Case study
4D: in the driving seat BIM Academy’s Peter Barker explains how 4D modelling helped deliver the complex A19/A1058 Coast Road junction upgrade project and explores future trends we can expect to see in highways design
T
he A19/A1058 Coast Road junction is one of the busiest road intersections in the North East of England. In 2016, work started on a major upgrade to combat congestion and improve consistency in journey time. The £75m improvement project was a part of the UK Government’s £15 billion roads investment programme, which aimed to foster economic growth in the North East as part of the Northern Powerhouse initiative. The challenging project required the installation of a three-level flyover / underpass and roundabout. To help plan construction and support the critical need to maintain traffic flow throughout, while minimising disruption, it was one of the first major highways infrastructure projects in the UK to utilise 4D BIM.
Construction in a live environment In 2017, BIM Academy was approached by the JV supporting Highways England to work on the project. This was initially as a digital construction expert to assist in achieving compliance with the UK 42
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Government’s mandate for BIM Level 2, but the role quickly expanded to focus on delivering greater practical value throughout the two-year project and helped to bring the project in 31 weeks ahead of schedule. Design team WSP and construction JV partners Sisk/Lagan worked with BIM Academy on this incredibly complex project. The size and scale of the upgrade were of course a factor, but the real challenge lay in the fact that the junction is a major regional component of the Strategic Roads Network (SRN) – and had to remain active throughout the course of construction. Working in a busy, and potentially hazardous live environment involved heavy restrictions and constraints on the construction process, posing significant challenges to the timescale and budget of the project – and perhaps most importantly, the safety and logistics considerations of improving road user experience with minimal disruption to transport routes. An innovative solution was required to enable the project team to meet the safety requirements of a live environment,
while still delivering a high-quality end result. As well as tackling appropriate standards and protocols, providing guidance to design and construction teams, BIM Academy brought forward a proposal to use 4D technologies on the project.
Introducing 4D The idea was to link programme planning tools to the existing 3D digital design and terrain models, in order to more clearly visualise and communicate the construction sequence and potential barriers. Reviewing and assessing the potential construction sequences in a virtual environment became one of the project’s standard design steps before anything reached the live environment on site. Using programmes such as Revit, AutoCAD Civil 3D and Synchro, the team was able to visualise and analyse how construction sequencing would affect the live environment at any given time, by creating a visual dynamic sequence from the 3D model and planning software. Not only did this approach aid in the planning coordination and buildability, it www.AECmag.com
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