Wardell Armstrong Wins a Keynetix BIM Geotechnical Data Management Award
We are delighted to have won the Geotechnical BIM – Workflows and Collaboration Award at this year’s Keynetix Geotechnical Data Management Awards in Oxford on Monday 28th November.
The awards give recognition to organisations that use geotechnical data management within their services and have implemented new techniques or processes using Keynetix software. With 2016 being the year of BIM, the Geotechnical BIM – Workflows and Collaboration Award, was judged on the best implementation of the Geotechnical BIM principles on a project and the workflows and collaboration within the project team.
The award winning project was commissioned by a strategic developer and Wardell Armstrong was asked to devise landform options that supported the development of a 250-unit residential scheme on a former quarry site. The site included areas of steep and unstable slopes, ground contamination, ground gas risk, archaeology and great crested newts. Our designed landform needed to satisfy a number of constructability issues (adoptable gradients, variable soil quality) and recognise difficult site development constraints.
Using Holebase SI together with AutoCAD Civil3D greatly improved our efficiency in analysing data quickly and thoroughly. The ability to import real world data straight into AutoCAD Civils 3D was also a great help. This allowed us to quickly build geological models which were then able to be incorporated with other designers’ models, including as mentioned above, the landscape architects and drainage engineers design.
This process allowed us to produce a ‘BIM compliant’ output with all of our geological data stored within Holebase and combined with models of other designers within one Civils 3D model. By being able to combine design models, we were able to produce a more resilient final landform that we, the client and wider design team could have confidence in being deliverable. The workflows also reduced our consultancy risk, as we were able to ensure that the designed output would work.
Working in Civil 3D was very useful for this project due to its ability to quickly generate cross sections, calculate volumes and costs for different design options, which were capable of being adjusted swiftly and easily. This enabled us to come up with several different design iterations which could be costed and assessed, enabling a better thought out final design to be delivered to the client in a greatly reduced timescale to a conventional approach.
Having everything in Civils 3D and being able to present this to the client was also of great use as we were able to produce rendered images and fly-throughs of the model to present our designs to the client so they could visualise the final product easier. We were also able to sit down with the client with the model in front of us and edit the design there and then, for example various road alignments, to show in real time what effect this had on the design and cost of the project.
The client was able to have more input to the design process as we were able to hold collaborative workshops over video conferencing, with the live model visible to the client and design team, so that the effect of design changes could be seen in real time. The use of this technology and novel workflow allowed a geographically removed project team to collaborate cost effectively and quickly.
