Transport infrastructure is a fundamental cornerstone for mobility of the population and also functions as a motor for the economy. New digital methods along the value chain will be used to digitally support the process in the future, from the very first project idea, through tendering and construction to the maintenance of infrastructure projects. The four levers of digital transformation – data, automation, networks and access – will have a significant impact on this process in infrastructure construction. Networking of data sources and storage of data in off‐grid databases is already possible, a development which enables project participants to analyse the construction data, process it and at the same time use it as a documentation basis during the development phase and for later maintenance measures. Such a well‐founded digital database can be used to evaluate, optimize and completely document construction‐related processes. This paper deals with various digital application areas in infrastructure construction and provides an overview of digitalisation developments in this field.

The digitalisation of construction‐related processes will increasingly penetrate the individual development phases of tunnel construction projects (design, construction and operation). The digital transformation will affect all tunnelling processes through its four key levers: ”digital data, automation, networks and digital access“. Topics such as Industry 4.0, digital twins, Building Information Modelling or Lean Management will lead to a rethink in the construction industry. The constant use of data sources and the storage of data in independent databases is already possible. This makes it possible for the project participants to analyse collected construction‐related data, to process it and to make it available through an online portal. This results in the possibility to evaluate, optimize and document construction processes on a well‐founded data base. Complex construction management systems will be described with digital models, and the use of digital knowledge systems will support the decision‐making process for stakeholders. The fundamental philosophy of the New Austrian Tunnelling Method should not be called into question by standardised calculation algorithms and tunnelling software. In this contribution, visionary future trends are outlined for cyclical and continuous tunnelling methods, which should stimulate a controversial discussion.

The handling of a tunnel construction project poses great challenges for all those involved. Variables that cannot be clearly quantified can arise during the entire process of the project. The subsoil in tunnelling is one of these parameters which is difficult to forecast. The geological and hydrogeological conditions must be assessed during the planning phase with the help of exploratory measures and from the experience from projects that have already been built.During the execution work, deviations from the documents on which the target determination is based occur in almost all underground construction projects. These changes can either cause a change in the construction process and/or lead to a different construction time in relation to the calculated duration.Based on this initial situation, the development of an innovative contract and remuneration model for machine tunnelling appears to be important. The main focus of the model is to generate a transparent and comprehensible method of how the remuneration‐worthy portion can be calculated in the case of a different construction time in mechanised tunnelling. In order to ensure this transparency and traceability of the system to be developed, the data records that can be digitally recorded during the tunnelling work are used as a fundamental basis for the created model.

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