BE Magazine - Volume 4, Issue 4 - (Page 26)

CIVIL v L&T-RAMBØLL designers modeled the terrain in MX for an accurate topographic survey The runway had to be designed and built on challenging terrain. Fill heights along the runway were as great as 12.3 meters. The earthwork in cut was about 5 million cubic meters, and the ﬁll was 4 million cubic meters. The drainage system design followed the existing natural drainage patterns as much as possible, with surface runoff water collecting in large ﬂood areas to the north of the airport. The quantiﬁcation of the catchment areas after the deﬁnition of various surfaces in MX helped speed preliminary drainage design. Surface analysis tools highlighted ﬂat spots, excessive slopes, and other surface discrepancies that did not comply with the stringent ICAO design speciﬁcations. Surface slopes permitted in airports are much ﬂatter than those acceptable for roads. This poses additional surface drainage problems, especially in rapid-exit taxiways where transitions create ﬂat spots unsuitable for drainage. Modeling rapid-exit taxiways has always been a challenge. MX tools helped designers quickly identify problem areas and devise solutions. For example, ridge lines were created at appropriate locations to overcome ﬂat spots while maintaining the slopes within allowable limits. Another challenge in airport design is locating ancillary services under the apron. These services include drainage ducts, fuel supply pipelines, fuel hydrants, and electrical lighting conduits. Designers must position these facilities accurately and get them right the ﬁrst time during construction, because redoing them would be very expensive. STAAD.Pro helped in modeling and analyzing the impacts of the complex gear conﬁgurations of new large aircraft, such as the Airbus A-380, for consideration in the design of drainage structures. L&T-RAMBØLL created a 3D model and carried out ﬁnite element analysis to predict what forces would be transmitted to the structures lying underneath. To meet the tight deadlines, different designers worked independently on various components of the master plan. Their work was then combined to produce a ﬁnal coordinated and integrated design. The use of input ﬁles and careful model management made the design process person-independent. MX allows users to control roadway details by deﬁning a series of strings with independent or referenced alignments and proﬁles. The master strings for all the components to be designed were identiﬁed on the master plan of the airport before work started on the detail designs. Designers did not have to worry about naming the strings uniquely, and it was a fairly simple task to integrate different designs into the central model. Srivastava noted, “It was relatively easy to produce construction drawings and additional information required by the contractors and client from the design models developed. The automatic generation/extraction of information ensured that human errors in translating this information were eliminated.” Though the design and construction were targeted toward the initial phase of development, concept designs for future expansions were also integrated into the detailed designs. It is estimated that using MX and STAAD.Pro saved around three months from the time required to create the details drawings, which helped the ﬁrm stay on track to meet its original deadlines despite signiﬁcant changes to the scope of the project. Detail design work started in August 2005, and the construction team was mobilized at the same time. Civil construction is expected to be ﬁnished by December 2007, and the airport is on track to start commercial operations in April 2008. BE Award Finalist Good Neighbors Residential subdivision wins approval through environmentally friendly design L ocated 17 miles south of Birmingham in the heart of Alabama, the city of Alabaster has been growing at a rate of more than 60 percent during the past 10 years. The Blackhawk Estates of Alabaster—a 664-lot subdivision currently under construction—is expected to have an economic impact on the city in excess of $200 million when it is fully built out for 1,500 residents. The initial opposition to the municipality’s new subdivision stemmed from concerns about its proximity to the Shelby County Airport. This, however, was overcome when the developer, Blackhawk Estates of Alabaster LLC, set aside a 220-acre natural habitat as a buffer zone between the development and the airport, and incorporated restrictions on building height and distance from runways imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration into the community’s design without impacting its character. InSite Engineering submitted detailed design plans to the city for review and approval just 90 days after it began working on the 26 BE MAGAZINE | Volume 4, Issue 4

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of BE Magazine - Volume 4, Issue 4

BE Magazine - Volume 4, issue 4 Contents The Drive To Innovate News BE Newsletter Highlights Converging on the Market Bytes and Bricks Generative Components Building Courting Success Remodeling an Icon Structural Integration Building News From Bentley Civil Greenfield Airport Takes Flight Good Neighbors Collaborative Innovation Civil News From Bentley Advertisers Index Geospatial Ring of Fiber Revolutionizing Integrity Management Port City Transformation In Conversation With Greg Bentley Geospatial News From Bentley Plant Single-Source Service Committed to Cleaner Air Expediting Expansion Plant News From Bentley Strength in Numbers The Art of Visualization A Winning Legacy Zero Change Culture: Further Definition A Remarkable Collaboration With a Forward-Thinking Community

BE Magazine - Volume 4, Issue 4

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