Construction contractors who want to bid on government contracts need to use NIST 800-171 and other cybersecurity frameworks requirements
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Welcome to Trimble Construction One — the Future of Connected Construction
Get the details on the latest construction management software, with new model-based estimating, service management, on-demand licenses, and more.
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Leslie Shiner's tips for maximizing construction cash flow and improving contractors' bottom lines.
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The phrase “digital twin” regularly comes up in forward-thinking conversations about construction innovation and technology, making it one of the most buzzed about topics in the industry.
What exactly is a digital twin? Simply put, it’s a digital replica of a built asset. It’s important to note that a digital twin isn’t just a static copy of a building. Ultimately, it provides a bi-directional link between the digital and physical worlds, so that the digital reflects everything that’s happening with regard to a real world asset’s utilization performance.
More than just a buzzword or trend, digital twins can truly transform how we develop and maintain buildings.
On Episode 16 of Digital Builder, Bob Bray, Senior Director & General Manager for Autodesk Tandem and Tim Kelly, Senior Product Manager at Autodesk, joined us to shed light on the ins and outs of digital twins. In this episode, we covered:
“Don’t think about digital twins as something that’s so far-fetched that you can’t achieve it today. It’s a tool that you can start small with and ultimately develop over time.” — Tim Kelly
Interested in learning more about Autodesk Tandem? Check it out here.
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One of the key themes in this episode is simply deciding where to start the process. If a hypothetical owner or contractor wanted to implement a digital twin, what are the initial steps they should take?
According to Bob and Tim, construction professionals should do the following.
Remember, a digital twin is more than just a replica of a built asset. Rather, it’s a dynamic, real-time version of a building that’s closely linked to the physical asset. Ideally, both the physical and digital assets are maintained properly in order to fully reap the benefits of having a digital twin.
As Bob puts it, “At the end of the day, a digital twin is — if it’s healthy — a living, breathing entity. It’s the current state of your facility and everything about it.”
It takes commitment to create and maintain a digital twin, so in order to obtain buy-in from stakeholders, you need to help them understand the advantages of having one.
An important benefit is that a digital twin collects real-time performance data. It displays this data in a meaningful way to provide insights that can help owners better understand how their assets are doing and if they are meeting the necessary KPIs.
“If you have certain sustainable goals, you’ll be able to see if you’re achieving them. If you have equipment and want to measure mean time between failure, having a digital twin helps you do that,” explains Bob.
The bottom line, he says, is that “A digital twin gives you the knowledge to inform, predict, and look at future decisions based on how that asset is performing in the real world.”
Another important value proposition is the time and cost savings that owners can realize through the use of digital twins.
Rather than doing expensive site surveys, says Bob, owners can rely on digital twins to give them the data they need without having to physically be in the building.
A digital twin can also streamline building maintenance, as it keeps all the necessary information under a single pane of glass. In many traditional buildings, data is fed into disjointed systems that make it difficult to surface meaningful insights. A digital twin, in contrast, provides a holistic platform on which data can be accessed and used.
Once you get the green light to get started with digital twins, it can be tempting to try to do as much as you can right from the get-go.
However, your efforts will be much more successful if you start pragmatically. The key isn’t to revamp all your assets and collect tremendous amounts of data. It’s far better to be intentional with what you build and collect. Prioritize the assets that you absolutely need to manage first and go from there.
“One of the challenges that people face is they want to collect absolutely everything about everything,” says Tim. “But if you’re intentional about what you want collected and what data you want to leverage — and you can think about how that gets organized — then you’re in a much better spot.”
If you aren’t sure where to start, Tim recommends looking at industry standards and using them as guidance. “Ultimately, you can whittle that down and narrow that information over time and put it into practical application.”
It’s also important to have a discussion with your team on what assets are required, says Bob.
“An essential action step is getting together with your facility management team and understanding — from an FM perspective — the assets you need to manage in that facility going forward,” he says.
Bob recommends asking questions like:
Once you have that conversation, get the necessary components in the contract and have the team deliver everything in a digital format, rather than an analog set of papers.
“If we can get this data in our hands at project turnover, then I think that’s where the industry changes and the opportunity that owners have to really kick start this process and put it into high gear,” Bob adds.
