Our utilities clash detection work with Auckland Light Rail picked up a merit award at the Association Representing Consulting & Engineering in NZ (ACENZ) Innovate Awards on Saturday, 12 August 2017.
This major construction project is proposed to be located in a heavily congested corridor containing multiple major utilities; including gas, water and electricity, which provide essential services to the operation of Auckland City. As a result, it was critical to understand how the proposed route alignment may impact on the location of underground utilities.
Traditionally, the utilities clash process would have been completed by a team of engineers comparing the alignment with horizontal and vertical vertices, with an alignment change requiring large amounts of re-work and, dependent on the severity of the changes, requiring complete reassessment of the entire alignment. This costly manual assessment to detect or uncover the in-ground utilities was previously the only acceptable option.
With the Utilities Clash Detection Interactive Model, we have created an entirely new automatic system to detect the clashes. This also consolidated existing utilities’ asset information into a federated asset information model. We then applied a machine learning algorithm to further reduce any manual assessments.
With the Utilities Clash Detection Interactive Model, we have created an entirely new automatic system to detect the clashes. This also consolidated existing utilities’ asset information into a federated asset information model. We then applied a machine learning algorithm to further reduce any manual assessments.
5183 clashes were reduced to 443, saving approximately 790 hours engineering – a staggering saving.
Josh Symonds: “Our work on Auckland Light Rail has generated interest from across Arup working on similar projects with complex ground conditions – not only other light rail projects, but also tunnelling. It’s been wonderful to innovate on a project in New Zealand, with our approach potentially being adapted and adopted on other projects around the world. ”
