Mott MacDonald and TfL design team have won an
international award of excellence at the prestigious Bentley
Empowered (BE) Conference held in Los Angeles this May.
The award is for the way in which the East London Line design team
has applied Bentley 3D modelling software to create a virtual
reality model of the 10km East London Line which has primarily been
used for signal sighting.
The model offers a seamless virtual reality for planners using the
system, although it actually contains more than 250 engineering
models to help engineers to place signals without the need to
actually visit the site.
“Investing in this cutting edge technology shows our absolute
commitment to deliver the East London Line extension as an
operational railway by June 2010, “ says East London Line Project
Director Peter Richards, “by using this leading technology, we
understand issues earlier, examine the problems in detail, and
implement solutions before we get to construction stage.
“I see the industry following suit, as they see this technology
driving down costs and improving in the overall management of
risk.”
Mark Eaden collecting the Bentley award of
excellence"This model has saved £1/2 million and at least
six months in signalling design time", commented Mark Eaden who
collected the award on behalf of Mott MacDonald, “Most importantly,
this has enabled us to design more safely by reducing the need for
staff to visit sites under construction. By giving greater
confidence in design, it is also envisaged that the model will
continue to add value if it is adopted at the next stages of the
project.”
Jonathan Faragher, the Group's technical advisory team's leader
added, “This 3D modelling tool allows us to turn engineering
drawings into movies so that we can see how changes in signalling
decisions will impact the whole network. This is just one example
of how TfL and Mott MacDonald are working together with innovative
solutions to make far reaching benefits to real transport
infrastructure projects for London.”
