This year’s challenge focused on three themes that reflect the future of O&M:
- Safe Work, Smart Ideas – enhancing safety and well-being through innovation
- Digital & AI: Smarter, Faster – transforming operations with automation and data
- Beyond the Blueprint – advancing technical excellence with bold new strategies.
Across the network, teams responded with ideas rooted in real operational challenges, and with the potential to scale far beyond their home assets.
The three winning projects: automatic cone laying, AI-based incident detection and adaptive highway lighting
The winners of the Safe Work, Smart Ideas category were our Turkish team for their project on Automatic Cone Laying & Collecting Machine for Efficient Traffic Management in the Eurasia Tunnel. Manual cone placement was very challenging, due to height restrictions and safety risks during tunnel closures. An automated machine was developed to fit the tunnel’s dimensions, allowing operators to stay safely inside the vehicle. Capable of placing and retrieving up to 400 cones, the system is 66% faster than manual methods and significantly reduces operator exposure to risk. Touchscreen controls make the process simple, consistent and far safer.
The winners of the Digital & AI: Smarter, Faster category were the Kazakhstan team, with their project on AI-Based Incident Detection Platform Using Existing ANPR Infrastructure. They implemented an AI-based incident detection platform on the 66 km BAKAD ring road in Almaty, using existing ANPR cameras. The system analyses real-time traffic data to detect incidents, such as abnormal travel times or missing vehicles, without the need for new equipment. Since going live in October 2025, it has cut detection times from hours to minutes, improved safety and traffic flow, lowered costs, and eased operator workload, helping the team manage 70,000 vehicles daily and rapidly identifying around 34 stopped vehicles per day.
The winners of the Beyond the blueprint category were AESA, operators of Poland’s A2 highway, with their project: Adaptive Highway Lighting Driven by Real-Time Traffic Conditions. They addressed the issue of fixed road lighting that doesn’t reflect real traffic conditions. Their adaptive lighting system adjusts brightness dynamically based on live traffic data, using the existing infrastructure while maintaining all safety requirements. Since its launch in September 2024, the system has delivered a 35% reduction in annual energy consumption and cut CO₂ emissions by 278 tonnes, demonstrating how operational excellence and environmental responsibility can go hand in hand.
The winners received their awards during the Egis O&M Club, our annual gathering of leaders from across the network. Beyond recognising outstanding projects, the Challenge continues to strengthen a culture where innovation is everyone’s responsibility, and where ideas from the field can scale to deliver measurable value for clients, partners and the communities we serve.