Construction World December 2022

N2 REALIGNMENT UMHLALI BRIDGE TO UMVOTI BRIDGE N aidu Consul t ing's emphas i s on value engineering ensures that innovat ion i s cont inual ly introduced

achieving the requi red minimum des ign cri teria for the proposed des ign speed. Whi le the scope of works for the construct ion of the road did not deviate f rom the convent ional construct ion methods , the project was viewed as a great opportuni ty to showcase the innovat ions present in the industr y by del ivering the project Construct ion and Close-out phase through “Digi t i sat ion”. The digi t i sat ion of the project was implemented through BIM 360 solut ion, which i s a cloud based Common Data Envi ronment (CDE) that al lows paperless workflows . A 4D BIM model i s a 3D geometric model of the road which i s further advanced by l inking i t to a Construct ion Programme, thereby giving a real t ime vi sual s imulat ion of the schedul ing and sequencing of the construct ion act ivi t ies on s i te. The 4D model i s then uploaded to the Common Data Envi ronment (CDE) BIM 360 plat form where more data i s l inked to i t . Thi s data i s managed through data col lect ion templates that include inspect ion checkl i sts , qual i ty control checkl i sts , and product /material speci ficat ions , which are georeferenced as pins in the model . Al l thi s informat ion, once l inked to the model , completes the 4D BIM Model . Thi s model can be used and accessed at any given t ime by the asset owner to get a vi sual representat ion of the asset – confi rming that the asset has been bui l t to speci ficat ions , access to speci ficat ions and qual i ty control data wi thin the 4D model by just a cl ick of the button. Thi s eas i ly accessed 4D BIM model makes i t easy for the asset owner to plan and carr y out maintenance in the future. 

to improve ef ficiency, enhance product ivi ty and ser vice qual i ty through al l i ts projects . The des ign improvements resul ted in the real ignment of hori zontal cur ves north of the Umhlal i and the Umvot i River Bridges and the construct ion of the pavement structure to match the exi st ing concrete pavement structure and lane configurat ion. The real ignment of the N2/27 at the Umhlal i and Umvot i river bridges boasts as the fi rst road inf rastructure project in South Af rica to be implemented on the BIM 360 plat form in 4D i l lustrat ion. The sof tware that was ut i l i sed to achieve the 4D Model were, Civi l 3D, Navi sworks , Microsof t Projects and BIM 360. The success of BIM requi red the Cl ient ’s support as wel l as commi tment f rom both the engineer ’s and contractor ’s super vi s ion teams leading to a col laborat ive product ion of project informat ion. The project team for thi s project compri sed SANRAL (Employer ) , Naidu Consul t ing (Consul t ing Engineers) and Raubex (Contractor ) . Numerous des ign opt ions were invest igated for the real ignment of the exi st ing hori zontal cur ves north of the Umhlal i and Umvot i Bridges . Di f ferent combinat ions of cur ve radi i , cur ve lengths and superelevat ion rates were invest igated in order to achieve a 120 km/h des ign speed. However, each combinat ion resul ted in the superelevat ion development occurring wi thin the bridge and as a resul t the exi st ing bridge parapets would requi re re-construct ion. Trans i t ion cur ves were introduced as part of the des ign in order to contain the superelevat ion development wi thin the trans i t ion length thereby l imi t ing the change of the fini shed road levels to outs ide of the bridge extents . The introduct ion of trans i t ions cur ves resul ted in the superelevat ion development taking place outs ide of the bridge. Therefore, el iminat ing the need to re construct the exi st ing bridge parapets . Thi s proved to be the more feas ible and economical solut ions wi thout compromi s ing the safety of the road users whi le st i l l

PROJECT INFORMATION

• Company entering: Naidu Consulting • Client: SANRAL • Start date: March 2020 • End date: 13 October 2021 • Main Contractor: Raubex KZN • Principal Agent: Naidu Consulting • Project Manager: SANRAL • Consulting Engineer: Naidu Consulting

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21 st Best Project Awards 2022