BIM drives smarter, scalable, and sustainable airport construction

In this interaction, Ar. Dhananjay Patil of AtkinsRéalis exemplifies how BIM revolutionises airport construction through a collaborative approach.

How does BIM facilitate the renovation/expansion of airport projects?
Airport terminals are designed to be adaptable, allowing for expansion in response to growing passenger traffic. Renovations and expansions are integral aspects of airport master planning programmes. For any renovation project, obtaining accurate data on existing structures is crucial for developing feasible expansion plans and minimising the risk of unexpected modifications during construction.

Modern technology enables scanning existing buildings, MEP systems, and airport infrastructure, allowing them to be remodelled in BIM even when original building drawings are unavailable. Although this scanning and BIM modelling require financial investment, they contribute to optimal and viable renovation and expansion proposals, help prevent unforeseen challenges during construction, and ensure timely project completion.

Airport design and construction require collaborative efforts between architects, engineers, and builders. How does BIM foster this collaboration?
The airport planning and design process involves collaboration among more than 20 expert design teams. This development phase requires rigorous decision-making while ensuring proper coordination among various design teams, client reviews, and feedback from multiple stakeholders.

BIM is crucial in bringing all teams and clients onto a unified Common Data Environment (CDE) platform, ensuring that the most accurate and up-to-date data is utilised in all design decisions. This platform enhances time efficiency and enables effective coordination among architects and engineering teams.

As the project progresses into the construction phase, certain BIM-CDE platforms facilitate collaboration between architects, engineers, and contractors through 3D model-based reviews, requests for information (RFIs), and field change request (FCR) tracking on a single cloud-based platform. Additionally, employing augmented reality technology to review ongoing construction provides real-time comparisons with BIM models and ensures enhanced accuracy and project management.

How can BIM be used to incorporate energy-efficient features and sustainable design principles while designing airports?
Sustainability and energy efficiency play crucial roles in the design of airport terminal buildings. One key aspect is the building envelope (façades), where architects and façade designers create 3D models by incorporating specific material layers with performance parameters such as thermal resistance, visible light transmission, and acoustic properties.

Sustainable design modelling and analysis software enables the exchange of information between architects’ BIM models, ensuring the most accurate energy efficiency assessments. Additionally, various sustainability parameters must be monitored throughout the airport project design and construction phases. BIM models provide a structured framework for integrating sustainability data and tracking progress toward sustainability targets, ensuring environmentally responsible design principles are effectively implemented.

The scale and complexity of airport projects can present challenges to BIM adoption in airport design. How can these challenges be mitigated?
Airports are large-scale projects comprising multiple buildings, including passenger terminals, cargo terminals, aircraft rescue and firefighting stations, ATC towers, parking structures, and metro stations. They also involve large-scale infrastructure development such as airfields, at-grade and elevated roads, utility networks, and landscaped areas. Given that these projects span decades, numerous design and engineering teams contribute to different aspects at various stages, making it challenging for airport developers to maintain consistent and high-quality BIM data.

Furthermore, the rapidly evolving nature of BIM technology presents additional challenges in continuously adopting it. To address these concerns, airport developers can establish comprehensive BIM execution plans (BEPs) that define the vision for BIM adoption, outline necessary processes, and specify quality requirements for BIM implementation. This document should be a central guideline for all project teams, ensuring coherence, efficiency, and streamlined collaboration throughout the project’s lifecycle.

For more details, visit: https://www.atkinsrealis.com/