The success of your digital twin doesn’t just lie in its creation; you need to maintain it as well.
As Tim points out, “If you’re not using the information [from the digital twin], and you’re not engaging with it, then you’re ultimately going to have stagnant data.”
He adds, “You need to be actively engaging and using the digital twin to maintain and operate the facility.”
Maintaining your built and digital assets takes commitment and ongoing effort. Buildings and facilities change over time. Components are swapped out, renovations take place, and assets need to be updated to stay current.
Amidst all this, it’ll be extremely helpful to assign a point person to look after the digital twin and ensure that it evolves along with its physical counterpart.
“Certainly, if you’re looking at adapting a digital twin, you need a point person or a team member involved,” remarks Tim.
“It could ultimately be part of the capital projects team or maybe even part of the facilities maintenance team, but I would say you need to appoint someone to look after that and be the liaison for other contributors and consumers over time.”
Depending on the situation, it may also make sense for contractors to take on the responsibility.
“There’s a clear opportunity for AEC firms and for contractors to become a better partner and help manage that digital data on behalf of that owner,” says Bob.
“Many times, owners don’t have the detailed experience in this, and contractors do. That’s one value that they can bring to the owner. It tightens up the partnership between the contractor and it facilitates better communication between the two. It’s also a much longer opportunity to work together and delivers more value to the owner over time.”
During our conversation Bob and Tim shared so much more about digital twins and how AEC pros and owners can be more successful when using them. Catch the full conversation by checking out Episode 16 of Digital Builder on the following platforms:
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Mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) systems are essential to commercial and residential buildings. In turn, MEP contractors are critical to modern infrastructure projects. These construction professionals work with arguably the most complex and technical aspects of the building process, which require expertise, careful planning, and strict execution.
Understandably, this complex role comes with unique challenges. MEP contractors work with a range of stakeholders and must skillfully communicate to builders how they’ll tackle project complexities while sticking to the timeline and budget. In recent years, MEP contractors have relied more heavily on emerging and established technologies to streamline workflows, increase collaboration, and improve outcomes. The most popular technologies are easy to deploy and deliver the greatest ROI. We’ve captured our favorite innovations to help address a range of potential obstacles including accessibility, productivity, and resource planning below.
Fabrication software is incredibly helpful in providing real-time insights for better decision making—from the shop to the field. It aids in spooling a model into its component parts for fabrication, tracking shop processes for assembly, and field processes for installation. The best software is flexible enough to handle a variety of different jobs without sacrificing the precision required to get the job done right.
With the construction industry continuing to set the bar higher on fabricators, the solutions are getting better too. It’s worth mentioning — just because a solution is more “advanced” doesn’t mean it’s more “difficult to use.” Below are three areas of fabrication software, with examples, to help paint a better picture of where this technology is going.
MEP firms leverage fabrication software to win more profitable work by automating routine and time-intensive tasks. One company doing this well is Allied BIM. The innovation of their fabrication technology lies in its delivery of autonomous cutting stations. Automated cutting tools are designed to help fabricators synchronize cut lists to remote shop locations from their BIM 360 model packages. These tools help automate the positioning of cuts directly on the fabrication machines — helping to generate designs, eliminate messy cut lines, automate assembly and spooling processes, and reduce overall fabrication time.
Beyond automated cutting tools, Allied BIM’s Fabrication Suite offers powerful solutions to enhance the fabrication process by uniting teams across design, fabrication, and field deployment with a huge focus on enabling better prefabrication, tracking, and real-time communication with field employees.
One of the key challenges in construction productivity is that critical information often lives in silos. In other words, the information is often there but inaccessible to stakeholders who may not be aware of its existence. Productivity tracking software aims to resolve that. MSUITE, for example, allows an organization to provide transparency in progress while flagging any roadblocks that may be holding up a project. Through connecting BIM, fabrication and field teams, users are able to reduce costs, increase productivity, efficiency and safety.
With tools like MSUITE, MEP contractors can track, manage, and collaborate on improving efficiencies throughout each stage of a project life cycle. They allow management of spooling, fabrication, and even installation of premade items. This software makes it easier to monitor and track productivity with deep insights or at-a-glance reports.
