{"data":{"news":{"items":[{"title":"Tuen Mun Chek Lap Kok Link: Major Project of the Year at ITA Awards ","date":"2019-11-20 13:32:06","id":1861,"author":"","blurb":"","blurb_image_uid":"https://dxfpracgmlczp.cloudfront.net/2019/11/1574232656644_cp_post_awards_2019_china.003 copy.jpg","blurb_expanded_image_uid":null,"article":"\n\t\n\n\n

The Tuen Mun Chek Lap Kok Link - Northern Connection Subsea Tunnel Section in Hong-Kong has been named ‘Major Project of the Year (over €500 million)’ at this year’s ITA Tunnelling Awards, which just took place in Miami, USA.

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The project aims to provide an alternative route to the Hong Kong International Airport located on the Chek Lap Kok Island, which up to now has only been accessible via the Tsing Ma Bridge.

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The works comprise a 4.5-km twin-tube subsea tunnel with 57 cross passages as well as a 500 m cut-and-cover section. Construction required two slurry TBMs with an excavation diameter of 14 m. The teams had to use innovative solutions to cope with harsh ground conditions and hydrostatic pressure of 5 bars at tunnel face (55 m below sea level).

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The first 630 m of excavation was carried out by a 17.63-m-diameter TBM – reportedly the world’s largest TBM - which was then reconfigured as a 14-m-diameter machine. A total of 41 subsea cross passages were also constructed by a smaller TBM.

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The first breakthrough was completed on 27 February 2019 and the overall cost of works is estimated at €2.36 billion.

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Project Team
\nClient: Highways Department, the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
\nContractors: Dragages Hong Kong Ltd & Bouygues Travaux Publics
\nEngineering firms: AECOM, DBJV, Arup, Atkins, and Golder

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ITA Tunnelling Awards

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The International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA) has been organising its Tunnelling Awards since 2015, to seek and reward the most groundbreaking innovation and outstanding projects in tunnelling and underground space use. The event was previously held in Hagerbach, Switzerland; Singapore; Paris, France; and Chuzhou, China.

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This year, the event took place in Miami, USA, from 18 to 20 November in conjunction with Cutting Edge Conference of UCA of SME. ITA has received more than 100 entries in the eight categories. The judging panel of the ITA Awards comprised 17 judges, chaired by Jenny Yan, new ITA president.

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Bentley Systems recently presented its new digital cities initiatives, applying digital twins technology for more efficient city and regional operations as well as for more connected and resilient infrastructure. Digital twins converge assets’ 4D-surveyed and engineering representations to enable new collaborative digital workflows to serving planners and engineers in public works, utilities, property management and development, and city stakeholders.

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Digital twin cloud services provide an intuitive and immersive 4D environment, converging digital context and digital components with digital chronology for ‘evergreen’ infrastructure digital twins over asset lifecycles. For infrastructure professionals, BIM and GIS are effectively advanced through 4D digital twins.

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“Bentley Systems’ major technical thrust is the advancement of digital twins across infrastructure domains. This finally opens up for owners their previously ‘dark’ engineering technologies and data (ET), for federation with traditional information technology (IT) and newly connected operating technologies (OT),” said Greg Bentley, CEO of Bentley Systems.

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“Correspondingly, because the opportunities for benefits are so compelling, our major organisational initiative is our new digital cities product advancement group. Our digital cities group’s charter is both to ramp infrastructure engineering digital twins to full city scale, and at the same time to help with going digital through entry points for any engineering department in any municipality.”

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“At Bentley Systems we have long and rich histories in respectively geospatial technology (GIS), and in BIM, for municipal infrastructure applications spanning capex and opex,” said Robert Mankowski, Bentley’s vice president for digital cities. “With our new cloud-based iTwin Services bringing this all together, city and campus digital twins now offer an immediate opportunity to help cities and regions solve a wide range of challenges and problems, enhancing their infrastructure performance and their constituents’ quality of life.”

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Infrastructure digital twins

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City-scale digital twins begin and are updated through 4D surveying and reality modelling by ContextCapture and Orbit GT to derive as-operated 3D models from photogrammetry (including from UAVs) and/or point clouds.

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Reality modelling provides engineering-precise, real-world context to support planning, design, construction, and operations. Users of Bentley’s open applications (OpenBuildings, OpenSite, OpenRoads, OpenRail, OpenUtilities) can leverage this digital context to model new and improved buildings, roads, transit systems, tunnels, bridges, utilities, and more.

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4D digital twins become a common and federating index for previously siloed information, without requiring source systems to change their existing environments or data formats. The foundation context for any digital twin includes reality meshes, terrain models, imagery, and GIS sources. Engineering models (from any BIM software) of buildings, streets, transit systems, utilities, and other city infrastructure, both surface and subsurface, are semantically aligned and geo-referenced to enhance the richness and relevance of digital twins over time.

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Public works departments, property developers, utilities, transportation agencies, and others now have access to a full and current contextual view of the built environment. Engineering and architectural firms will be able to develop new services that contemplate updating and managing digital assets over their lifecycles. And, cities will benefit from living and current digital twins of their infrastructure and surrounding environment.

