Yunnan Yunling Industrializes Project Delivery for Kunming City’s Rapid Transportation System

Digital Management Achieves Significant ROI to Support Smart City Initiatives

A Digital City Initiative

Capital city and political, economic, and cultural center of Yunnan province, Kunming City is developing rapidly and accelerating pace to transform itself into a regional hub as part of an RMB 90 billion urban revitalization effort to create a digital city. Multiple provincial and key municipal public private partnership (PPP) projects are being initiated to stimulate and support the urban development, including an RMB 9.9 billion rapid transport system to improve transportation infrastructure in the city’s southeastern section. The new roadway network spans 20 square kilometers and has a total construction distance of 65.48 kilometers, consisting of roads, bridges, tunnels, and underground pipe corridors. Yunnan Yunling Engineering Cost Consultation (YYECC) was retained as the lead building information modeling (BIM) strategy consultant to effectively manage the project within the schedule and budget.

As a PPP project, numerous government ministries, stakeholders, and engineering disciplines required coordination to ensure that investment, financing, design, construction, and maintenance processes met owner requirements. The digital city initiative presented massive amounts of fragmented data among more than 25 project contracts with overlapping functions and a 20-year project lifecycle. Faced with these challenges YYECC required an integrated digital solution to effectively manage the complex contract system and develop industrialized, automated processes for data transfer and information sharing.

Digitalization Transforms Traditional Management Model

As a total solution provider offering BIM lifecycle services, YYECC sought to determine the feasibility of integrating collaborative BIM technology to manage the Kunming PPP rapid transport infrastructure project. The team used Bentley’s project management and modeling applications to create an open, connected data environment (CDE), visualize project management, and improve management efficiencies. Leveraging the collaboration and management capabilities of ProjectWise with the engineering, design, and visualization capabilities of other Bentley applications, YYECC established a unified management platform and developed a comprehensive, owner-supported BIM methodology. The process was designed to improve collaboration, ensuring real-time information sharing and accessibility, and to optimize lifecycle management of the multidiscipline, long- term PPP initiative. Model and data files, standard process and supervisory documentation, and design and construction information are stored within a single platform for efficient collaboration.

Based on the structured format of more than three terabytes worth of stored, accessible data and documents in ProjectWise, tasks were appropriately divided, assigned, and evaluated, strengthening the organization and management of the project participants. Integrating Bentley’s 3D BIM and visualization applications within the CDE facilitated coordinated modeling and more continuous digital workflows from conception through construction and commissioning.

The technology and models were used to simulate analysis of the conceptual scheme, fully demonstrating the design intent and economic visibility of the project to shorten decision time. The digital simulation features of Bentley’s applications allowed for real-time analysis of construction progress to keep the project on schedule and to optimize construction management, ensuring accurate material quantities and pricing and improving construction quality.

Using LumenRT to share the simulations with executors and directors enhanced appearance of the comprehensive transportation network model so they could better understand the progress and construction to make more informed decisions and accelerate approval time. The Bentley-based digital solution achieved data integration, collaborative modeling, application analysis, and coordinated information sharing, transforming traditionally fragmented management into efficient, streamlined processes.

Collaborative Design Facilitates Model Integrity

Having accurate digital models within the CDE provides the basis for data sharing and enables remote simulation of construction progress and inspection to avoid safety concerns, costly mistakes, and missed project milestones.

Using Bentley’s design applications, YYECC established a collaborative modeling environment, creating a standard template library, and roadway, interchange, bridge, tunnel and structural models for the rapid transport system. The interoperability of Bentley applications facilitated integrated modeling and clash detection, improving design accuracy and management. BIM designers relied on clash detection features and digital workflows within the CDE to provide accurate data to specific design consultants to ensure model accuracy.

With four different design companies and multiple engineering disciplines, each discipline needed to ensure their model integrated with the other models precisely. OpenBridge Modeler and OpenRoads allowed specific engineering disciplines to design in context according to specifications to apply the model in daily project management. Performing clash analysis on the pipeline and roadway digital models during the pipeline corridor design revealed different elevations between the models. The team identified and resolved 210 elevation issues between the pipes and the roadway and underpass parking lot during the modeling phase. Bentley’s integrated technology facilitated more efficient communication among the various design disciplines and enabled early error detection and resolution prior to construction, eliminating costly on-site rework. With integrated modeling, the team could closely coordinate the models and data, optimizing design integrity. “The model integrity is improved by 90 percent,” stated Li Chao, vice director of BIM Center at YYECC.

Connected Data Environment and BIM Optimize Execution

By combining information mobility with information modeling using a CDE and robust BIM methodologies, YYECC achieved digital management, industrializing project execution and delivery while facilitating a smarter digital city. Using Bentley’s applications to implement the digital solution improved progress management by 42 percent and design intent by 92 percent, realizing 63 percent design optimization. The interoperable BIM engineering applications helped meet requirements for cost management by defining standard attributes at early project stages. This innovative application of engineering data for cost management guaranteed efficiency and accuracy of multidimensional cost management, improving engineering quantities and costs by 70 percent.

Using integrated BIM technology in the CDE reduced the review and approval process from one week to one hour, lowered the deficiency of acquired early-stage materials by 40 percent, and improved on-site information quality by 30 percent. On previous projects, four full-time employees were required to manage approvals for cost submittals; however, under the new collaborative management process, only one person is required to accomplish the same scope.

Industrializing project delivery processes through digital 3D modeling, visualization, and information sharing enhanced design efficiency by 25 percent, reduced design drawing errors by 60 percent, and improved visualization efficiency by 70 percent incorporating LumenRT. Having the Bentley platform accessible via mobile devices and web interface helped improve collaboration by 25 percent, while the ability to incorporate remote collection of data into the CDE improved data integrity on the construction line. By adopting iModels and PDF as lightweight BIM applications to reduce file size, the team further simplified and accelerated data transmission and information sharing for more efficient management. Using ProjectWise and BIM software, YYECC optimized execution and delivery of Kunming’s rapid transport system and resolved the complex management issues. Implementing digital processes and workflows to connect users and stakeholders facilitated effective collaboration and development of Kunming as a new digital city.

Digital DNA Drives Urban Revitalization

Recognizing the successes achieved through collaborative digitalization of the Kunming transportation infrastructure project, the Chinese government has introduced a new directive to other PPP projects in the region to adopt similar BIM methodologies and technologies. Leveraging a CDE supported by BIM methodologies optimized information sharing and accessibility and established the digital DNA required for future decision making by the owner-operator.

The new connected digitalized process enables reuse of data for other PPP projects to help drive urban revitalization and achieve development in the Guandu area of a fully digital, new smart city.

Using Bentley applications to create a robust CDE and digital twin model of the rapid transport system, YYECC has established the basis for better construction projects and a source for improving digital urban management for future generations of Kunming City. Through execution of this transportation infrastructure project, the company realized the full potential of industrialized project delivery, verifying feasibility of BIM for PPP projects and promoting digital city initiatives. “We firmly believe that going digital, embracing digital workflows, is the best way to create a smart city,” commented Chao. Learn more here.