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www.thestructuralengineer.org

TheStructuralEngineer 11
November 2013

Project
focus
Peer-reviewed papers focusing on the structural engineering challenges
faced during the design and build stages of a construction project.

12 HMYOI Cookham Wood: the first government scheme adoption of BIM Level 2
16 From lonely BIM to Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA)
24 Jumping in at the deep end: how a small company applied BIM to a huge project
32 Working with existing structures in a model environment
40 Manchester Town Hall transformation programme
50 BIM for the Northern Hub ECS1 programme
60 Successful BIM in practice: the Parkside Building in Eastside, Birmingham
66 Digital design collaboration and complex fabrication
72 BIM on the Louvre Abu Dhabi
78 Challenges in implementing BIM: Singapore Sports Hub – a case study
84 BIM approach to a nuclear project: Sellafield Maintenance Facility

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12 TheStructuralEngineer Project focus
November 2013 UK Government adoption of BIM Level 2

Synopsis

HMYOI In 2012, URS with lead designer HLN Architects

was appointed to develop a new housing block
and education building at Her Majesty’s Young
Offender Institution (HMYOI) Cookham Wood

Cookham
in Rochester, Kent. The project comprised the
construction of a new L-shaped, three-storey
housing block to accommodate 179 young
people, including the provision of full disabled-
access cells with suitable bathrooms, and a new

Wood: the first education building with associated ancillary

works. The scope of the project also included new
security fencing around exercise yards, access
roads and new cross-site services required to

government
supply the additional facilities (Figure 1).
Working with HLN Architects, the project
was planned so that construction work could
be carried out without major impact on the
establishment and its normal operating routines,

scheme with access available from adjoining roads.

The Cookham Wood project was the first of
four Ministry of Justice (MoJ) projects in its Level
2 Building Information Modelling (BIM) ‘Early

adoption of
Adopter Programme’, part of MoJ’s strategy for
meeting the Government’s plan to roll out BIM
Level 2 across all public sector projects by 2016.
This article describes URS’ experience,
from high-level thinking about BIM on this pilot

BIM Level 2 scheme, to the realities of delivering full BIM

models in a tight (six week) programme.

W Figure 1
Federated BIM model of Cookham Wood

David Glennon BSc PGDip MBCS

Allan Brown EngTech TIStructE

All authors: URS Infrastructure & Environment UK Ltd.

