does that other team of surgeons, engineers, on their mission to tunnel through a mountain. The laser developed and patented by ACCIONA is the master sculptor that shows them exactly where to drill each time. The laser beam projects a contin-uous profile of the tunnel design onto the rock face in real time for each stretch being drilled, centimeter by centimeter. No miscalculations, no deviations. Tunnel engineers and excavator opera-tors take their lead from this unbeatable guide. And the accuracy of the tunnel as excavated with respect to the tunnel designed is 60% higher than in conventional tunneling methods. “The laser creates a contour that’s consistent with the project’s the-oretical design; it enables a more precise cross section and helps reduce the material excavated, errors, and cost overruns due to geometrical deviations during the construction phase, in addition to lowering ener-gy consumption. Consequently, it also cuts CO2 emissions,” says Ignacio Calvo, Director of Innovation and Digital Transformation in ACCIONA’s Construction division. The laser projector triggers a chain of positive effects. Precision translates into a smaller excavated area, which in turn reduces diesel used by machinery and transport vehicles. And in the absence of recov-ery of excavated material, landfill requirements are lower too. The company’s approach to digitalization is to pursue technology that’s complex in terms of engineering but has an intuitive user inter-face. “Operating the laser is very simple, it can be easily managed by the survey team working on the tunnel, with almost no special train-ing,” adds Calvo. It also has the added advantage of improving planning and management through data analysis: laser scanning allows the soft-ware to record a digital twin of the tunnel, which serves as know-how HOW IT WORKS NATIONAL INNOVATION AWARD NATIONAL INNOVATION AWARD The experts —the Association of Spanish Civil Engineers and the Caminos (Civil Engineering) Foundation in Spain— don’t give out the Leonardo Torres Quevedo National Engineering Innovation Award without careful consideration. And they don’t give it out for promises, but for real achievements. That’s why it arrived on November 30, 2021, quite some time after the system made its debut and after data confirming its effectiveness had been verified on actual tunnel sites in various major projects. “We’re happy to have won it,” said Ignacio Calvo. “We’ve invested billions in research, technology, and development via our own departments and in partnership with universities and companies around the world, which has translated into results like this.”