Working as a subcontractor for BAM, we were part of the construction of a new 2 and 3 storey high school for 1,350 pupils, The new school will be constructed with a steel frame on concrete pad foundations.
Due to the successful delivery of the Laurus Cheadle Hulme School project for Bam Construction, Robinson Structures were awarded with another project, Laurus Ryecroft.
In addition to supplying and erecting 700 Tonnes of structural steelwork, Robinson Structures supplied two pre-cast concrete lift shafts, four pre-cast stair cores and 6000 square metres of metal floor decking. The total project value to Robinsons being circa £1,500,000.
Due to our previous experience with similar buildings, we were able to identify numerous repetitive details from the outset, being intensive on production hours and which lent themselves to a multi/batch output and sub-assembly process. Through exceptional coordination and utilisation of Tekla Structures we were able to segregate all of the time consuming smaller fabrications, to be assembled away from the fast paced production line and distributed with other fittings.
The sub-assembly function in Tekla was essential in ensuring traceability throughout the project and meant that we were able to improve production efficiencies, reducing hours by 15%.
What were the challenges and what made the project successful?
There were many challenges as with any project, the main challenge that we wanted to overcome was detailing the building to suit our state of the art fabrication facility. There was always potential with this project to utilize sub-assemblies and this is something that we explored from the start.
We looked at the best way of controlling the sub-assemblies with Tekla and we decided to do this by splitting the model into phases and lots, we used the phases to mange the sub-assemblies for an entire area of the build, this enabled us to issue the small parts for fabrication in our 'smalls area' before these went onto the production line.
What benefits did utilizing BIM and Tekla software bring to the project?
The use of BIM and collaborating the models helped make this project a success, we were able to overlay the engineers model to conduct a clash check and also use the clients M&E to aid in a clash check with the services and the number of cell beams.
This project was the first that we used Tekla Model Sharing and it allowed us get the project detailed and issued in a quicker time.
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The project in numbers
- Height = 15.6m
- Length = 105m x 38m
- Steel tonnes = 667t
- Work hours saved through sub-assemblies = 15% production hours
- Total cost = £1,500,000
- Precast Lift Shafts = 2
- Precast Stairs = 4
- Metal Decking = 6000 Square Meters
