FORNEBUBANEN
Fornebubanen in numbers
- 6 train stations connecting Majorstuen and Fornebu
- € 1.8 billion Euros
- Capacity increase from from 3 000 to 6 400 passengers per hour
- 8.2 km of tunnels under ground
- Work starts in 2019 and ends in 2025
The largest infrastructure project in 20 years.
2025 is when the new metro-line Fornebubanen with six train stations is scheduled for completion. The line will be the biggest investment in public transportation Oslo has done since establishing the metro in the first place.
Multiconsult and Cowi has made a joint venture deal to perform the project. A-lab architects together with Zaha Hadid Architects in London are designers of the stations. Angie, the project manager at A-Lab tells us more about it in the video.
Why VR is used for coordinate and communication in the project
Prestigious project, filled with challenges
“This is the biggest BIM-coordination project I have experienced in my whole career” Angie Mendez from A-lab says when describing the Fornebu Metro rail project. The project involves many disciplines working together and needs to communicate effectively during the design, engineering and construction phases of the project to make it all come together.
The project is really big, and this also means really big datasets. Several models from each discipline needs to fit together, produced by several different model-owners, and it all has to fit inside the vision of Zaha Hadid Architect’s incredibly shaped design! This is not an easy feat.
Coordination and issue-tracking
The project is currently in the design and engineering stage where hundreds of issues are raised of collisions and potential challenges that needs to be addressed. These issues are stored in an issue-management system. In this case BIMcollab is the tool of choice, together with BIM360 as the model-storage place. It is important for the team have a handle on this from the start, and make sure none of the issues ends up left unresolved out on the construction site and cause delays.
Communication
Zaha Hadid architects are located in London, which makes it difficult to have traditional coordination meetings. Under normal circumstances travelling between offices would have been time consuming and stressful for the team-members. The environmental aspect is also very important for this projects, with an ambitious green plan for the project. – But with today’s lock-down situation, travelling is not even an option.
This forces the team to find other ways to collaborate effectively!
This is where Vrex comes in
VR is the best tool available to communicate BIM clearly to everyone involved in the project, and to make sure they fully understand the challenges the project is facing, and the proposed solutions. This makes it a large part of the solution for communication between BIM experts and inexperienced BIM stakeholders and decision makers across the project.
- Review proposed solutions and designs
- Discover mistakes as early as possible, not just collisions but problems with the practical solution or potential installation issues.
- Involve stakeholders and make sure everyone understand the challenges and solutions clearly.
75% of VR users say they understand their own work better by using VR. – Even more when reviewing other people’s work.
60% of meetings can comfortably be done in VR without losing vital aspects of a traditional meetings. This number is going up as teams adapt to a new way of working digitally.
Visual inspections to reduce mistakes, and faster approvals
Inside Vrex the team is able to do visual inspections whenever they need to. Engineers and sub-contractors detects mistakes done by others outside their fields of expertise in VR, because they understand each other’s work much better in VR. This is valuable because you get ten times as many people performing visual inspections on each other’s work, which results in more mistakes being discovered earlier in the process than before. The result is a better project delivery.
The team can also discuss issues without needing to wait until the next big-room meeting or ICE session. VR enables easy and accurate communication of design intent and engineering information, using the BIM-models.
By using VR with a direct connection to BIM-hotel and issue management system the team eliminates the need for confusing phone calls and e-mails.
In short; Mistakes are found earlier, and discussions and clarifications can be done immediately without delay. Conclusion and comments made inside VR is automatically sent back to the project management system using BCF through the Vrex integrations.
Summary
Working in this way benefits A-lab, Cowi, Multiconsult and Zaha in all three parts of the tripple-bottom-line.
Environmental factors: Cuts the carbon footprint through less traveling, and shorter project times due to fewer mistakes.
Social factors: Less wear and tear on the people involved in the project by having less project-commuting, and more effective communication. This means fewer headaces and better workflow.
Economic factors: Lowered cost by reducing costly mistakes, shortening the time spent in design and engineering, and eliminates wasted time on traveling and long ineffective meetings.
Vrex is the only solution on the market able to handle such a big amount of data using VR, with full automation of moving IFC and BCF in and out of VR. This is critical for working fast and effectively.
