Com’in: Nuisance Control (Noise, Vibration, Air Quality and Mobility)

Construction sites are often synonymous with nuisances for the environment and the people living near the site where they operate: noise, vibration, reduced air quality (dust, odours, gas), disruption of road traffic, etc. If they are not controlled, these inconveniences can cause real distress for local residents and lead to a series of consequences (political risks for the municipality in place, financial stakes for the company). Solutions to effectively control the impact of their operations on the environment are in great demand among construction and industrial companies. Among them, Com’in, which is part of the Bouygues Group’s intrapreneurship programme, develops Shared Intelligence solutions, based on IoT (Internet of Things) and Artificial Intelligence technologies, which promote objective information and listening for better acceptance of these operations. Its two shareholders are Bouygues Construction and Colas. Presentation of the solution with Laurent Mareuge, its CEO – Founder.

What is the solution and how does it work?

Com’in is a decision support tool that allows operations managers to be more reactive and efficient in controlling nuisances related to construction sites: beyond the regulations that today require a simple monitoring of environmental nuisances, Com’in offers a real-time identification of sources of nuisance, coupled with a communication interface with local residents. On the one hand, a network of intelligent sensors installed in the field identifies the nature of the nuisance (noise, vibration, atmospheric, mobility). All the data collected is sent, in real time, to the NuisAlgo platform, Com’in’s back-office, which analyses these records and sends alerts by text message or email to the operations managers if authorised thresholds are exceeded. All information on events is consolidated on this same web interface and allows the operation manager to control them in real time. On the other hand, the Com’in mobile application for the general public enables local residents to be informed about the planning of potentially disruptive future events and to organise themselves accordingly: “better informed local residents, a more accepted operation.” It also allows local residents to report perceived nuisances, which are then correlated with data from the sensors. The reports are therefore compared with evidence and serve as a nuisance assessment scale for the operation manager. In short, Com’in is a pack of à la carte solutions that can be adapted to the specificities of each profession and each site. A pre-visit of the site allows us to identify the most suitable functionalities and to propose a tailor-made offer.

What are the first feedback elements?

We note that Com’in was launched at a time when this type of service is in great demand in the market. On the site of the T3A lot of the Grand Paris Express (Pont de Sèvres, Issy RER, Fort d’Issy-Vanves-Clamart), a pilot site for the deployment of Com’in, the solution was definitively adopted to replace the initial environmental monitoring service provider. The Société du Grand Paris, convinced of the need to objectively inform local residents in order to improve the acceptability of its many work sites, has also decided to deploy the solution on the 50 most sensitive operations of the Grand Paris Express. As for the resident reporting feature, enabling the use of residents’ feeling as a scale for assessing nuisance, this will soon be deployed on the Charles De Gaulle Express project led by SNCF Réseau.

One year after the marketing of the first solutions (October 2019), what is the outlook for Com’in?

The solution is currently deployed in some thirty operations, including a number of prestigious clients such as Société du Grand Paris, SNCF Réseau, RATP and the Principality of Monaco. Our order intake surged in 2020, showing a strong appetite for Com’in among companies and project owners. We aim to roll out a hundred or so projects by the end of 2021, in France and abroad. For example, our solution has just been selected for projects in Switzerland (SIPLO – Losinger Marazzi project) and in the United States (PAWTUCKET project – Bouygues Travaux Publics). Com’in’s ambition is to respond to all dimensions of nuisances from construction or industrial operations (noise, vibration, atmospheric, mobility, etc.) by joining forces with leading partners in each of these fields to offer a global solution for controlling environmental impacts and thus contribute to “living well together”.   For more information: https://comin-city.com/ demo video of the platform https://youtu.be/gMKiELyFhuk