• 5G will help with the digitalisation of bouygues construction’s worksites
• Digitalisation will bring benefits to employees and customers

 For some years now, Bouygues Construction has been working on digitalising its production sites and conducting a number of experiments to optimise and facilitate daily tasks for the benefit of its employees and customers.
 
Bouygues Construction and Bouygues Telecom teams are currently carrying out promising experiments on construction site equipment using 5G technology.

For example, 5G will enable information such as weather alerts, delivery delays, changes to plans, availability of equipment, location of machinery on the site, etc. to be transmitted more easily and synchronously to personnel on construction sites.
 
Bouygues Construction’s R&D teams have also been working with Bouygues Telecom to test 5G as one of the possible technologies for transmitting data between cranes and a ground-level remote control station. This will have multiple benefits:

• Greater safety thanks to additional aids for better crane driving assistance (safety alerts, highlighting of site workers near the point of impact of a package or load, faster locating of equipment, etc.)
• Improved working conditions (accessibility for crane operators)
• Automation of certain tasks and optimisation of the crane’s operating schedule

 The tests conducted show optimal quality of information transmission with 5G (stability, speed and bandwidth), confirming it as a possible choice for data transmission.
 
In November 2020, Bouygues Construction signed a cooperation agreement with Lextan, a specialist in remote driving systems, to carry out a research and development programme on the development of image processing and augmented reality and on the assisted driving of construction site machines.

Thiébault Clément, R&D Director at Bouygues Construction, said: “These test phases are essential for identifying the best technologies and starting the process of digitalising our production sites. Alongside Bouygues Telecom and our partner, Lextan, we are carrying out these tests under the best possible conditions. Early results confirm that 5G is attractive and relevant to our construction businesses.”
 
Stéphane Allaire, 5G Programme Director at Bouygues Telecom, said: “5G is bringing us very concretely into the era of the ‘augmented operator’. 5G performance and flexibility make it possible to improve the way remote operations are carried out, bringing greater efficiency and safety to the construction site.”
This new phase of collaboration with Bouygues Telecom will allow Bouygues Construction to go further in its use of 5G.
 
Globally, the digitalisation of construction processes is taking on greater importance for Bouygues Construction and its entire ecosystem (customers, architects, design offices, suppliers, subcontractors, operators) with a view to improving efficiency, sustainability, quality and safety. The company recently signed a partnership agreement with Dassault Systèmes for the development of a digital project management platform (3DExperience). In this context, data transfers between partners will increasingly be a strategic issue for which 5G will be able to provide effective solutions.