CC2311

CASE study
Connected design & construction
Hong Kong International Airport, built on reclaimed land, was already a mega project. With a major
expansion planned, DBM Vircon's expertise in construction modelling was required to work alongside
lead engineering firm AECOM
Since its opening in 1998, Hong
Kong International Airport (HKIA)
has grown to become one of the
busiest airports in the world. In 2018, the
airport served 74.7 million passengers,
handled 5.1 million tonnes of cargo and
accommodated 427,725 air traffic
movements. With more than 120 airlines
connecting to over 220 destinations
worldwide, HKIA is a leading international
and regional aviation hub.
To meet future air traffic growth, the
Airport Authority of Hong Kong (AAHK)
has embarked upon a major development
project which will transform HKIA into a
three-runway system (3RS), from the
existing two-runway system (2RS).
The project, with a reported capital
expenditure of $18 billion USD, eclipses
that of the original airport mega project,
becoming Hong Kong's largest ever
infrastructure spend. Once complete,
HKIA will be able to serve an additional 30
million passengers annually. With the land
reclamation recently finalised, work on the
above ground infrastructure has
commenced and it is expected that the
new 3RS will be fully operational around
the middle of this decade
The 3RS project is more than a new
runway. Its scale is almost equivalent to
building a new airport next to the existing
one. The project involves reclamation of
approximately 650 hectares (~1600
acres) of land directly north of the existing
airport island.
A key element of the project is the Third
Runway Passenger Concourse, which will
encompass more than 280,000m2 of floor
area, 57 new aircraft parking positions,
and an apron. The aircraft concourse
comprises 23,861 tonnes of steel sections,
with 79,374 individual main pieces of steel,
generating 74,103 connections.
To illustrate the sheer size and scale of
this aviation mega project, if the concourse
structure was to be stood vertical, it would
be 785m in height - making it one of the
'tallest' buildings in the world.
Along with this bold new upgrade, the
AAHK knew that an equally bold execution
plan was needed in order for them to
achieve their objective. They wanted to
move away from the traditionally staged,
siloed mentality that is usually associated
with major infrastructure projects.
With the scale of this initiative and the
very tight schedule constraints, they
needed an innovative approach to
construction that would enable them to
maximise productivity through improved
project workflows.
As a result, the AAHK engaged DBM
Vircon, a premier construction modeling,
detailing and digital engineering company,
to work alongside the lead engineering
firm, AECOM. At an early stage, it was
mandated that these teams work
collaboratively, utilising a buildable
information modeling software to develop
3D models with millimetre accuracy. In
addition, the use of a common data
environment was required to coordinate
the enormous amounts of data that would
need to be securely managed.
A CONNECTED DESIGN
WORKFLOW
This type of project delivery is a new
approach, particularly for a project of this
size. As such, DBM Vircon in close
collaboration with AECOM turned to
Trimble to help connect stakeholders
across each phase of the project with
digital construction solutions like Tekla
Structures and Trimble Connect and
through the development of collaborative
workflows to improve team productivity.
For example, instead of using traditional
2D drawing deliverables, the project
engineer, AECOM, exported parametric
analysis geometry from their engineering
wireframe software, Rhino. This was
passed directly through Grasshopper into
the Tekla Structures model share
environment, using Trimble Connect,
where both AECOM and DBM Vircon
could easily collaborate. Future updates to
geometry could then be pushed into the
shared model via scripting. The
engineering team used these shared
models for design verification and to
produce their planning documentation for
statutory approvals.
Change management controls were also
critical once Rhino geometry updates
were no longer possible due to thousands
of steelwork connections being added to
the models. Careful tracking of piece
movements were required if steel was
found to be misaligned or needed to
move. Again, Tekla and Trimble Connect
were used to enable these functions and
this process to be carried out.
Another innovative solution developed by
the DBM Vircon team was the use of
Parametric Custom Components in Tekla,
a way of automating adaptive connections
between steelwork parts that adjust to
changes and their new conditions. A key
challenge to this structure was the
concourse roof featuring a subtle
whaleback curve. While the geometry is
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November/December 2023