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BIM aspirations
The HMYOI Cookham Wood scheme was
originally developed using a ‘traditional’
method of 2D drawings and commonly
adopted software. At the pre-tender stage,
the MoJ suggested that the project could
become an early adopter of BIM. These
aspirations were communicated to the
project team through a workshop, beginning
a dialogue with the MoJ exploring the
implications of adopting BIM on technology,
people and processes.
The BIM goals for the project were to
develop a fully coordinated, multi-discipline
federated 3D model, and to produce COBie
(Construction Operations and Building
Information Exchange) data drops 2A
and 2B, to provide an outline solution for
the project. These data drops provide the
rationale to select the main contractor.
At this stage, checks are taken to ensure
that the design and specifications meet
that of the brief, with a focus on cost and
performance. A further deliverable was 2D
drawings created directly from the models.
These objectives provided an opportunity
for project members to develop their own
BIM expertise as well as lessons and
resources for the industry to re-use.
The initial workshops with the MoJ
were critical in clearly defining the client’s
requirements and the process needed to
achieve them. Everyone involved in the
workshops had the opportunity to understand
the holistic BIM process and helped refine
the resources now available to the industry,
such as the Construction Industry Council
BIM Protocol1 which is a supplementary legal
agreement that can be added to construction
contracts as that of an amendment, and
the shaping of PAS 1192-2:20132 which is
recognised as the supporting document to
the industry of how to strategically achieve
BIM Level 2. Without these benchmark
documents, however, there was initial
uncertainty about what was required for
the Cookham Wood development, including
TSE23_12-14.indd 13
S Figure 2
Gate details LOD
N Figure 3
Fencing details LOD
such basic elements as the level of detail and
information necessary.
The definition of these BIM fundamentals
was agreed, to clarify what was required
at each stage of the project, helping to
form a BIM Execution Plan – now generally
accepted as a key document on any BIM
project. There were also challenges with
using COBie, due to the lack of supporting
technologies to enable the COBie data
drops; a problem that still exists today.
Level of detail (LOD) understanding
One of the initial ambitions was to directly
link specification documents to the
resulting BIM model. An important lesson
learned by the project team – with broad
applicability for the industry – was the need
for clarity regarding required deliverables
and especially the level of detail needed
in the model. For example, in the absence
of any UK-recognised level of detail (LOD)
documentation, URS had to base LOD
principles on Document E202-20083 by the
American Institute of Architects (AIA). A
number of questions were raised internally,
such as:
• At the point of handover, will end users
be able to interrogate the BIM model by
utilising software they are familiar with to
locate specifications?
• How does URS map the specifications to the
model, so that during distribution back to the
MoJ, all linking of coordinated data is retained?
• What impact will the linking of external
specifications have on the performance of
the information model? Will the model size
increase? Will the model navigation slow
down?
• Is the data being used to populate a
Facilities Management system? The FM
aspects of the design are of particular
importance to the MoJ.
One example of the impact of this lack of
clarity over LOD, related to perimeter fencing
www.thestructuralengineer.org
13
and gates (Figures 2 and 3). The design
team made an early assumption that these
should be modelled in detail, matching the
full 3D coordinated model in providing BIM
Level 2 compliance. It later became clear that
the fencing on this particular project did not
require 3D modelling, and that simple lines
linking back to the perimeter specifications
would have been sufficient.
Detailed work on these fences and gates
did highlight that a significant amount of
time spent creating custom content for
the project could potentially benefit similar
projects in the future. The MoJ requested
from the outset, that a library of standard
components, that could be distributed
to design teams and contractor supply
chains to aid the BIM process, while also
encouraging a better understanding of the
critical nature of LOD, should be developed.
With 3D technology adoption increasing
at a rapid pace (a trend that seems unlikely
to change) LOD is an aspect that must
be fully clarified with clients early in the
process, along with an understanding of
how data will be matured as the project
develops. Additional considerations
that should be considered during LOD
discussions are:
• Understanding the ‘Consultant’ model
versus the ‘Contractor’ model
• Ownership of models
• Fidelity of data exchange between
software platforms
Throughout the development of the
Employer’s Information Requirements and
the BIM Execution Plan, knowledge about
current limitations of how technologies
interact should be highlighted, and
workflows explored to check the quality of
data exchanges. As part of the BIM process,
the aim is to mature the data over the life
cycle of the project, but the realities are
more complex in terms of technology and
from an ownership and legal standpoint.
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14 TheStructuralEngineer
November 2013
Similarly, a client’s understanding of
the development of a consultant’s model,
such as a structural engineer’s model, and
how it subsequently translates into a sub-
contractor’s fabrication model must be
addressed early in the process, with suitable
management of expectations.
Importance of training and knowledge
URS identified two separate challenges
on this project, which has aided in its
development of expertise in BIM authoring
software as well as in BIM processes.
