BAM Construct UK has responded to the BIM challenge issued by its client University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust on the building of a £21m intensive care unit.
BIM is a priority for the trust as it strives to maintain a large and complex estate with multiple projects each year.
BAM Construct UK was challenged by the trust to achieve a level of BIM output that was "probably more comprehensive than any of their recent projects", said Jeff Belk, the trust’s head of estates and capital projects.
The scope of asset data and asset labelling was designed to mesh BIM with the client’s computer-aided facilities management systems and required significant fine-tuning.
BAM was just a couple of months into the job when Covid-19 struck and non-essential visits to the project were suspended; the decision was made to roll out weekly virtual project walkthroughs, showing works as they progressed, using the 3D scanning system Matterport.
The interactive panoramas cover every corner of the project and are navigated using a mouse Google Street View-style. "It has been great for illustrating the project to our stakeholders, charity fundraisers and other interested parties," Belk said.
The system is now being exploited for more project-specific tasks, such as importing the 3D data into Revit to produce as-built drawings, which removes the need to physically send people onto site to take measurements. It will provide the trust’s maintenance team with a full photographic 3D record of service installations before the installations are covered by suspended ceilings.
"It has been a game changer for us and the client loves it," said Matt Crookes, project manager at BAM Construct UK.
Read Construction Manager’s full site report to find out more about the many challenges BAM had to deal with on the job: https://www.constructionmanagermagazine.com/project-bams-covid-challenge-on-intensive-care-build/
