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At first sight, this appears to be a straightforward project, but, on closer inspection, improving just this part of the rail infrastructure involves a wide range of engineering disciplines, and not just mechanical and software engineering, using different CAD applications. All infrastructure elements are involved in rail projects, including the electrification project - the line itself, electricity supply, associated buildings, bridges, tunnels and, because of this, use Bentley's MicroStation to handle the overall design - Bentley being foremost amongst infrastructure software developers. Also, SolidWorks is used by Laing O'Rourke to detail the gantries down to nuts and bolts. To provide overall management of the project, the data is then fed into Project Management software - in this case, Bentley's ProjectWise.

To enable them to come up with a solution to the problem, Atkins and Laing O'Rourke proposed the Digitally Enabling Electrification project, partnering with software specialists DHP11 and Imperial College to ensure that the full range of skills was brought on board. The work is designed to help deliver the Government's BIM Strategy and become a key component of Network Rail's Digital Railway. It will also be of interest to a range of people in the wider BIM, engineering, information management and construction arenas.

The intention of the team is to pass on knowledge learned to all contractors involved in the digital electrification project. It involves looking at current processes which involve the creation of PDFs that outline the different elements in the electrification process and are then used to manually update each project member’s own models - hardly state-of-the-art - and coming up with a more efficient data exchange system to handle the complex interactions between each of the disciplines.

A significant part of the process was the development of a standard form of information exchange to allow a Rapid Data Transfer process between stakeholders. This enables accurate manufacture, off site pre-assembly, rapid installation and finally effective asset management of the overhead line system. The priority, therefore, was to define an open standard that allows any designer, manufacturer and constructor to share data.

INFORMATION EXCHANGE
Basing this upon the government BIM leadership, a workflow was proposed for the Electrification lifecycle that takes advantage of digital capability and standards set by BS/PAS1192, further enhanced by extending the Common Data Environment for design & deliverable management systems, such as Cabinet & Projectwise, into Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems for manufacture and construction.

A TRIAL PROJECT
To demonstrate how immediate benefit might be delivered to the industry, the team trialled potential techniques in a real railway environment, using an urgent ongoing problem as its basis. This was done by assessing the state of the art in a wide range of survey technologies to quickly and accurately pinpoint the location of an installed foundation, and using that information to resolve a costly and time-consuming problem.

Part of the Great Western Rail network was chosen to provide the real-life trial system - and it involved 5,000 signal gantries alongside the railway line. The complexity of the singular problem was compounded by the size of the project, as it required electrification gantries to be surveyed. Earlier inspections had ascertained that the gantries that carried the electrification cables were not always placed exactly where they should have been. Ground conditions sometimes prevented installation on the precise spot and the length of cable required between gantries was affected. This meant that considerable work had to be undertaken during installation to trim the cabling to the lengths required - multiplied, of course, by the numbers involved.

It was felt that much time could be saved by pre-adjusting the equipment prior to installation,but this required a more precise measurement of the distances between each foundation. This was undertaken using a number of surveying techniques, including LIDAR and photogrammetry, to more accurately place the position of the foundations post-installation.

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