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CASE study Remodelling King's Cross Station 3D Repo provides access to the thousands of CAD files created by the King's Cross railway development project to 300 designers, contractors and managers London's King's Cross railway station is one of the busiest stations in the UK, serving close to 40 million passengers each year. Although it has attracted attention for the magnificent semi-circular vaulted canopy over the concourse, designed by British architects John McAslan + Partners, it's been 25 years since any major intervention has taken place on the railway itself, and it is now in need of some major renewal and remodelling work. The remodelling will allow for an increase in the length and number of long-distance trains, and facilitate future improvements to journey times. Specialist Project Integration (SPI) a company that works with companies within the construction, utilities and infrastructure industries to raise productivity using enabling technologies, information management and visualisation, are undertaking this massive £250 million project which includes: Extending passenger platforms Recommissioning an unused tunnel Optimising the track layout Modernising the signalling control system One of the major challenges for this complex project is that the new railway needs to be built on top of existing railway whilst it remains open. With about 300 designers, contractors, and managers across multiple companies, and some 3,500 CAD files, SPI knew that traditional methods of communication and design coordination were not appropriate. Furthermore, they needed to be sure that disruption to one of the UK's busiest railway stations was kept to a minimum. Despite using ProjectWise as a common data environment (CDE), there was also a need for a design coordination and collaboration tool that could run easily in a web browser. 3D Repo's digital platform for Building Information Modelling (BIM) was chosen as the platform to help SPI with coordination due to the fact that it required minimal training, and could be accessed from any computer without the need for software installation or licensing SPI are using 3D Repo as both a design coordination tool and a communication tool to help them bring this project together. The company hopes to achieve a predicted saving of about 10,000 hours of on-site work thanks to the combination of software applications being used including Bentley MicroStation, 3D Repo, and SPI V-RAM. DESIGN COORDINATION One of the key features used is Instant Clash, which identifies issues such as steelwork clashing with overhead lines, highlighting the exact intersection point to save potential rework during construction. Designers and engineers simply sign-in from a web browser to view the latest models and log issues and comments into the platform as a central hub for communication - meaning no more lost emails. 3D Repo's 3D Diff feature, the first real-time change detection solution on the web, released by 3D Repo earlier 16 January/February 2020
CASE study this year, detects changes made between 3D models regardless of file type, making it easy for multidisciplinary teams to collaborate when different design software applications are being used. It compares actual geometry changes between models, highlighting new elements in green and deletions in red. Amongst the most popular file formats that 3D Repo supports are, of course, Autodesk Revit and Navisworks, Bentley DGN, IFC, FBX and many more. One surprising benefit to the use of 3D Repo, in spite of the complexity of the project, is that SPI is able to achieve substantial efficiencies within the project using only a small proportion of the features available in the software. According to Simon Wray, Managing Director of Specialist Product Integration, "The great thing about 3D Repo is that we're only using the most basic features and we're getting a strong return on investment." COMMUNICATION TOOL Similar functionality widens accessibility to the project beyond project members and industry specialists. 3D Repo provides a "reality model" of the project which can be used to 'democratise' the data it contains, and to customise views that enable stakeholders, the public and other interested parties to extract the information they require. The complexity of the project can be mitigated for those who do not normally use, or necessarily understand, CAD drawings and BIM models. The reality model is actually a realistic version of the design, adding context to the remodelling project - adding visual clues to its appearance of the project and its setting and removing the need for specialist interpretation. SPI have found that this has helped minimise timescales in decision making from local authorities, station management, train operators etc. as they are able to relate the reality model back to a realworld context. Besides providing an ideal communication tool for projects, 3D Repo is being used for numerous other tasks during the King's Cross remodelling project. Stakeholder engagement - and, dare we say it, education - is an important part of the process. Explaining where the money is being swallowed up is a lot easier to put across when you can 'walk' the senior management team through the project rather than swapping 3D model views and Excel spreadsheets round the board. Similarly, Engineering meetings have become more focused, facilitating direct interaction with engineering issues whatever the rail technology, application being discussed or file formats being used. KEEPING LINES OPEN One of the main issues for the project, mentioned above, is that all of the proposed improvements are to be carried out whilst the existing railway lines remain in operation. That raises immense problems for site logistics, such as the removal of waste material, the provision of new equipment and the machinery required to install it, and the general movement of workers on and off the site whilst trains are running past. Here, 3D Repo's health and safety tool, SafetiBase, has proved an ideal solution for educating the workforce about the issues and dangers involved in working in a 'live' environment, allowing potential hazards to be identified and mitigated before anyone sets foot onsite. Construction projects in Greater London are probably subject to far more planning processes than anywhere else, and are likely to be far more stringent - hence the use of 3D Repo to assist in obtaining planning consents, and the enhanced overviews of the King's Cross project that facilitated the project's acceptance. The general feeling at SPI is that from the designers, architects and engineer's points of view, and also as a tool for informing all other parties involved or interested in a project, 3D Repo has certainly delivered its promise. This was endorsed by Keith Wakeford, head of Modelling and Simulation at SPI, who said "We found 3D Repo intuitive to use, and capable of navigating extremely complex models, even when using textured elements". https://3drepo.com January/February 2020 17
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CU Jan-Feb 2020

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