China: The Beijing to Zhangjiakou High-speed Rail Project will become the world’s first high-speed railway with a design speed of 350 kilometers per hour and is being constructed at a total cost of CNY 53.5 billion in the Hebei province of Northeast China.
China Railway Engineering Consulting Group Co., Ltd. (CRECG), established as a subsidiary to China Railway Group Limited, is responsible for design and construction consulting of the 171-kilometer project.
Using Bentley’s comprehensive modeling environment, CRECG’s design team significantly improved efficiency, saving around three months of design time and CNY 3 million in labor costs. Moreover, Bentley’s software is helping the company to set new benchmarks for rail in China and around the world.
The line, which forms part of China’s preparations for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, is highly complex and includes many firsts. With 71 subsurface sections, 64 bridges, 10 tunnels, and 10 stations, the new high-speed line will be the first in China to adopt a full-lifecycle BIM approach for all disciplines involved on the project.
The Badaling Tunnel at 1.2 kilometers in length is the longest tunnel on the line and includes the new Badaling Great Wall Station, which, at 470-meters long and a maximum depth of 102 meters, with passengers traveling at 62 meters below the surface, is the largest underground station in China.
Facing collaboration and coordination challenges among the many disciplines involved, the project group chose to adopt technology that would enable Bentley’s Connected Data Environment, based on ProjectWise, and integrated applications to advance the “industrialization of BIM” – establishing logical links between and within disciplines working on the project, providing ready access to trusted information wherever and whenever required, and achieving the following outcomes:
· Centralized and effective information management across the lifecycle
· Enriched BIM technical standards for railways across all disciplines
· Improved modeling efficiency through standardized and intelligent components
·Optimized land use during construction through 3D design and modeling
· Reduced environmental impact while meeting the railway’s technical requirements
CRECG’s project team is paying close attention to BIM advancements on the project, creating a unified environment for multidiscipline design, collaboration, and coordination that enables improved quality of deliverables and “right first time” construction. Together with verification of, and improvements to, China’s Railway BIM Standards, CRECG’s approach is benefiting the entire Chinese rail industry, and the organization is taking responsibility for its part in empowering the China dream.
Zhang Zhongliang, director of CRECG’s BIM Center, said, “The Beijing-Zhangjiakou intercity railway is of great guiding significance to other BIM projects in the railway industry’s future. By using Bentley’s technology, China Railway Engineering Consulting Group Co., Ltd. is working toward realizing its vision of intelligent construction, equipment, and operation and is the start of a new era for the world’s intelligent railway.”
