BIM boosts performance for new sports college
Balfour Beatty Engineering Services (BBES) is using BIM (building information modelling) for a new sports technical college in Stoke-on-Trent to improve efficiency during the construction process. Designed by architects Aedas and constructed under a design-and-build contract with Stoke-on-Trent City Council, the new teaching and classroom block at Holden Lane High School Specialist Sports College will feature curriculum-based hubs for teaching and training.
For this project, Balfour Beatty has created a fully collaborated 3D model of the M&E systems, enabling all construction partners to comprehend and visualise the complexity in construction sequencing and methodology.
Aedas has also adopted BIM and firmly embedded it into its team approach. Associate director Imran Kassim explains, ‘With BIM, we are able to collaborate with structural and M&E engineers to produce a “virtual building” which helps us to manage risk and environmental performance. Projects such as Holden Lane High School have a higher degree of co-ordination through the use of BIM software, resulting in significant savings in cost, materials and waste.’
Mike Cooke, regional director with BBES, adds, ‘BIM is a great way to pre-empt the issues you might encounter in a building project, even before you lay a single foundation. It allows us to digitally model the different elements of a building in real time. The benefits are being able to build in a virtual environment and sharing all information between partners so that potential building integration issues and on-site clashes are eliminated.’
The project is due for completion in January 2014.