MEP contractors benefit from having a more accurate picture of their resource needs. Once the design phase of a building is complete, supply chain and resource planning tools come into play. This is especially important for MEP contractors who often operate on tight budgets with resource-heavy commitments.
Software like Stratus, for example, allows contractors to more effectively meet and manage their supply chain needs. While offering a full suite of solutions for the entire BIM 360 process, we want to call out their Packages feature since we’re talking about supply chain tools.
In most cases, it’s unrealistic to put a barcode on every pipe and part, then scan every barcode at every phase in the shop. This is where Stratus’ innovative technology excels. Their software allows you to organize parts by Package in the model. By scanning a single part in the shop, all packaged parts are updated. This gives you insight into where they’re at, so you can more accurately determine when they’ll get to where they need to be.
Tools like this make it easier to measure and communicate project progress. Whether needing a high-level look or granular procurement numbers, supply chain tools provide detailed insights that can save a ton of time and money.
Project management software is similar to productivity tracking software in that it allows detailed tracking, documentation, and reporting. However, project management tools diverge in that they focus on project progress, rather than progress along a sub process, like fabrication or installation. With these tools, you can monitor and track every stage of a project’s life cycle from simple task management to completions, dependencies, and roadblocks in a unified and holistic context.
Project management software like Autodesk Construction Cloud can help MEP contractors coordinate between the office and the field while centralizing data and documentation. Additionally, leadership can get a clear picture into progress with visuals of timeline goals and completions.
The connected platform acts as the single source of truth for design and build decisions by housing all data in a common data environment (CDE). Autodesk Construction Cloud also has a robust ecosystem of integration partners, enabling the platform to serve as the foundation for a connected technology stack. This enables MEP contractors to seamlessly leverage comprehensive construction management software in tandem with a more trade-specific tool. For instance, Autodesk Construction Cloud can also be integrated with trade-specific project management software such as eSUB. The software is designed to help subcontractors standardize their project management process. By leveraging preconfigured forms on the jobsite for MEP work, subcontractors can work more efficiently and reduce costs, errors, and time spent redundantly tracking down progress of tasks.
Next up in MEP innovations, we have construction layout software. Specifically, the software helps contractors plot out an easy-to-follow plan by knowing what goes where on any site. No guesswork. This also mitigates a very real concern of collision tracking. It provides building-critical insights for every step of the project and allows complete transparency into the complex workings of MEP.
One noteworthy construction layout tool is Leica iCON, of the famous Leica cameras. It allows contractors to verify MEP parts that have been installed in the building. Through integration with Autodesk, MEP contractors can ensure crews are working with the most up-to-date design and that their teams have accurate field data. Being able to cross every ‘t’ in a highly complex build is essential. As Leica iCON notes, “fast, accurate verification in building construction is a significant concern for our customers.” Being able to share accurate design and field data seamlessly helps to streamline critical MEP workflows.
Augmented reality (AR) “superimposes digital information in a user’s view of the real world, allowing you to see real and digital worlds together.” It’s an exciting time for construction. For MEP contractors, this might look like holding up a tablet and seeing piping plans overlay your view from the camera. It’s hard to think of a better way to step into the future and visualize the different stages of a project. Ease of use is a priority and these innovations have a pretty good head start. They’ve been made possible using the same technology being used in video game development, filmmaking, automotive design, and architecture.
VisualLive is one of the AR technologies bringing the future to MEP contractors. Its HoloLive
product works with Microsoft’s HoloLens and headsets to overlay 3D CAD files on jobsites. Through the mixed reality technology, contractors can see their plans right on-site, in real time. All a contractor has to do is adapt their hard hat and put on some glasses to see their MEP plans in “real life”.
The benefits of AR technology like VisualLive, for MEP contractors, includes everything from increased safety and cost reduction to acceleration of strategic decision-making. The hands-free sets provide a safe way to communicate on-site with stakeholders to discuss progress, resource needs, and site risks.
Today, managing and submitting bids is about more than volume and speed. You don’t want another contractor swooping in because you’re lost in your own numbers. MEP contractors need to be able to assess cost and risk as well as ensure accuracy. Bid management software can help contractors increase the success rate of bids by allowing for quick adjustments.
