In the\nprevious article we discussed the importance of infrastructure towards any\ncountry’s growth and development as well its significant contribution towards a\ncountry’s employment. Furthermore, UK’s investment in infrastructure was discussed\nwith the focus on HS2 railway project and how BIM Services for railways could\nbe essential for its construction and management. In part two, we will looking\nat two other projects that are being planned as a part of the UK government’s\ninitiative to change the nation with infrastructure. <\/p>
Connecting South West: A303 Stonehenge (Amesbury to Berwick Down)<\/strong><\/p> The plan\nhas been proposed to create a A303 (road and tunnel) past Stonehenge\nbetween Amesbury and Berwick which will be done by creating a new dual\ncarriageway with a tunnel. The case for the construction of a tunnel stems from\nthe fact that typically this road faces a lot of traffic congestion perhaps as\neveryone slows to look at the landmark. The new tunnel would run below the\nprehistoric site significantly reducing the traffic. It will also bring down\nthe air, light and noise pollution outside the world heritage site. <\/p> However, the project is fraught with legal battles as\nconcerns rise whether the project could cause irreparable damage to the landscape.\nThe issue here is that single carriageway currently is unable to deal with the\ncurrent traffic causing almost an hour to cut through Stonehenge. Once the\ntunnel is constructed it will take a fraction of that time. Moreover the tunnel\nis going to be built away from the stones. The process will include a\nspecialist tunnel that will be dug below the ground creating two separate\ntunnels – one for each carriage way. Once completed the project aims to restore\nthe free flow of traffic as well as reduce the environmental pollution that is\ncaused around the area. <\/p> There will always be a lot of concerns when it comes to construction on such an important site. Planning and precision become crucial. BIM based Tunnel Information Modelling could help address some of the issues as well as reduce the uncertainties and risks arising due to unforeseen circumstances. With laser scanning it is possible to gain exact information about the site conditions and a Detailed Terrain Model can be created. The DTM model can be crucial for construction of the tunnel. Similarly, simulations can be carried out which would increase accuracy of the tunnel construction. All the advantages that are offered by BIM Services for Infrastructure<\/strong> <\/a>can be leveraged in the entire project cycle of tunnel design like common data environment, extraction of 2D documentation necessary for prefabrication of components, detection of clashes between the existing infrastructure facilities and the new proposed design etc. <\/p> Constructing a $5.5BN\nsuper-sewer below London <\/strong><\/p> Along with the above two projects another notable project\nthat is in the pipeline involves a $5.5BN super-sewer construction below the\ncapital. The current Victorian systems is not equipped to adequately deal with\nheavy rains. Whenever there are rains the current systems overflow and the raw\nsewage spills into the Thames. Thus, the aim is to construct a 15-mile long\nunderwater tunnel so that when the current system surfeits the polluting sewage\nwill be rerouted to the new tunnel. <\/p> Point Cloud to BIM Services<\/a><\/strong> can be used to create an underground BIM model that showcase the existing underground utilities like piping, electric cables, telecom lines etc. The model provides all details like topographic data, location, coordinates or existing utilities making it possible to run clash detection so that the new tunnel design doesn’t clash with any existing utilities. Similarly, BIM serves an intuitive and powerful tool for data management, collaboration between involved stakeholders, provides control over time and cost and allows to carry out future risk analysis and assessments enabling a seamless construction of the new drainage facility. Finally, the as-built<\/a> model cannot just be used for operations but it also acts as a reference point for aspects of local planning and future urban designs.<\/p> The government’s push\nfor a digital revolution<\/strong><\/p> Along with these projects another important challenge that\nthe UK government has undertaken has been to digitize the construction\nindustry. The AEC sector has been notoriously resistant to change in the past\nand only in the past few decades it has become more accepting of the digital\ntechnology. The first step towards digitization was however taken in April 2016\nwhen BIM was mandated across all government funded projects. It reinforced the\nfact that Building Information Modelling was the future and essential for\nsmooth construction. The second push came with the pandemic and social\ndistancing norms wherein the construction professionals had to go digital in\norder to effectively complete their projects. If the UK government plans to\ntake on projects of above stated magnitude which could often take decades to\ncomplete then digital engineering is essential. In absence of Building\nInformation Modelling there would be a lot of site visits, handover, contracts\nand paperwork. Along with it there will be communication and collaboration\nerrors as there are so many stakeholders involved. Finally, along with BIM\nother digital technological advancements like prefabrication and 3D printing,\nvirtual reality and augmented reality, robotics, drones etc. can all be useful\nfor different purpose. <\/p> To conclude, building infrastructure is not an easy task. It\ninvolves billions of dollars, decades of planning followed by years of\nconstruction and finally effective maintenance. However, when done right it\nprovides large gains in terms of economic and social advancement of the people.\nThe task undertaken by the UK government is indeed ambitious, but the\nconstruction industry has all the tools at hand to convert it into reality. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the previous article we discussed the importance of infrastructure towards any country’s growth and development as well its significant contribution towards a country’s employment. Furthermore, UK’s investment in infrastructure was discussed with the focus on HS2 railway project and how BIM Services for railways could be essential for its construction and management. In part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"featured_image_2":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teslacad.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teslacad.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teslacad.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teslacad.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teslacad.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.teslacad.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teslacad.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teslacad.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teslacad.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teslacad.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}