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BAM tests new software on Whitechapel project
Justin Stanton Editor, CM Digital
The Rowe is set to complete in September 2022 (Image: Trevor Palin)
BAM has been trialling new software from BIM 360 and Trimble on The Rowe £80m office development in London’s Whitechapel.
“BAM culture is that we are able to get into the detail and sort out problems before they grow,” BAM London region director Rod Stiles told Construction Management. “Digital is part of that.”
Often, BAM will commission 3D designs, if they don’t already exist, particularly for tricky interface areas. “It’s a cost we will bear ourselves, because we will see the benefit,” he said.
The Rowe’s design team was already working in 3D, but some elements required physical checking. In fact, BAM has had a team of two engineers on site to survey and check.
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“Their job has been to get to understand this structure,” said BAM construction manager Robert Biddle.
BIM 360 model of The Rowe
The BAM team is trialling the latest version of BIM 360, using it for document management as well as for viewing the 3D designs. “It is much more instinctive than our previous document management system,” said Biddle. The plan is that it will be rolled out throughout BAM.
He said BIM 360 helps with governance too, for example, when documenting temporary works sign offs: “It is safer too because it requires you to be physically out on site, taking photos, rather than filling out forms at your desk.”
BAM’s planner on the project used 4D design to help plan the piling works. With two rigs on site and the need to control which elements of the facade support could be removed at any one time, this was vital to plan the sequencing.
The Rowe is also trialling a Trimble system that projects the position of building services runs onto the ceiling of a room so that they can be swiftly marked out – providing the building services engineers have previously calculated where the runs and brackets should be.
Stiles said: “The benefit is there are no mistakes because the setting out is from the model. There is less risk and it is faster because they are just focusing on the installation.”
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