Balfour Beatty’s Hong Kong-based joint venture Gammon Construction is to partner with a BIM platform provider to improve health and safety risk management.
The 3D Repo platform is equipped with SafetiBase, a 4D tool that tackles safety issues through collaborative risk identification.
Gammon Construction’s digital innovation business Digital G will promote and provide support for the 3D Repo BIM platform to users in the Hong Kong, Singapore, and Macau regions.
The partnership follows Gammon’s recent roll-out of 3D Repo and SafetiBase on high-profile projects, such as the new £490m (HK$4.75b) Advanced Manufacturing Centre (AMC) project in Hong Kong.
There are plans to use the software on other Gammon projects and co-develop solutions for 4D modelling, IoT and immersive BIM CAVE environments.
Gammon executive director and CTO Paul Evans said: “Safety is a high priority for Gammon and we are exploring how technology can help mitigate and manage risk.
“We conducted a number of trial use-cases of 3D Repo on our AMC project, such as the 4D modelling capabilities to play through high risk and repetitive sequences to identify potential safety issues and explore mitigation options.
“We quickly realised the value in 3D Repo’s health and safety issue tracking tools, which allowed our project team to view potential problems and collaboratively resolve them in 3D before physical construction started.”
Senior construction manager at Gammon E&M, AMC project, Ryan Wong, said: “We found that questions expanded beyond safety and resulted in the team asking questions about quality and the practicalities of construction.
“Many of the queries would have been picked up later, such as has specialist plant and equipment been procured? How is it going to get in and out? Where will it be stored?
“But the proactive 4D workshops picked these items up early, saving us time and potential complications down the line. We are now exploring options on how to enhance collaborative planning with 3D Repo, such as using immersive technologies like a BIM CAVE.”
Founder and CEO at 3D Repo Dr Jozef Doboš said: “The 3D Repo platform has helped numerous large and complex projects in the UK and Canada to push the boundaries through digital construction and we’re excited to bring those benefits to new territories through the expertise of Digital G.”
Gammon Construction is jointly owned by Balfour Beatty and Jardine Matheson.
Balfour Beatty has previously announced it is using 3D Repo safety tool SafetiBase on HS2.
