New Bridge Completes Economy Boosting Expressway The Taihong Yangtze River Bridge is a CNY 900 million construction project along the 77-kilometer highway network linking the Nanchuan District and Lianjiang New Area in China’s Chongqing municipality. The 1,436-meter-long bridge crosses the Yangtze River and is the final component of the expressway, which is expected to reduce travel time between the two districts to 50 minutes and boost Chongqing’s eco - nomic development. The bridge features a two-way, six-lane roadway with a width of 39.6 meters. Designed as a suspension bridge, it includes an 808-meter steel box beam with a complex structure required to sustain a high- load capacity amid complicated terrain. The scale and complexity of the project necessitated pushing the boundaries of engineering data to ensure construction quality and safety. Manual Processes Undermine Dynamic Bridge Construction Recognizing that bridge construction is a dynamic process, the proj - ect owner hired China Railway Changjiang Transport Design Group (CRCTDG). Working with Guizhou Communications Construction Group and Guizhou Bridge Construction Group, as well as numerous other components and contributors in various disciplines, CRCTDG had to determine how they could use the engineering information to increase the performance, quality, safety, scheduling, and cost of each stage of the life cycle. They also realized that they needed to digi - tize engineering workflows and avoid irreversible and costly errors. CRCTDG knew that traditional manual and paper-based data exchange and construction methods would not be sufficient to achieve the ac - curacy and public safety they targeted. “Traditional infrastructure- related data mainly uses estimation statistics, manual compilation and reports, and document transmission,” explained Fengmin Chen, head of CRCTDG’s BIM technology department. They explored using 3D BIM methodologies and reality modeling to perform construction simulation and enable seamless, real-time data exchange and intelligent information management. More specifically, during the design stage, they sought to achieve parametric modeling, improve design efficiency, integrate multidiscipline data, and generate a unique data source. CRCTDG desired digital pre-assembly of steel box beams during construction and 3D laser scanning to monitor con - struction progress for high-precision quality control. However, they Chongqing and Guizhou Organizations Advance Construction of Taihong Yangtze River Bridge Bentley’s Interoperable Reality Modeling Applications Help to Save CNY 1.8 Million in Construction Management Costs By Amy Heffner
faced data collection, integration, and coordination challenges asso - ciated with incorporating digital survey methods and BIM modeling. They also needed to overcome software incompatibility to simulate construction and establish a digital foundation for lifecycle operations and management. With Bentley’s open applications, CRCTDG established digital work - flows and a construction management platform that eliminated informa - tion silos caused by traditional construction methods. Image courtesy of China Railway Changjiang Transport Design Group Co., Ltd. Leveraging BentleyApplications for ConstructionManagement CRCTDG selected ContextCapture to process unmanned aerial survey data and establish a highly precise 3D model. They also used the ap - plication to create a terrain model of the bridge site, display contours as lines or triangular meshes, and produce effective elevation and slope analysis. The use of high-precision orthophoto maps, point clouds, or reality scanning technologies generated terrain models of the bridge site and greatly improved the efficiency and accuracy of the work. MicroStation was used to streamline and integrate models from mul - tiple software applications, providing a single data source throughout the entire project lifecycle. They performed 3D laser scanning of the complicated terrain via unmanned aerial vehicles for rapid and detailed data collection. Using ContextCapture, they processed the point clouds and survey data to generate geological models of the bridge site. These digital survey and 3D modeling methods also helped them obtain accurate 3D mea - surements of the steel box girder components to simulate assembly, helping intelligently manufacture the steel box beam. They continually collected point cloud data throughout the bridge construction process to visually monitor progress. “Reality scanning technologies are used to regularly collect site data during construction to record project construction at different construction periods,” commented Chen. Using LumenRT, CRCTDG integrated the reality and BIM models to simulate the construction process and monitor progress, optimizing construction through effective planning. The Taihong Yangtze River Bridge is a CNY 900 million construction project along the 77-kilometer highway linking the Nanchuan District and Lianjiang New Area in Chongqing. Image courtesy of China Railway Changjiang Transport Design Group Co., Ltd.
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csengineermag.com
DECEMBER 2021
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