BIM Case Study
John and Mary Brock Football Facility
Project Coordination
A workflow was set up where the entire team had to go through the BIM model together on a weekly basis. Most importantly, the team agreed to use a set of tools to model, collaborate, and deliver closeout documents. These tools included a combination of Tekla Engineer and Detailing packages. Tekla for Construction Management (CM) was used to manage and track project status, including submittals, RFIs, and scheduling. Additionally, Tekla BIMsight for collaboration was added.
Background:
John Brock, chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola Enterprises and Georgia Tech alumnus, and his wife, Mary, gave a $3.5 million lead gift for the construction of an indoor football facility. The Mary R. and John F. Brock Indoor Football Practice Facility is an 88,000 sq. feet facility, consisting of a full-size football field in an enclosed space and massive hangar doors that allow easy access to and from the adjacent existing practice field. A key feature is a designated recruiting platform that overlooks the field. Building Information Modeling (BIM) was used heavily throughout the project, and success of the project lies with its usage. Major BIM related innovations in this project can be summarized as below:
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Tight schedule: The delivery process is 12 weeks faster than the industry norm.
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Integration of Structural design and Fabrication
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Dealing with site conditions and limitations of an existing underground sewer tunnel right below the building foundations
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Planning and coordination was critical to the success of the project
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The model was critical in assisting team in the design, logistics, and coordination of the steel fabrication, delivery and installation.
Design Assist Role
Prior to bidding for the concrete rebar fabricator, Barton Malow called upon a contractor of concrete rebar fabrication to assist in the design. Having early assistance by the contractor greatly improves the design for accuracy and efficiency. In turn, the contractor will be allowed to bid as long as they are not monopolizing the project and they are bidding at a reasonable bid-price. Structural engineers got together with the fabricators a few times in December for different coordination meetings. The purpose of the meetings was to make sure they are all on the same page, including that the fabricators were interpreting the structural engineers’ model correctly.
All figures used in this case study were provided courtesy of Georgia Tech.