Deepening and Expanding Business Domains (2) Civil Engineering Business

Initiatives to Further Increase Productivity

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is underway and bringing about improvements in productivity and solutions to social challenges through technological innovations such as IoT and AI. In its wake, new markets that involve both the private and public sectors are also being created. Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has announced a policy to increase the productivity of construction sites by 20 percent by 2025. It plans to accomplish this by promoting “i-Construction,” a concept that aims to drastically improve construction site productivity through the use of ICT.

Obayashi Corporation has sought to increase productivity by using IoT and AI to organically link the data, experience, and expertise accumulated at its production centers to the company’s technologies, thereby incorporating these assets into its business processes. It has done this with the creation of new construction business models in mind.

The company has poured its efforts into implementing labor-saving technologies by pushing forward with the use of precast units, along with expanding the scope of ICT application in design and construction. Regarding the use of precast units, major initiatives have included precast bridge parapets for large-scale bridge renewal projects, and the use of SLIM-Crete, an ultra-high-strength fiber-reinforced concrete that hardens at room temperature, as a filling material in the Slim Fastener technique for the horizontal joining of precast slabs. Also, as a way of further utilizing CIM (Construction Information Modeling), the company built a CIM model that incorporates data obtained during tunnel construction, such as survey data of the conditions ahead of the tunnel face (excavation surface). It also developed a technology in which a machine determines the condition of an excavation cross-section. This technology was highly regarded, eventually being selected for the Public/Private R&D Investment Strategic Expansion Program (PRISM) organized by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

Expansion of Energy-Related Businesses

Amidst changes to the ways in which energy is procured, supplied, and utilized, Obayashi Corporation has been diversifying its earnings bases by bolstering the renewable energy generation business, which employs solar power, wind power, biomass, and other forms of renewable energy. This activity has resulted in an increase in construction projects related to renewable energy, mainly in the engineering and civil engineering business sectors. By proactively engaging in its businesses, the company is not only contributing to the realization of a low-carbon society, but is also accumulating expertise in engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC), and developing and constructing proprietary technologies which will support its goal to build a system that provides optimal solutions to customer needs for next-generation energy, which are expected to grow over time.

In May 2017, the company collaborated with Tomoe Research & Development Ltd. to develop the Wind Lift, a system that lifts up large-scale power generating offshore wind turbine components for assembly without the need for heavy hydraulic cranes. While power generation efficiency is being improved by increasing the size of wind turbines each year, power generation capacity is limited by conventional methods of construction to four-megawatt-class turbines (tower height of about 110 meters) due to the capacity (rated capacity and lifting height) of ultra-large cranes (1,200-ton class hydraulic cranes). The Wind Lift allows the construction of large and tall wind turbines, work that is simply not possible with ultra-large hydraulic cranes. Moreover, as the system is also equipped with an off-ground rotor assembly device, construction can be carried out using minimal yard space, and the need for an assembly yard is eliminated.

Furthermore, it was decided in September 2018 that Obayashi Corporation and TOA Corporation would jointly build a self-elevating platform (SEP) capable of supporting the construction of large-scale, 9.5-megawatt class bottom-fixed offshore wind power facilities. The platform was modified in 2020 to allow for the construction of a 10-megawatt class large-scale offshore wind power facility, which is scheduled for completion in 2023.

In November 2019, the company established the technology involved in two methods of offshore wind turbine construction: bottom-fixed and floating foundation. As bottom-fixed offshore wind turbines have towers that reach the seabed, they are suitable for relatively shallow waters, while floating foundation offshore wind turbines are suitable for deeper waters as they float on the ocean. The company installed, then took apart, a full-scale Skirt Suction foundation offshore, demonstrating its suitability in bottom-fixed offshore wind turbine construction. Meanwhile, for floating foundation offshore wind turbines, the company proposed a floating tension-leg platform wind power facility in which a floating concrete structure is tethered to the seabed using tension.

The company also worked on the development of a hydrogen production plant that used geothermal power, and in December 2017, it signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the Joint Research & Development Project on the Production of Hydrogen and Development of its Supply Chain in New Zealand with New Zealand company Tuaropaki Trust. It subsequently built a hydrogen production plant (with an output of 1.5 MW) that uses electric power generated by a geothermal power plant owned by Tuaropaki Trust. It is also conducting research to build a CO₂-free hydrogen supply chain using geothermal power. Also, in July 2020, with the cooperation of geothermal development company Oita Chinetsu Kaihatsu K.K., the company began construction on a pilot geothermal power plant in the town of Kokonoe, located in Kusu District, Oita Prefecture. Through the project, the company is embarking the first attempt in Japan to construct a pilot hydrogen production plant to demonstrate the whole series of processes involved in supplying CO₂-free hydrogen, obtained using geothermal power, to a variety of customers, by using geothermal power generated within the site.

The CO₂-free hydrogen produced at the pilot plant will be utilized effectively as an energy resource for the region. It can, for instance, be transported to local factories for use as fuel in fuel cell forklifts. The company will also work on promoting initiatives that will allow local residents and many others to experience the use of renewable energy and the reality of a hydrogen-powered society up-close by inviting proposals from a wide range of research partners and considering the various ways in which the geothermally generated electric power and CO₂-free hydrogen produced through this pilot project should be used.

