/ Innovation in Structural Engineering 20014

The Year in Infrastructure 2014

Outstanding Structural Engineering Projects

Winner and Finalists for the Be Inspired Award

Bentley Systems and Informed Infrastructure are pleased to present the outstanding projects that were submitted for the Be Inspired Award for Innovation in Structural Engineering.

 

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Matt Ball, Founder and Editorial Director, V1 Media and Informed Infrastructure

The Be Inspired Awards and the Year in Infrastructure event provide a unique and exciting snapshot of global projects that are extending project efficiency through the use of digital workflows using the full suite of Bentley Systems software. Having participated in this event since its inception, I can attest to the rigor with which these projects are vetted by their peers, the insights gained through the sharing of projects at the event, and the excitement of the award night. There is no parallel global event that showcases outstanding contributions while also providing a platform for process advancement.

The jury has a difficult task to select the best project as the overall winner, as all are deserving. That’s why we’ve teamed with Bentley’s structural division to provide this overview of a broad number of projects for your perusal. In these pages, you’ll find projects of many scales and complexity from around the world. Perhaps you’ll see parallels to your own work and be inspired to learn more about how your peers have tackled similar challenges to those that you face or will see opportunity in taking a similar approach in your practice.

In addition to the content that appears in these pages, we have also conducted video interviews with the three finalists. This content can be accessed online via www.informedinfrastructure.com/InnovationinStructural14

Finally, if you’re making use of Bentley’s structural analysis, design, detailing and documentation products, you owe it to yourself and your team to submit your work for consideration. We look forward to meeting you in London next fall!

 

Raoul_Karp

Raoul Karp, Vice President, Structural and BrIM, Bentley Systems

The goal of my team at Bentley is to help our users become more efficient, productive and profitable, be they single engineers or large corporations. Both can benefit from the tools that we’ve been working on, with our philosophy of information mobility and our extension of these tools through cloud services.

It’s always inspiring to see the broad width and depth of the projects that our users are tackling with our products. The Year in Infrastructure gives us the opportunity to showcase and recognize this work as well as share our product roadmap for features and services that have recently been released or are coming soon.

Bentley’s structural tools are a leading product suite that advance our company’s optioneering concept, which empowers our users to try many options and iterations prior to finalizing design and engineering. This approach is supported via analysis features within our products as well as through cloud extensions such as scenario services that allow the users to compare and contrast different options.

Our information mobility across products allows us to extend the reach of engineers, engage the fabricators and designers at the front end of projects to realize efficiencies and reduce costly changes.

Bentley is helping users connect to others on projects and within their organizations, and this extends from our products on through this event. We’re excited to showcase these outstanding projects, and we welcome your submissions for consideration for future years. Together we are shaping an evolving practice that delivers better projects faster and more efficiently.

Addressing New Opportunities with Connected Structural Software: Raoul Karp, VP, Structural and Bridge, Bentley Systems

 

WINNING PROJECT

FAST_2500-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope

Beijing Building Construction Research Institute Co. Ltd., Beijing Institute of Architectural Design, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Science

Karst, Guizhou, China

One of the top-nine science and technology infrastructures in China, the 500-meter Aperture

Spherical Radio Telescope will be the largest single-aperture telescope on Earth. Its antenna aperture is 500 meters, which is as large as 30 standard football fields. Its cable-net structure consists of 6,670 main cables and 2,225 downhaul cables, and the weight of the cable wheel alone is 216 tons. The reflector consists of 4,600 reflector units installed on the cable net.

FAST_Award_Photo2From site selection and design to construction, the Beijing Building Construction Research Institute, Beijing Institute of Architectural Design, and National Astronomical Observatories deployed BIM technology in the form of AECOsim Building Designer, MicroStation, Bentley Navigator, ProjectWise and ProSteel. With ProSteel and BIM’s parameterized technique, the teams designed and optimized the 445 network-cable nodes, cutting the cost by CNY 4 million.

FAST, Beijing Building Construction Research Institute—WINNER, Innovation in Structural Engineering

FINALISTS

Octapharma_1Octapharma Blood Plasma Facility

Fitzpatrick Engineering Group

Charlotte, North Carolina, United States

Octapharma’s lifesaving human-plasma products help with intensive care, emergency medicine and many chronic diseases. The main goal of this USD 26 million project in Charlotte, North Carolina, was to replace outsourced testing operations and expand internal warehouse and processing capabilities, which would save Octapharma USD 1 million per month. With this amount of money on the line, a traditional design-bid-build process would have cost three to four months on the schedule and millions of dollars.

Because the project was so unique, the design was constantly changing. The ability to share the  BIM model data multiple times during the design phases was key to meeting the schedule. Using AECOsim Building Designer, Fitzpatrick Engineering Group could easily share accurate data with the detailer and virtually eliminate data re-creation. This shortened the construction schedule by eight weeks on this project, saving the owner USD 2 million.

 Octapharma Blood Plasma Facility, Fitzpatrick Engineering Group—Finalist, Innovation in Structural Engineering

Westgate Footbridge

Westgate_Footbridge_1D&H Steel Construction

Waitakere, Auckland, New Zealand

The Westgate Footbridge in Auckland, New Zealand, links the community facilities of a shopping center, local library and sports complex, which had been cut off from each other by highway expansion. The challenge of this NZD 5 million project was to design the approach ramp as a double spiral–with left- and right-handed spirals–while minimizing its environmental impact on the local creek that it followed.

D&H Steel Construction used ProSteel to create the bridge model, which served as the base from which it modeled, detailed and fabricated a series of jigs that then were used to form the spirals and ensure the ends of the truss sections were accurate. The ProSteel model became the primary source of accurate information and allowed D&H Steel Construction to coordinate the precast concrete, foundations, handrails, throw screens and pedestrian lighting. In addition to overcoming the technical challenges, the approach significantly reduced workshop man hours and project delivery time.

Westgate Footbridge, D&H Steel Construction Ltd., New Zealand — Finalist, Innovation in Structural Engineering

View a gallery of the other notable entries here.

 

View presentations at www.bentley.com/projects2014