César Azcarate, Architect and Member of ACXT; Antonio Villanueva, Industrial Engineer and head of the Area of Sustainability of IDOM. The secretary of the jury was Laura Espejo, ACXT architect.

 

10th. April 2008
Environment International Seminary

The IDOM through its Environment technical area promotes on April 23, in the city of Sao Paulo - Brazil, the Environment International Seminar on the issue of contaminated soil and waste. They already are developed by Idom Spain that performs projects for remediation of soil and waste management programs and plans directors in several countries. The seminary will include the participation of Mr. Rafael Sagarduy - Director of the Technical Area for the Environment of IDOM and will have the support of the Chamber of Commerce Brazil Spain. The issues are of immense interest to businesses and governmental entities currently suffering with large environmental liabilities and to the management of the processes of final destination of solid waste. Address: Chamber of Commerce Brazil Spain Av. Engenheiro Luiz Carlos Berrini, 1681 – 14º. floor São Paulo – SP – Brazil

Date: April, 23 th, 2008 Time: From 8:00 am to 1:00pm.
Free inscriptions by e-mail: paola@camaraespanhola.org.br

 

1st. April 2008
Expansion of the airport in Malaga
Taking into account the statistics and forecasts for future traffic in Malaga Airport (23.5 million passengers in 2020), as well as the current capacity of the existing infrastructure, the Spanish Airport and Air Navigation Authority (AENA) decided in June 2000 to expand both of the above in consecutive phases without interrupting the airport operations during their execution.

First of all, the car parks and temporary accesses will be expanded and a new Terminal Area will be constructed. The aircraft field will be expanded during a second phase with the construction of a new runway. The new T3 Terminal will have the capacity to serve 20 million passengers a year. It will consist of three basic elements:
a processing building, a boarding area (Area D) and a bus station. Each of the three areas will have access to different means of land transportation. IDOM, as the expert technical assistant, working with the Communications Division of AENA Central Services, will be responsible for establishing and drafting the specifications, as well as controlling and monitoring the communication systems execution for the new Terminal Area. The communication systems to be established by IDOM will be based on the latest technology and approved standards and shall be fully integrated with the existing
ones to form one single system throughout the entire airport.

The systems to be established are as follows: multiservice network (fully redundant LAN network with 11,500 user stations and 44 cabling stations), WiFi network (with coverage throughout the entire terminal and surrounding areas, and the capability to process voice, data and localisation traffic), trunked radio communications, IP telephony, commercial TV and digital video distribution.