Destia, Finland’s largest infrastructure services company, built infrastructure for Vestas Wind Systems in Mutkalampi in central and northern Ostrobothnia. With 69 turbines, the wind farm will be Finland’s largest. The wind farm will come into operation in two phases: at the end of 2022, and in the July–September period in 2023.

Destia designed and built the roads to the wind farm site and the foundations for the turbines, as well as the medium voltage cabling for the wind farm’s electricity network. To ensure the project was completed on schedule and to the exact specifications, Destia used Infrakit’s state-of-the-art digital project technology. 

We interviewed Destia site manager Heikki Jakomaa about project management and monitoring from a project engineering perspective.

How did you use Infrakit in the project?

“The logistical organization of the infrastructure construction of the entire wind farm was carried out using Infrakit, including the road structures, substations, foundations and cabling.”

“Apart from project documentation, which was handled by other means as agreed, we used every other feature of Infrakit.”

“For us, modeling and machine automation were the most important things. Exporting drone images to maps was an extremely useful Infrakit feature for this project, as was using images to keep track of the current status of the various phases. In particular, being able to save images to the site maps and plans was extremely helpful for continuous communication with the client.”

“Keeping the client informed was convenient, because we could use the photos saved to show them the status of the project and the progress of the work at any given time.”

“The scale of the project was huge, extending for 14 kilometers in each direction and requiring a total of 69 kilometers of road to be built. If you had to actually visit the site to check the width of a ditch, for example, it would have taken at least an hour or two. With the help of Infrakit, we were able to make approximate measurements wherever we needed them using drone images taken at the site.”

“This is a fantastic feature of Infrakit – we used it many times to show the client the width of roads, among other things.”

“Being able to take normal photos via Infrakit and add them to the map adds a lot of value to the photos, as it ensures we’ll never lose track of where exactly a photo was taken.”

What made this project different from others?

“Because the physical scale of the project was huge, it was easier to monitor the progress of the work virtually. This computerized approach was more useful in this project than usual.”

What were the main benefits for you?

“Infrakit and the use of drone images allowed us to communicate clearly with the client about the different work phases and avoid misunderstandings.”

Did you come across any Infrakit features that were new to you?

“Among the features that were new to us was the surveying function using third-party survey equipment. It offers a wide range of possibilities.”

What would you say to companies in Central Europe, for example, that are considering using Infrakit?

“In our experience, foreign contractors are very particular about documentation. Infrakit makes clear and accurate real-time site documentation possible, which is increasingly valuable.”

“In particular, the export of drone images to site maps using Infrakit enabled us to keep the client closely informed about our progress – they were impressed with this.”

“I don’t know how this project could have been carried out without Infrakit. Even images alone can give a great deal of insight into the current state of a project. Without this, monitoring would have been very difficult.”

“I don’t know how this project could have been carried out without Infrakit. Real-time monitoring would have been impossible without it. Infrakit can extract a great deal of information from even a photo alone and create documentation for use in the next phase of the work.”

Photo: Destia