A
Publish and Present
Justin Rygel, P.E., S.E.
Project Manager
WSP
Federal Way, Washington
TJ Schilling, P.E., S.E.
Project Manager
BergerABAM
Federal Way, Washington
The use of Building Information Modeling/Management (BIM) is an emerging tool within the ports and marine design and construction community. Leveraging BIM tools not only to reduce field effort during design but also reduce risk is paramount in this age of efficient, high-performance construction. This paper discusses the collaboration techniques used to locate, coordinate, and communicate the design of a submarine pier extension for the U.S. Navy.
The pier extension required the need to connect to not only an existing structure but to existing utilities, while providing seismic separation between the existing and proposed structures. Traditionally, as-built drawings, coupled with exhaustive site data reconnaissance, is used to establish and verify the existing structure and determine critical measurements. This site reconnaissance requires multiple people, can last many days, and typically requires additional visits if critical information is not recorded or is not recorded accurately, thus leading to additional cost, travel time, and design resources.
To eliminate this unnecessary effort, the use of laser scan technology was employed. By using multiple laser scans to create a digital point cloud of the existing facility, engineers, designers, and modelers were able to perform virtually unlimited site reconnaissance, and develop an accurately located 3-D model of the existing facility. This model was used to develop demolition, retrofit, and new construction documents. The combination of the digital point clouds and the subsequent 3-D model eliminated the need to perform additional site visits and increased coordination productivity in an efficient virtual software environment across multiple engineering and design disciplines.