In 2012, Exemplar Health (comprising Lend Lease, Spotless Group, Capella Capital and Siemens) was successful in their bid to design, build, finance and maintain the new Sunshine Coast Public University Hospital – a $1.8 billion public tertiary teaching hospital.
In early 2013 a group of our 5D Quantity Surveyors at Mitchell Brandtman were engaged by Lend Lease to advise the benefits Building Information Modeling (BIM) could provide to the procurement and construction of the hospital project. The 5DQS team collaborated with the Lend Lease Cost Planning and Procurement team working alongside them for an initial period of four weeks.
For the first time in Australia on a project of this scale, the project team achieved efficient and effective real-time quantification and costing of revisions to deliver the final Trade Bill of Quantities that incorporated all design changes.
Real Time Revisioning
The Sunshine Coast Public University Hospital is Queensland’s first health Public Private Partnership (PPP) project and will be built to a 4 star green star rating. The first stage will be completed in 2016.
In a time frame of four weeks, the small collaborative team undertook a process of model validation, mapping, and revisioning on Stage One. This included measuring over 60,000m│ concrete, 800t post tensioning, 4,500t steel reinforcement and 200,000m▓ of formwork for a 150,000 m▓ hospital and a 95,000m▓ carpark.
Mobilising the 5DQS team within the Lend Lease offices has produced a fast track training programme with specialists working alongside and one on one with the in-house team and significantly accelerating their learning curve.
During the four weeks of the cost planning process the hospital’s 3D models were continually revised by the designers. The 5DQS team’s technology that interfaces with 3D models was able to accurately calculate quantities and create dynamic links between Revit« and IFC model information, rate libraries and estimate/trade bill of quantity templates. The dynamic links meant that the quantities and estimates were able to be calculated and recalculated every time the model information was revised.
By working with incomplete models throughout the design phase the model reliance increases and the 5DQS can be confident of the completeness and correctness of each model as the design develops. For designers this means there are no bad models and we can continually improve the BIM. For clients and project partners it creates even more efficiencies and reliability within the contract documents.
Tendering on the latest documents
The benefits of this approach have allowed Lend Lease to solve one of the industry’s pressing issues, the desire to tender on the latest documents still being worked on while Bills of Quantities are prepared. By creating reliable links between the Bills of Quantities and the model, tenderers can quickly understand the scope of a trade package, derisking the package and allowing for more competitive pricing. The effectiveness of applying a 5D methodology meant that the team were able to revision within days and sometimes hours to produce updated visualised documentation which clearly identified the changes within the 3D model and quickly include them in the contract.
When tender packages were released, subcontractors were provided with a free CostX« viewer containing the most recent Bill of Quantities and 3D model. The subcontractors could view each trade package quantity, where it is located in the model and how the quantity is measured. This technology reduces the reliance on 2D paper drawings and gives subcontractors an opportunity to better understand their tender requirements, easily visualise their components of the project and quickly respond to any revisioning.
Model Hospital
The progression of technology in the industry means companies need to quickly adapt the more traditional approach to design and construction.
What is clear from the approach taken at the first stage of the Sunshine Coast Public University Hospital project is that a collaborative project team which applies the BIM methodology at the outset can be assured of better coordination of documents, increasing the reliability and value of the information and the savings able to be generated. It can provide significant reductions in time and cost, and access to real time information for decision making. Indirect benefits come from increased knowledge, identification of clashes in the design phase and the ability to engage with contractors and subcontractors to provide certainty.
To read more about our work on this project please read this case study article: ‘Mitchell Brandtman and Lend Lease finalists at UDIA Consultant Excellence Awards’