Powerful preconstruction tools, like BuildingConnected, help owners and builders more quickly assess cost and risk before embarking on a project. MEP contractors can track and maintain current projects while gathering insights into their overall bidding performance to achieve better overall outcomes.
For MEP contractors, these technologies not only bring value, but help firms tap into innovations that save time and money on projects. These innovations also drive the potential for profits in the long term by increasing accessibility to complex processes, enhancing the visibility of data, and allowing for efficient scaling of their businesses.
Learn how Autodesk Construction Cloud integrates with these products and others in our ecosystem on our website.
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Machine learning has been making waves in the construction industry. But what does that really mean and how are teams using this seemingly futuristic technology today?
Let’s start by unpacking the concept of machine learning, a subset of artificial intelligence. Machine learning uses algorithms that allow computers to learn from data without being explicitly programmed to solve a specific problem. Without knowing it, you probably already leverage the benefits of machine learning in your daily life. For example, consider the filters on your email that tag incoming messages as ‘spam.’ This is a perfect example where machine learning identifies certain keywords or senders and automatically knows if an email is likely to be spam. And as more people flag certain emails as spam, the algorithm becomes smarter. Over time more spam is being accurately tagged, benefiting inboxes everywhere.
So how does that work in construction?
There are a lot of great use cases for how machine learning can improve our industry. For example, companies like Smartvid use image recognition to scan jobsite photos and flag safety concerns. Pype uses SmartPlans to scan through drawings to identify submittals or potential submittals and organizes them. Even TradeTapp ingests data to compare subcontractor risk levels and proactively mitigate against project risk.
All of these products are leveraging machine learning to help simplify and automate construction workflows. And one of the industry’s most powerful machine learning based capabilities is through Autodesk’s Construction IQ.
At Autodesk, our focus is applying machine learning to deliver better products and user experiences for our customers to make their work lives better. Construction IQ for the Autodesk Construction Cloud platform and BIM 360 does just that. With built-in machine learning technology, it helps teams to predict, prevent, and manage risk by giving them instant visibility into daily priorities, a snapshot of individual project health, and insight into company-wide performance across projects.
We spoke with Michael Murphy, Digital Construction Operations Manager at BAM Ireland, to understand how Construction IQ is helping to drive safer, higher-quality projects for its teams with less risk. Here are some great examples of how Construction IQ can specifically help teams across various workflows:
One of the most important goals on a jobsite is to ensure everyone goes home safely at the end of each day. Safety management is by no means a new concept. But with Construction IQ, teams can spend more time looking into leading indicators that can predict and reduce safety issues rather than responding to lagging incidents.
For example, 60% of all construction related deaths are attributed to accidents occurring within one of the “fatal four” categories; fall, caught in between, electric, and struck by. Construction IQ uses its machine learning technology to categorize jobsite issues that fall into these categories so that teams can quickly see, prioritize, and address the most pressing issues.
“Construction IQ gives us laser sharp focus in terms of the health and safety issues onsite, enabling our teams to focus and track leading safety indicators, whilst working with our supply chain partners more effectively,” says Murphy. “By visualising safety issues such as high-risk subcontractors or high-risk safety items, we can address issues right away, resulting in a heightened level of safety on-site.”
Keeping track and maintaining project quality is another critical part of a successful project. But it’s challenging for teams to understanding where to focus attention to address these issues.
Through the Quality Risk Factor card in both the Autodesk Construction Cloud platform and BIM 360, you can easily see a list of high risk subcontractors and issues predicted by Construction IQ. These could have been tagged if there was some indication of rework, inspection risk, or water related risk as water infiltration can be a primary cause of high-risk quality issues as construction progresses.
“Construction IQ surfaces all of the leading quality-related trends that support our teams in focusing on helping our partners succeed in their execution,” says Murphy. “By flagging an issue that poses high risk earlier in the process, we can eliminate any issues before it significantly impacts the quality of the project.”
Through internal research, we found out that over 70% of RFIs stem from design or documentation issues. Diving a bit deeper, unsuccessful projects (classified by profit margins) tend to have 50% more RFIs, with a root cause in Design & Engineering or documentation issues, than successful projects. It is critical to resolve these design issues as early as possible, so they don’t become higher cost impact RFIs later during construction.