The easier of the two streams to manage
and develop was the technology challenge.
URS was able to mobilise training plans for
all offices involved including ‘just-in-time’
training, in line with project start dates, so that
no momentum was lost between the training
and the project. URS’ offices in Plymouth and
London were able to collaborate to create
the federated models and generate the
construction documentation directly from the
models, as required by the MoJ.
The development and understanding of
the BIM process provided a more complex
challenge. As a pilot project, Cookham
Wood gave all those involved a chance to
collaborate and collectively develop their
knowledge and understanding of how to
apply BIM principles on a working project.
Internally, HLN and its design teams gained
a clear understanding that BIM is not simply
about 3D models or specific technologies, but
rather a change in process that produces a
more developed deliverable for the client.
COBie data drops also provided one of the
most notable challenges on the project. URS
saw these data drops as BIM at the lowest
common dominator with regards to data. A
manual process was needed to develop the
data structure for the COBie drop, which had
an adverse impact on both time and cost,
and a significant amount of training for all
involved. Since the development of Cookham
Wood, software vendors have worked to
enable COBie outputs directly from the BIM
models in a more automated and effective
manner (although there is still further work to
be done in this area).
As a pilot, the project has provided
worthwhile lessons for the industry which
can be found on the UK Government Task
Group website4. It has added impetus for
software vendors to improve their software
to suit BIM Level 2 deliverables and helped
in the development of many of the industry
standards available today. Project team
members have developed invaluable
expertise and URS has since evolved
many of its internal processes to facilitate
improved collaborative BIM working
practices, compared to more traditional
methods of design.
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Project focus
UK Government adoption of BIM Level 2
Conclusion means there are clear benefits to becoming
Over a six week period, the Cookham fully engaged as early as possible, because
Wood project team moved from traditional the more structured and well defined the
2D design methods to full 3D coordinated BIM process is at the outset, the more
models and inclusion of COBie data with effective BIM will be throughout the project.
a basic understanding of the BIM process. This includes setting out clear definitions of
This was a significant challenge, but one project aspirations and client requirements
which the team successfully met. The within the BIM Execution Plan, and ensuring
measure of this was being able to mobilise these are effectively communicated to the
the project team from using 2D design project team.
to 3D design within the six weeks. From It is critical that BIM is applied with an
this experience, URS have managed to understanding of how engineers can adopt
build on the success of the adoption of the required processes in a cost-effective
BIM authoring technologies across multi- manner. A lack of clarity at the start of
disciplines and now have 150+ UK based a project can have a direct impact upon
formally trained staff. effective delivery at the consultant level.
URS gained significant knowledge Since the start of the Cookham Wood
and experience from the project, adding project in 2012, there has been significant
to its understanding of the benefits and progress in making BIM a more practical
limitations of employing BIM. The majority of proposition, with the advent of industry-
benefits were derived from the generation recognised documentation from the CIC
of construction documentation and in and the current version of PAS 1192-2: 2013.
the intelligence the information models Client understanding is also improving,
contained. Our teams were able to visualise which is a significant step forward for BIM
their designs quicker and identify issues and its successful adoption. Clients and
earlier with regards to potential site clashes. contractors are starting to understand how
Limitations were found regarding the longer projects should be structured to suit the BIM
process that was taken to embed data in the process, which in itself will bring efficiencies.
model objects to suit the COBie data drops. Within little more than a year, BIM has
It has been noted that since the inception of developed to the point where a more
Cookham Wood, software vendors are now common language is starting to be spoken,
catering their technologies to better handle with many of the fundamentals established at
the demands of these data drops. Cookham Wood, fast becoming the standard
The opportunity to develop a wider view for our industry. URS played a pivotal
of a project, means URS will be better able role, steering a pilot project from modest
to challenge and support its clients in the beginnings to provide a BIM foundation on
process. The collaborative nature of BIM which the industry is now building.
References
E1 Construction Industry Council (2013) Building
Information Model (BIM) Protocol [Online] Available at:
www.bimtaskgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/
The-BIM-Protocol.pdf (Accessed: October 2013)
E2 British Standards Institution (2013) PAS 1192-2:2013:
Specification for information management for the
capital/delivery phase of construction projects using
building information modelling [Online] Available at:
http://shop.bsigroup.com/forms/PASs/PAS-1192-2/
(Accessed: October 2013)
E3 American Institute of Architects (2008) E202-2008:
BIM Protocol Document [Online] Available at: www.
aia.org/contractdocs/training/bim/aias078742
(Accessed: October 2013)
E4 HM Government Department for Business, Innovation
and Skills (2013) BIM Task Group [Online] Available at:
www.bimtaskgroup.org/lessons-learned/ (Accessed:
October 2013)
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