Banner
AEC Mechanical BIM Design Hardware Collaboration Privacy

Current Filter: CAD>>>>>>

PREVIOUS

Filtered Articles:5 of 1107   Current Article ID:5156

NEXT



The benefits of building twice

Editorial Type: Case Study     Date: 01-2015    Views: 4338      








For a project as complex as HS2, with its political, environmental and public issues being of paramount importance, there is no alternative to building a virtual model to test every aspect before the final designs are established.

I was pretty ambivalent about HS2 until I attended the keynote speech about it at Bentley's Infrastructure conference last November. Living in Somerset we weren't really going to see much benefit from it, as it would take three hours to reach the nearest station and it is going to cost a good deal of money, as everybody reminds us.

A very convincing argument, though, was put forward by Professor Andrew McNaughton, Technical Director of HS2, who, besides outlining the long term benefits for the whole country, explained that the whole project both relied on and was going to test BIM to the absolute limits. The Professor has been advising on major rail projects worldwide - Australia, Japan, the US and Europe - for many years, and has spent time as technical Director at Crossrail before taking on his current role at the most prestigious, important and possibly litigious rail project since the inauguration of the current network a couple of hundred years ago.

Therein lies one of the problems. Network Rail are spending large sums of money in an attempt to bring the current network up to date - akin to performing "open heart surgery" as Andrew described it. This is exacerbated by the growth of our population - faster than anywhere else in Europe - and the migration to cities. Obviously, he said, we can't have all of them living in the South East. Instead we have to improve access between London, the Midlands and northern cities, so it’s as easy to attend a meeting in Manchester as it is cross London.

He pointed to the benefits that high-speed rail has brought to France. "It brings people together - not just businessmen, but families and friends," he said. And, to give an idea of the time savings involved, he quoted some interesting figures; London to Birmingham down from 1 hour 24 minutes to just 49 minutes, and to Manchester in just over an hour.

Birmingham, the main hub, will be just 42 minutes away from Manchester and 57 minutes from Leeds. The West Midlands Interchange, close to NEC, has been mooted as UK City Central, a new sustainable city only half an hour from London.

IT STARTS WITH PEOPLE
With the UK being one of the most densely populated countries on the planet, with a lot of existing infrastructure, one of the biggest problems is the impact on people along the route - and, Andrew added, just about every tree, plant, and animal has an articulate group of committed people who represent their interests.

The starting point therefore has to be the people affected, before any technical issues and final route are decided. The underlying philosophy of HS2 is, he said, that "We want people to travel and connect. In doing so, we will be able to rebuild and rebalance the UK economy, with the Midlands and Northern Cities becoming part of the UK 'Powerhouse' and not just London." It should support the creation of up to 400,000 jobs and, he added, HS2 has already seen regeneration worth £10 billion since 2003!

TOTAL BIM SOLUTION
HS2 has been designed to run with maximum capacity, connectivity, availability and reliability. The Passenger Operation Concept has to cope with a high density of trains operating at speed with absolute safety and a minimum of stress for passengers. It also has to persuade the vast number of stakeholders that the project is necessary, viable and achievable.

The only way to demonstrate this in real time to everyone, right down to a property owner adjacent to the route who wants to see what it will look and sound like from his bedroom window, is to build a virtual model of the entire route and show them, using a GIS connected gViewer on a mobile device, what it will be like.

HS2 are building a virtual model of the entire project - a digital railway - which will ensure people who don't normally get involved will be able to part in the process.

The vast amount of data required, already running into terabytes of information, will cover every element of the project, fielding constraints and issues that arise from trains running every 2 and a half minutes at 200 metres a second, the establishment of maintenance schedules, and the need to keep up to date with individual train and passenger status. How will it cope, for instance, with a Birmingham Football match running into extra time and disgorging thousands of extra passengers half an hour later than scheduled?



Page   1  2

Like this article? Click here to get the Newsletter and Magazine Free!

Email The Editor!         OR         Forward ArticleGo Top


PREVIOUS

                    


NEXT