With the Design Risk Factor card, you can see design specific risk such as code compliance issues, issues to critical building components, and errors and omissions in design and documentation.
“The Design Risk Factor card provides insight into design issue trending, which enables our design teams to concentrate on areas of the design that are on our critical path,” says Murphy. “By identifying design issues earlier in the process, we can avoid any necessary cost overruns or schedule delays.”
Teams often struggle in prioritizing which RFIs to focus on. This can frequently lead to additional rework, schedule delays, and cost overruns. Furthermore, design and construction information are often disconnected, increasing the total number of RFIs in general.
Our data experts found that projects that prioritized closing more critical RFIs faster were more successful. So how can teams better prioritize and manage RFIs?
The Construction IQ driven RFI Risk Factor card breaks down RFIs based on those tagged as higher risk, any MEP or Structural RFIs, RFIs that have a root cause in design coordination, documentation errors, or code compliance since these tend to drive the most cost or schedule related impact.
“Construction IQ provides critical insight into the status and progress of RFI’s on which to prioritise by level of risk,” says Murphy. “This reduces the level of effort normally required by us to manage this process on a daily basis, allowing us to focus on other critical areas of the project.”
Harness the power of Construction IQ’s built-in machine learning and AI functionality to predict, prevent and manage risks to cost, schedule, quality, and safety. Learn more here.
We recently spoke to two industry experts on the future of AI and machine learning in construction on our Digital Builder podcast. Listen to the full episode here.
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Construction management is a highly complex and multi-dimensional collaborative effort. To execute on projects effectively, several people and moving parts all need to click and stay in sync. Issues need to be resolved quickly, questions must be answered in a timely manner, and there should be trust and accountability across the entire team.
Accomplishing all that, however, is easier said than done.
Design and construction teams struggle to find a seamless way to identify issues and circulate them to the appropriate stakeholders. Often, teams rely on spreadsheets, static reports, or third-party management solutions to gather information and make decisions.
Unfortunately, these tools and sources are unreliable and inaccessible to the wider team. They cause confusion and are ultimately ineffective for detecting clashes and resolving issues. Not to mention, the manual tasks involved with static documents and spreadsheets are tedious, time consuming, and can cause issues to slip through the cracks.
The result? Issues that could’ve been avoided bubble up to the surface later on in the form of rework — and unnecessary costs. Clashes alone account for 5% of construction spend and 52% of the $280 billion of annual rework costs are caused by poor project data and communication globally.
To address this, many companies turn to third-party point solutions to address specific problems. However, these programs usually require further training and implementation, as well as additional costs.
To make matters more complicated, the different parties involved (e.g., design firms, GCs, and subcontractors) all use different systems and platforms. The JBKnowledge 2020 ConTech report found that 63% of construction pros are using three to six more apps — which makes integration and communication harder and limits project data usage.
All this to say that managing project issues in construction can be a headache.
What if you could address issues at the same time and at the same place, to streamline resolution?
The combination of Autodesk BIM Collaborate (part of the Autodesk Construction Cloud platform), Navisworks, and Revit makes all that possible.
Thanks to the tight integration between these solutions, issues can be created, managed, or resolved directly in the tools you work in daily, and are connected using a common data environment (CDE).
By surfacing and resolving issues in a CDE, you create a lasting history of decisions made for downstream stakeholders for future reference. It also allows multidisciplinary teams with different tools to manage and communicate about issues using a common solution.
All in all, this paves the way for a roundtrip workflow, which helps teams close the loop with any clashes or issues that arise.
Issues created in either Autodesk BIM Collaborate or Navisworks can be assigned and contextualized in either of those tools and resolved in Revit. That resolution then makes its way back to Autodesk BIM Collaborate for reporting and future project forecasting.
Let’s take a look at just one of the ways all these solutions work together.
Autodesk BIM Collaborate’s browser-based model coordination and design collaboration tool comes with automatic clash detection and grouping tools that help identify issues early on. The software’s UI is intuitive and easy on the eyes, so all discipline types (designers, GCs, and specialty contractors) can use the solution.
