Construction of the new Baku Stadium showcases BIM benefits
The Baku National Stadium is a prime example of the benefits of BIM, showcasing the speed and design quality at every level of its development. The new 68,000-seat, the retractable-roof stadium will host the opening ceremony of the first European Games held in June 2015. What is more, the truly global team had just 24 months to design and build the venue.
Baku Olympic Stadium houses the 2015 European Games, the continental equivalent of the Olympics, held from 12 to 28 June in Azerbaijan. The European Games are the final continental Games to be initiated, after the Asian Games, Pan-American Games, All-Africa Games, and Pacific Games. As sports fans get to enjoy athletes giving their all on-field, it is the engineers behind the construction of the Baku Stadium that deserve a cheer. The building of this 496,000 m2 venue took 57,000 tons of steel, 350 000 m3 of concrete and versatile use of Building Information Modeling (BIM).
Utilizing BIM in all structures (proved essential)
As the different parties in this project were situated all over the world from South Korea and New York to Turkey and Greece there was obviously a need for good information exchange between construction parties. BIM was seen as a great asset in the Baku Olympic Stadium project as meeting the coworkers face to face was practically impossible.
From the beginning, it was clear to all participants that the only way to achieve maximum efficiency at just 24 months would be implementing BIM in all structures. Precast, reinforced concrete, main and secondary steel structures were all modeled using Tekla Structures. The key participants had previous experience in sharing data through different software platforms: developing, updating, and sending their work back to the main Building Information Model.
– Tekla gave us a huge advantage in terms of productivity as we had to deliver structural drawings for 17,000 tons of complex steel within 8 months, said Alparslan Gure, President of Tekfen Engineering.
Tekfen Engineering in Turkey and Sdeng in Greece created detailed, information-rich models with Tekla. These models consequentially served as the information source for creating the fabrication drawings.
BIM improved efficiency on site
With models storing a wealth of information, it was natural to utilize them for construction. In Baku, Tekfen’s on-site engineering team took over the task of training the site crew to utilize BIM technology, Tekla BIMsight was chosen as the software for 3D model review plus notes on site.
“With Tekla BIMsight the contractor had an opportunity to make a huge step towards paperless workflow, which proved priceless later on. The software was also a strategic tool for communication due to the geographical diversity of the project participants,” told Aris Theodorou from Seng.
The giant project employed 4,500 persons at the peak. The construction site was remarkably safe reaching 13,000,000 accident-free man-hours. The software was also a strategic tool for communication due to the geographical diversity of the project participants
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Tekla Structures is the most advanced BIM (Building Information Modeling) software on the market. The construction industry utilizes it for creating, combining, managing, and distributing highly detailed, accurate, and information-rich models of all structures and all materials. The software interfaces with other solutions and manufacturing machinery, allowing the users to achieve efficient and error-free collaboration. For more information, visit www.tekla.com.
About Tekla
Tekla Building & Construction is part of Trimble Buildings, a Trimble segment focused on technology solutions that improve collaboration, efficiency, and accuracy across the Design-Build-Operate (DBO) lifecycle of construction. Tekla drives the evolution of digital information models to provide a greater competitive advantage to the construction, infrastructure, and energy industries. Established in 1966, Tekla has customers in over 100 countries, offices in over 20 countries, and a global partner network.
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