Expansion into Upstream and Downstream Sectors

With the Medium-Term Business Plan 2017, Obayashi Corporation aimed to diversify earnings by expanding into upstream and downstream sectors as a business strategy for the civil engineering business. The objectives of this strategy were to enhance the company’s market superiority and flexibly respond to the demands of the times, such as changes in the business environment and technological innovation, as well as achieve sustainable growth for the future.

As a measure to achieve the goal of expansion into peripheral fields, the company worked to strengthen its marketing capabilities to expand into related fields. It has undertaken a number of initiatives, including deepening cooperation with design consultancies, surveying firms, and firms that carry out repair and reinforcement, in addition to strengthening its capacity to handle design work and actively participating in design-build contracts (D/B). It also aimed to improve its competitive advantage in its main businesses by curbing costs through partnerships with material manufacturers.

Furthermore, to strengthen systems related to construction fields in which it had a limited track record (marine construction, ground improvement works), the company sought collaborations with marine contractors and other companies specializing in niche construction fields. It also considered commercializing proprietary technologies and technological achievements resulting from the promotion of “i-Construction,” from which “seeds” would be used to realize new sources of revenue. A part of this process involved newly setting up a CIM Modeling Section and arranging a system for promoting BIM/CIM in which building construction and civil engineering were merged together. This followed the reorganization of the existing PD Center, part of the Building Construction Division, into the iPD Center in April 2019.

These initiatives resulted in a new venture to build next-generation production systems that utilized open innovation (collaborating with other industries) when the company invested in Seismic Holdings, Inc., the U.S. apparel startup company developing Powered Clothing, in 2018. Seismic Holdings was created as a spinoff company of the research institute SRI International to develop Powered Clothing, a fusion of robotic engineering and technology integrated into apparel design, which was commissioned by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Artificial muscles that expand and contract together with the wearer’s muscular, skeletal, and joint movements are integrated into the apparel. As lightweight and compact as regular clothing, the artificial muscles can be freely applied to any part of the body for use in various situations in daily life.

Additionally, in September 2018, the company collaborated with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to develop technologies for producing useful construction materials using raw materials that are readily available on Earth, the moon, and Mars. The objective of this project was to reduce the enormous cost of transporting materials from Earth by rocket, thereby making activities on the moon and Mars more sustainable through technologies to explore local resources that can be produced and used on-site. Through methods such as heating and firing via microwaves, along with cold pressing, construction materials can be produced in the form of blocks that are well suited for each kind of environment and structural application.

The company has been using the technologies it has developed and accumulated over the years in its efforts to search for the seeds of new businesses and expand into business fields closely related to its main businesses.

Trends in Large-Scale Projects

A large-scale project undertaken during this period was the construction of the section of the Shin-Meishin Expressway between the Yokkaichi and Kameyama-nishi Junctions, which was opened to traffic in March 2019 (with some parts opened prior to March). Obayashi Corporation constructed about 54 percent of the total 27.8 kilometers of extended roadway, which amounted to 14.9 kilometers (including about 5.5 kilometers of the tunnel section), in addition to the Yokkaichi Junction. All seven construction projects for this section contracted to the company, including the present project, were completed by FY2019.3. Through these works, the company contributed to the creation of a dual network between the prefectures of Shizuoka and Shiga.

Also, as part of works to upgrade expressways built during Japan’s period of high economic growth, the company has been developing various technologies related to bridge slab replacement technologies. Since 2018, the company has been tasked with a large-scale bridge renewal project involving all ten bridges between the Sonohara and Nakatsugawa Interchanges (in the prefectures of Nagano and Gifu, respectively) on the Chuo Expressway. By adopting innovations such as the Slim Fastener, a precast slab-joining technique that allows fast construction and high durability in a short period of time, in addition to the full-precast EMC Parapet, the company optimized the construction cycle to achieve a 30 percent shorter work time in comparison to conventional methods.

Outside Japan, the company’s technologies have contributed to the construction of the Waterview Connection Tunnels and Great North Road Interchange, which is New Zealand’s largest highway project to date. The company’s large-diameter TBM tunneling method and low-overburden excavation technology were implemented in the construction of the shield tunnels, which are among the largest tunnels in the southern hemisphere with an excavated outer diameter of 14.5 meters. The clients, designers, and contractors worked as a team to achieve solid results through an alliance agreement for executing the entire process: from delivery and construction cost target setting to design, construction, and maintenance management.

Meanwhile, in the area of dam construction, the company was contracted for construction work on the main body of Kawakami Dam (Iga City, Mie Prefecture) by the Japan Water Agency. Construction was commenced using Obayashi-Dam Innovative Construction Technology (ODICT), which integrates construction techniques acquired through past dam construction projects as data. Preliminary surveys for the Kawakami Dam, which was designed to reduce flood damage and ensure a stable water supply, began in 1967. Construction did not start until 50 years later, in 2017. At present, excavation work for the foundation of the dam embankment is complete, with concrete placement also underway.

(Reference: Special Contents > Six Stories > ODICT)