Team members can self-check their work as they go, and if issues come up, they can flag it with a location pin and add details such as the root cause, description, important dates, and clash screenshot. From there, they can assign the issue to the appropriate stakeholder.
Because multiple stakeholders can take part in identifying and assigning issue tasks, the coordination process is faster and much more streamlined. Issues and their associated models are stored in a common data environment for multi-team, product, and construction phase access to action on.
This Navisworks add-in connects models, views, and issues through a CDE, so BIM/VDC managers can easily create, track, assign, and resolve issues directly in their desktop application.
If a Navisworks user is unsure about an issue, they can simply comment directly within the platform. Similar to Autodesk BIM Collaborate, users can add issues and include details like type, location, assignee, description, and due date. They can then pair that issue with an image snapshot of the clash identified. Thanks to this add-in, stakeholders using the software can better contextualize the issue, resolve it, or assign it to someone else.
Navisworks also has an updated Coordination Space and Append capabilities. With the upgraded issues add-in, users now have the ability to append additional models from a Model Coordination space to their already opened set of models. This increases the efficiency of coordination meetings by allowing users to immediately update your .nwf files as new model files arrive from project design teams.
Plus, this free add-in seamlessly connects with Autodesk BIM Collaborate and Revit, so there’s no need for third-party integrations. You’ll reduce manual work and miscommunication, and resolve issues more quickly.
See for yourself by downloading and installing this add-in from the Autodesk App Store. Once installed, start Navisworks and navigate to the Coordination tab.
Using the very same common data environment and issues layer, architects and engineers working in Revit can scan through all the details we covered above and any additional information from the comments/history, to resolve the issue directly in the model.
This type of connectivity displays the same information to the entire project team, thus enabling stakeholders to literally stay on the same (digital) page. Stakeholders benefit from having more transparency and greater levels of accountability which result in less rework from issues slipping through the cracks.
Instead of waiting until the next coordination meeting to resolve an issue, users can continuously collaborate on models, speeding up time-to-site and reducing the expensive design iterations that occur from poor and sporadic communication.
You access this add-in from the Autodesk Desktop App or your Autodesk account. Get more info on how to use it from the Autodesk Knowledge Network.
Autodesk BIM Collaborate, along with the Navisworks and Revit add-ins, take issue management to a whole new level.
These tightly integrated tools don’t just let you track or manage issues, they create an environment to collaborate and resolve them.
Issue resolution is tracked in Autodesk BIM Collaborate with a dashboard of outstanding issues and resolution overtime, paving the way for better management and prediction for future projects.
Plus, the entire project team can work together to resolve issues and collaborate with a “clash avoidance” mindset (as opposed to a “clash detection” mindset). This speeds up the time-to-site and reduces costly rework.
With a roundtrip workflow, issues are created in either Autodesk Construction Cloud or Navisworks, and actionable in Autodesk BIM Collaborate, Revit, or Navisworks, bringing the best of each environment to your next project.
Interested in experiencing Autodesk BIM Collaborate for yourself? Request a trial today.
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Did you know that technology is increasingly playing an important role in the rail industry, helping to achieve safety milestones, meet passenger demand and expectations as well as reducing the impact on the environment? For the rail industry, an exciting era of innovation is underway supporting train operating companies and rail asset owners to analyse, monitor and track data collected and captured to enhance safety, reliability and service to customers.
For BAM Nuttall, technology has played an important role in the delivery of two major rail projects from 2017, with the ambition to improve rail capacity in the North West of England. One project for Merseytravel involved preparing the rail infrastructure for a new fleet of Stadler trains. This £18m Merseytravel Depot Construction Contract (DCC) project included upgrading the existing Train Maintenance Depot (TMD) at Kirkdale, with stabling facilities, maintenance sheds, offices and a training simulator.
Running concurrently, the Northern Train Lengthening programme was a £3.9m project for Network Rail to extend all the platforms at five stations between Streethouse (Featherstone) and Knottingley in Yorkshire. The new platforms would accommodate the three car trains used in the new fleet, delivering a 50% increase in capacity. The complex, multidisciplinary projects incorporated rail, civil engineering, mechanical and electrical specialisms.
