With around 100 pieces of infrastructure managed throughout the world and six specialised centres of excellence, VINCI Concessions effectively possesses an incredible testing facility to trial, assess and share innovations to bring about the positive transformation of mobility.
Leadership means working now to prepare for the future of mobility. VINCI Concessions’ innovation ambition is focused on three main areas: smart infrastructure, flow management and the passenger experience. Harnessing its network-based structure, VINCI Concessions is trialling innovative solutions that are designed, deployed and jointly developed with support from the teams at its six centres of excellence on the ground in a “test and learn” approach. Each centre is located in a different country and focuses on a specific theme: London Gatwick works on excellence in airport operations; Lyon-Saint Exupéry innovates to improve customer engagement and the passenger experience; Lisbon specialises in smart infrastructure; Lima Expresa strives to innovate road safety; and Villognon comes up with solutions for railways. Meanwhile, in Texas, ViaPlus focuses on developing free-flow toll solutions.
Each business line benefits from progress and technology developed by VINCI Concessions experts. In airport security, London Gatwick has redesigned its tray access and management system, enabling passengers to handle their belongings more quickly and efficiently. This innovation has been rolled out in Portugal, Serbia, and even Japan. Another example is the trialling of innovative scanners carried out at Lyon-Saint Exupéry in 2023, in partnership with the French civil aviation authority (DGAC), which has also been implemented in Japan, as well as at London Gatwick, Lisbon and Nantes. This solution means that passengers no longer need to get their electric devices and liquids out of their luggage for security checks. At VINCI Highways, for example, digital technology and artificial intelligence is improving both infrastructure management and services provided to end users. Payment services have gone digital on the Bogotá Girardot and Lima Expresa highways in Colombia and Peru respectively. Also in Peru, an incident detection system using AI has been rolled out on the Lima expressways. Meanwhile, in Greece, the Athens Patras highway became the first in Greece to implement a connected lighting system that automatically adapts to traffic levels and driving conditions. And at VINCI Railways, drones are being explored as an option for railway line maintenance in collaboration with start-ups. VINCI Railways is also innovating by developing AI solutions for predictive maintenance, which could inspire other business lines.
