PROJECT MANAGEMENT
“The key thing is starting off at the earli- est GRIP stage you possibly can, bearing in mind how quickly you’re going to start receiving designs from contractors.
“The ideal, as we’re trying to set it up here and within Crossrail, is to take away the 3D modelling from this team, and to have all of our 3D work done by our own suppliers, and us co-ordinating the information and turning it into the 4D plan.”
That ideal remains some way off, he ex- plained, due to the lack of specialist in- house design teams adept at using the rail-specific project management and CAD tools at most Network Rail contractors and suppliers.
He explained: “Finding designers who can supply it in the format we need in can be a problem. We work primarily in MicroSta- tion, which is normal for the rail industry, while a lot of the rest of the world’s indus- tries use AutoCAD, and that’s a problem.”
Graphical visualisation
But once the 3D models are available, that’s when the team’s work really begins, as each element is linked to the main data- base and project plan.
Malone said: “Linking the graphics to the plan is a manual process to begin with, but as the programme changes, the line items will remain the same, so any changes to the plan will be reflected in it.
“The entire Reading project – the station, tracks, depot, viaduct – can all be seen on one model, at any geographical point and any point in time.
“There are individual models for each major
section too, simply because of the sheer vol- ume of graphical information we’re working with, but we have a file taking all of those 4D models and putting them into one.”
When the 4D process was used on previ- ous projects, like CTRL and the WCML up- grade, not everyone working in construc- tion saw the point, Malone said.
He explained: “A lot of it was derived from people having too high expectations. We need people to think about what they need it for. The wow factor fades, as I’ve said; ‘I’ve seen what it does, how the project’s going to develop over time, but how has that helped?’
“That’s what we’re now doing here, looking at it not just from an engineering point of view, but from a construction point of view. The guy on the ground knows how to put a track in place, so why does he need to see it animated? We want to concentrate on the things that are most useful for him.
“Now, having seen it working almost from the very beginning here, the people who have gone through those earlier projects have come almost to expect it to be in place, so we’ve seen a change in attitude, and it’s become integral.”
The models can also be made available to contractors through careful use of permis- sions, and in many different formats, since not all of them would have the right sort of software to view it normally.
Malone said: “It’s all tightly controlled.”
He said that although 4D modelling is cur- rently only used on the biggest construc- tion projects, that could change: “I don’t see why this technology and software can’t
Below: The 4D schedule simulation model of the Reading project
be used elsewhere. It’s a great tool.”
The 4D model can also be tied in with visualisations of project racecards, the generic terms for the six-week look ahead at construction works that take place.
He said: “You can see where people are going to be working, the access routes they need to use, everything.”
The fifth dimension
4D is not the final stage in the evolution of modelling software and project manage- ment, with a lot of the talk now being about 5D. The fifth ‘dimension’ in this case is not really a dimension at all, but is rather to do with quantity measurement and cost speci- fications.
Malone said: “There’s not a huge leap between what we do already and being able to quantify everything as part of it, because we’re doing everything to scale, and putting everything in its correct geospatial location in the model, so we know exactly what quantities we’re using and can calculate volumes very quickly. We’re working with the estimating team with a view to giving them all of the quantities they want. That’s happening now: it’s called BIM, or building information modelling.
“With that in mind, we can also produce ground modelling calculations.
For
instance, we’ve got the viaduct to be built at Reading; we’ve got to lower the ground, and we can calculate how much spoil needs to be removed to do that. Similarly, the new depot means moving huge amounts of earth.”
Data and visualisations in project management
All sorts of issues relevant to design and construction projects have fallen within the data team’s scope: from pedestrian flows to flood management, and buried services to planning application visualisations, and they have aspirations to apply their tools to things like radio coverage and train time- tabling.
The team produces countless presentations, animations and safety videos, accumulating all of the files and 3D data required and sometimes outsourcing it to third parties.
But the team is involved in interdisciplinary co-ordination and reviews on a weekly basis. Malone said: “We sit in with the engineering and construction teams and all of the contractors, go through their designs, make sure they work, and we get engaged in the constructability reviews and
rail technology magazine Feb/Mar 12 | 29
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