Safety is a key aspect to any rail project due to the complexity of the structures, the incredible attention-to-detail and meticulous planning needed to successfully deliver works around an operational train line. For BAM Nuttall, these projects were no different, and data is a key link to delivering these two projects safely, efficiently and on time. The team had to think outside the box to manage the projects’ health, safety and quality key performance objectives, and for Construction Project Manager Raymond Castelyn, it wasn’t workable to rely on paper-based processes.
“At the beginning of the project, the paper-based document management was a nightmare,” recalls Raymond. “The site was too large to be carrying around big drawings with you – and we had 150 drawings that were being regularly updated. Identifying locations could be a challenge, as the appearance of the site before and after the project was as different as night and day.”
For the team working on the project, manual processes also slowed down the project’s progress. Photos taken of the site had to be downloaded from devices, saved in a folder and then relabelled with their location, to make them searchable. Manual methods of working were also used to identify and report both health & safety and quality issues, through track sheets. “The documents would be printed and then filled out manually, normally when people got back to the office – so it was hard to be sure they were always accurate,” recalls Raymond.
The team was not only relying on manual processes for their operational activity but also for performance tracking, which made it difficult to quickly identify trends and patterns that could precede undesirable outcomes. “With the paper-based processes, we had no traceability, mobility or transparency – and it wasn’t sustainable.” So, Raymond decided to find and adopt a solution that would improve upon traditional techniques for gathering, analysing and reporting the site data.
BIM 360, an Autodesk Construction Cloud product, is a unified platform that connects project teams and data in real-time, from design through construction. BAM Nuttall had been using BIM 360 on a selection of projects since 2012 so Raymond and the team decided to implement it into these significant rail projects. They were equipped with five iPads to use on-site and from January 2018 and the project moved to an entirely digital way of working using BIM 360.
From photo tracking of activity on site to producing a 3D model of the project, the technology has supported BAM Nuttall to work in a more connected way, helping the team to navigate the complexities of these projects and ultimately make better decisions. Being able to access drawings and models allowed the team to coordinate better: “We had a 3D model of the 1,040 individual buried services revealed by the ground penetrating survey. If I went on-site and someone asked me, ‘Where’s that water main?’ I could look it up on the iPad and say with complete confidence, ‘It’s two meters from that manhole.’ That was hugely important,” says Raymond.
The two projects benefitted from improved levels of accountability. Being able to track the cost of each Non Conformance Report (NCR) and identify challenges with any subcontractors or elements supported this. The team generated reports using BIM 360 to send to each subcontractor on a weekly basis and monthly reports were also shared with the client and the wider BAM Nuttall team. This helped improve visibility and communication across all contributors.
On both projects, efficiencies were improved significantly using BIM 360, according to data that the project team collected. On the Merseytravel DCC, the project saw savings of 13.4 hours in a 50-hour week per person when averaged across the team, resulting in a 27% increase in efficiency. The results on the smaller Northern Train Lengthening programme were consistent, with 16.2 hours saved per person per week, equivalent to a 32% increase in efficiency. Team members noted in a survey that the impact on their working day was significant: “Huge time and cost savings can be made on a project by using BIM 360 to manage the site.”
Using BIM 360 to capture data on site helped the team handover the project to their client, supporting them with better insights on the asset. The platform opened up significant possibilities for data analytics, as due to the rich data export function, the information could be visualised in PowerBI. Raymond asserts: “Having all the data in one place means you can start doing the smart stuff. You can track close calls and issues or pick up problems in particular areas like concrete. Traditionally it would be really complex to pull that information from Excel sheets, but with BIM 360 the data is exported with the click of a button. Data is what it will all be about going forward, and with BIM 360 you get a solid foundation in place.”
The Merseytravel Depot Construction project was the first time that a 3D model had been linked into BIM 360 in the rail division. And, following the success of the project, in 2019, BAM Nuttall have rolled out BIM 360 across most rail projects with similar successes achieved.
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Did you know you can cycle from Rotterdam in the Netherlands to the Shetland Isles off the tip of Scotland? Admittedly, there’s a ferry or two along the way. But the two locations are linked by the North Sea cycle route, a 7,050 km path across six countries. Cyclists get to enjoy 18 UNESCO sites, cliff top views and bustling cities – all on a single ambitious trail.
