BIM1701

CASEstudy
Hyperloop meets BIM
Running simultaneously with the Hyperloop Pod competition in Los Angeles, Build Earth Live
held a BIM focused event, organised by Asite, to design terminals for the proposed Dubai to
Fujairah Hyperloop
Who would have thought, just five
years ago, that we would be
seriously pursuing a technology
that will see people placed in capsules that
are shot across continent at speeds up to
1200kph inside sealed, near-vacuum
tubes. Now such seemingly sci-fi concepts
are not just on the agenda, but prototype
models are being built and are competing
against each other in a competition to
refine the technology and discover the
potential winners in the industry.
The Hyperloop is in the news at the
moment, courtesy of Elon Musk, founder
of Tesla and SpaceX, who has set up a
global competition for companies and
educational institutes to design the
capsules that will be used in Hyperloop
One, and to compete against each other,
running trials through a three kilometre
length of tube erected in California.
It's not the only Hyperloop competition
being run though. Elon Musk's event is
designed to sort out the technology
hopefuls from the runners up. The
International Build Earth Live BIM
competition, created and organised by
Asite and now in its eighth year, ran their
event over a 48 hour period last
September, focusing on the BIM
aspects of the project. The contest was
open to teams of professionals within
the AEC industry.
Far from being a hypothetical project, the
Hyperloop One project will end up being
built, with the winning team possibly being
commissioned by the United Arab
Emirates Government to build a terminus
at each end of a Hyperloop between
Dubai and Fujairah, a project which will
shorten the travelling time between the
two cities to a mere 10 minutes.
Commenting on the event, His
Excellency Mohammed Abdullah Al
Gergawi, vice chairman of the Board of
Trustees and managing director of
Dubai Future Foundation said, "Dubai is
hosting this global event as part of the
vision of His Highness Sheikh
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum,
vice president and Prime Minister of the
UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to make the
UAE and Dubai a global platform for
innovative minds to come together to
create futuristic solutions on issues of
relevance to humanity. This contest is a
great opportunity to explore innovation
ideas in the smart transportation sector."
HYPERLOOP ONE
A technology that has been quoted as
reducing the time required for travel
between New York to Beijing to just two
hours, yet with the cost of building a
single Hyperloop tube being a mere 10%
of the cost of conventional high speed
trains, is suddenly looking very attractive.
A non-partisan assessment of the
technology must also concede that it will
require rather less upheaval and impact
on the countryside and its occupants
than comparable high speed rail
developments - HS2 for instance. It will
also change people's habits and the
way they travel, work and commute,
coalescing with The Dubai Autonomous
Transport Strategy plans to convert 25%
of commutes into autonomous mode.
The project, being seen as one of the
world's most important initiatives, turning
Dubai into a global laboratory for next
generation technologies in the field of
transportation, is just one part of Dubai's
strategy. The Roads and Transport
Authority, headed by HE Mattar Al Tayer,
and which is working on plans to
implement the Dubai Autonomous
Transport Strategy, has also started trial
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January/February 2017