51
NEWS REPORT
CONSTRUCTION EUROPE
DECEMBER 2013-JANUARY 2014
Walter, “We
can bring the
same benefits
to every user”
major London projects – Sir John
Armitt, chairman of the Olympic
Delivery Authority and chairman
of National Express, and Andrew
Wolstenholme, CEO of Crossrail,
currently
Europe’s
largest
construction project.
They discussed the challenges
faced by their projects and
how they were and are being
overcome.
Peter
Hansford,
chief
construction advisor to the UK
government, also addressed the
conference.
He told delegates he wanted
to put BIM in the context of
“an overarching transformation
programme for the construction
industry called Construction
2025”.
He said it would be a
partnership between industry
and government.
“Together,
industry
and
government have created a
vision of where they jointly wish
UK construction to be in 2025,
and how we’re going to get there
– together.”
He said it started with a vision of
the world that was very different
to the past, and in many ways to
today.
He described this world
as one where buildings and
infrastructure were conceived
and built much faster, with
greater whole-life value, and
better carbon and energy
efficiency, and with construction
driving growth across the whole
economy and UK companies
working in partnership inmarkets
overseas.
Achieving
the
goals
of
Construction 2025, he said, would
require the industry “to do things
very differently – and that is why
BIM is essential”.
BE INSPIRED WINNERS
More than 300 organisations in 43
countries entered the Be Inspired
Awards. Six independent panels
of jurors chose the winners from
a short list of 65 projects in a
number of categories.
There were also several Special
Recognition Awards, including
the Infrastructure Hero award for
Captain Nicholas Sloane, Salvage
Master of the Costa Concordia
parbuckling project.
This involved the successful
righting of the cruise ship which
sank off the coast of Italy in 2012.
The company behind it, Tecon
also won the Innovation in
Offshore Engineering Award.
Among the other Be Inspired
winners was Rogers Stirk Harbour
+ Partners, which won in the
Innovation in Building category
for the Cancer Treatment Centre
for Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospital in
London, UK.
It was the company’s first
integrated BIM project, and
was said to have improved
collaboration and reduced risk.
The winner of the Innovation
in
Bridges
Award
was
Bloom Companies for the
Rawson Avenue Interchange
Hansford, “Industry
must do things very
differently”
The Stockholm
Bypass involves 27
road alignments over
22km
reconstruction in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, US.
It involved the replacement of
an existing four-span bridge with
a new two-span bridge.
The Innovation in Construction
Award went to an oil sands
operation in northern Alberta,
Canada.
The main challenge was to store
and stage materials offsite, and to
overcome an acute shortage of
skilled construction labour. Part
of the solution was to use radio
frequency identification to track
material fabrication, location and
availability status on site.
Crossrail won the Innovation in
Government Award.
The £15 billion (€18 billion),
118km rail project used 4D
models which were said to have
been used to reduce risk by at
least 5% across eight stations –
said to equate to approximately
£8 million (€9.6 million).
Innovation in Roads was won
by URS Corporation for the
Stockholm Bypass in Sweden.
A new motorway link to the
west of Stockholm, the project
includes 27 road alignments over
22km, with 11 bridges, complex
water and drainage systems,
and complicated electrical and
ducting networks.
The company said it hoped
to reducing the drafting hours
by 30% through the use of 3D
modelling.
Innovation
in
Structural
Engineering was won by Indian
company Shibanee & Kamal
Architects for the Bhau Institute
of Innovation, Entrepreneurship
& Leadership at the College of
Engineering in Pune, India.
The design called for a circular
building surrounding an existing
tamarind tree.
The architects said that it was
a challenge for the structural
engineers to design and analyse
the structure for expected loads
and combinations, yet still
satisfy safety and serviceability
standards.
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