This is just one part of Europe’s incredible cycling infrastructure. Bring your bike to Holland and you can traverse 4,500 km of long-distance routes specifically for cycling holidays – or try the Elbe cycle route, spanning the incredible sandstone mountains in Switzerland and the beautiful city of Prague.
The popularity of cycling in Europe has increased significantly during the pandemic, with people taking to their bikes for commuting, fitness and relaxation. But the organisations that build and maintain cycling infrastructure have a key role to play in making this a sustained trend.
Here’s how the construction industry can help to create a bigger, safer cycling infrastructure across Europe.
Governments have long promoted the benefits of cycling: it reduces carbon emissions, lowers air pollution, eases the pressure on public transport and improves physical and mental health. But it was the events of 2020 – including concerns about social distancing and limited train services – that prompted a massive rise in cycling across Europe.
In June, Paris saw its monthly ridership grow by 120% compared to the previous year. Even wintry weather didn’t deter Berlin’s cyclists, with rates in December up by 23% over 2019. Meanwhile in the UK, sales of bicycles and accessories grew by 45% in 2020.
Countries have been eager to take advantage of this interest by introducing a range of measures to promote cycling and help citizens shift their extra lockdown kilos. The UK government introduced pop up bike lanes and corridors during the pandemic to make it easier to get around. Italy’s Covid-19 recovery package includes a 70% subsidy for bike purchases.
But another crucial piece of the puzzle in every country will be creating a safe and appealing cycling infrastructure to keep new riders on the road – and this is where digital construction can help.
The right road design can help keep cyclists safe. In fact, research shows that prioritising cyclists in road layouts can result in fewer fatalities for cyclists, motorists and pedestrians too. This means incorporating features like dedicated bike lanes, which can lead to 90% fewer injuries per mile; protected intersections, that physically separate bikes and other traffic; and bus stops, which reduce the risk of injury to cyclists
Digital tools like mobility simulators can help planners to assess how the route would work in real life. With multimodal analysis, it’s possible to simulate how traffic, pedestrians and cyclists would interact with each other in a given design – and optimise for effectiveness, cost and safety. As well as saving traffic analysts time, this helps to ensure that the planned infrastructure will meet the needs of road users for years to come.
Successfully planning cycling infrastructure often involves many stakeholders – and keeping everyone fully up to date can be a significant undertaking. Using BIM models and digital collaboration platforms makes it much easier to share designs for input and approval. With real-time visibility of feedback and suggestions, these tools can speed up the whole process.
Importantly, these models can also be used to share plans with the public during planning and construction. 3D tools can help people to visualise the finished design and likely impact on the area. Local communities can also get the opportunity to offer useful insights on issues like the location of end of trip facilities and bike storage – factors which can have a significant influence on cycling uptake. This engagement can not only raise awareness of planned infrastructure, but ultimately encourage people to take to their bikes when the new routes open.
The road surface is hugely important to the comfort and safety of cyclists. Asphalt concrete’s low friction and smooth surface make it the surface of choice in Denmark, for example; by contrast, gravel and paving slabs can become uneven and potentially dangerous. The quality of the surface construction is critical. Bumps and dents in the road can not only ruin the experience, but contribute to falls and accidents.
Digital construction platforms like Autodesk Build can ensure that everyone on-site has the information needed to build right first time, while quality control tools ensure that any issues are addressed before routes open. This helps to ensure a top-quality cycling route, that will keep cyclists safe for years to come.
The increase in cycling is one of the few positives to emerge from the pandemic. But to encourage people to stay on their bikes in the years ahead, it will be important to keep improving and constructing new routes to make cycling convenient, safe and enjoyable.
Technology can support everyone involved in delivering cycling infrastructure: from the owners looking to deliver the best value for the public through to the subcontractors aiming to finish on time, on budget and to the highest quality possible. Using digital tools, we can help everyone to get the most out of these infrastructure investments – and enjoy more time on two wheels.
Read how digital modelling can support safer post-Covid commuting.
Or if you’re a cycling fan, check out how the Tour de France and other sporting icons adapted to Covid-19.
The post Tête de la Course: How Digital Construction Can Grow Europe’s Cycling Infrastructure appeared first on Digital Builder.