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Now, cities can combine their surface and subsurface surveys and engineering data into cohesive 4D digital twins to ensure over time their asset performance, resiliency, and sustainability. Using Bentley’s open simulation applications during asset lifecycles, for example, as-constructed buildings can be evaluated for seismic resilience (STAAD), the evacuation of vehicles and people in stations, stadiums, and other public places can be assessed and optimised (Legion and Cube), the impact of flooding events like hurricanes can be determined (OpenFlows Flood), and the suitability of subsurface conditions for urban projects can be ensured (Plaxis, SoilVision).

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OpenGround: geotechnical digital twins

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Bentley’s geotechnical engineering and analysis applications empower subsurface digital twins, critical for assessing and managing risks in infrastructure projects and assets. Subsurface digital twins entail modelling of the underground environment, including the geology, hydrology, chemistry, and engineering properties, made possible by Bentley’s geotechnical offerings (Plaxis, SoilVision, Keynetix and gINT).

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To further enable subsurface digital twins, Bentley has introduced the OpenGround, a new cloud service (available end of 2019) to store, manage, report, and share data about natural ground conditions.

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www.bentley.com

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In the north of Taiwan, about 40 minutes from Taipei, the ChinPaoSan Necropolis cemetery is being extended with two new buildings: an arrival hall that will house tombs, a ceremonial place of worship, an auditorium and small museums; and a pavilion, which can accommodate up to 1,000 people on feast days.

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The pavilion – named Oceanic Pavilion – features an iconic design combining pools of water with monumental, half cutaway spherical surfaces. The spherical shapes are said to symbolise the circle of life and the infinity of time, while the element of water achieves aesthetic closure.

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ChinPaoSan Ltd (the developer) – which is also carrying out the construction work - has appointed Steven Holl Architects as architect on the project. The structural engineer is Guy Nordenson & Associates, with the local structural engineer TH Tsai & Associates. Transsolar has been commissioned as climate engineer, while Heng Kai Inc as mechanical engineer.

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For construction of the arrival hall and the pavilion, Doka is supplying its formwork systems plus services from project management through logistics to on-site formwork instructor. The Doka systems chosen include the Top 50 large-area formwork, Framax Xlife framed formwork and Dokaflex timber-beam floor formwork.

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Made-to-measure custom formwork built by the Doka Pre-assembly Service is also provided for the special spherical shapes. “Specifically, the angles of the conjunctions points between the spheres are unique and present artistic impulses from an architectural perspective,” said Tung-Ho Tsai, head of ChinPaoSan PCM consultancy. “Paradoxically, the simplicity of the design makes the construction complicated and challenging. However, Doka’s experienced engineering team met all the requirements from the architect. Additionally, the high safety standards are fulfilled.”

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According to Doka, a 3D model was used during formwork planning in order to simplify the job. The points covered include the orientation of the profiled timber formers, the make-up of the formwork sheeting, and the ways and means of assembling the formwork.

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Doka came up with a plug-in system, which was specially designed for the formwork of any 3D shapes. Timber formers, manufactured as a system of push-fit elements, are the basis for the free-form curving 3D formwork surface, explained Doka. The geometry data for these timber formers are transferred directly to the CNC (Computerised Numerical Control) spindle moulders and routers in the Doka Pre-assembly Service workshop. The push-fit system enables the timber formers to be locked together quickly and securely. Production is more efficient and assembly faster, said Doka, because less training is needed for the personnel.

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Doka’s Dokaflex tables, TLS table lifting system and H20 formwork beams are also used in the project. Construction work started in 2014, and it is reportedly still ongoing.

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www.doka.com

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At 178 m high, One Pearl Bank is set to be the tallest residential development in the Outram-Chinatown district of Singapore, offering panoramic views that extend from the central business district to Sentosa. It is scheduled for completion in 2023.

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Designed by Serie+Multiply, a joint venture between London-based Serie Architects and Singapore-based Multiply Architects, One Pearl Bank will feature 39-storey towers linked at the roof by sky bridges, with a total of 774 apartments. It will also have a series of sky allotment gardens arrayed vertically at one edge of each tower.

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With each tower featuring an allotment garden every four storeys, and each garden housing 11 plots, One Pearl Bank will have a total of 18 sky allotment gardens with close to 200 plots where residents can grow their own herbs, fruits and vegetables. These allotment gardens are intended not only to support urban farming, but also provide spaces to promote community bonding.

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The allotment gardens are further complemented by two sky terraces and two roof gardens across the two towers and a sunken planter in every balcony, to maximise the greenery on the development’s facade.

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Taking full advantage of Pearl’s Hill’s sloped typography, the two towers are lifted 21 m off the ground to allow a visual continuity flowing from the greenery of Pearl’s Hill City Park to the upcoming green connector to Fort Canning Park.

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According to CapitaLand, over 500 trees across 35 species and more than 135,000 shrubs, plants and flowers will be planted throughout One Pearl Bank, occupying over 60,000 sq ft of space – equivalent to 75% of the total site area.

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