South East Busway a Success on First Anniversary

Survey consultant tells of significant productivity gains on the project

May 21, 2002 -- The South East Transit busway project has had major success in its first year of use in encouraging Brisbane residents to adopt public transport over private cars. It was confirmed on its first anniversary that patronage on core services had increased by 45 percent.

Ken Cross, area manager of survey consultant on the project Max Padovan & Associates (MPA), said the SET4 project can be viewed as a great success and "as a significant step in upgrading Brisbane's infrastructure to help cope with the well-documented growth in South East Queensland."

MPA provided surveying services to principal contractor Henry Walker Eltin on the $100 million roadworks, which called for the construction of six kilometres of busway from Brisbane's Nathan to Eight Mile plains. This required the addition of transit lanes to the Pacific Motorway, along with approximately eight kilometres of retaining walls, 13 bridges and two bus stations.

"Solid planning is critical to the smooth-running and controlling costs of large community roadworks and construction projects like the South East Transit busway and others we have worked on recently, like Roma Street Parklands, and the Queensland University Convention Centre," Cross said. "In each case, we had to provide the contractor with the ability to increase the productivity and reliability of project environments according to the standards and practices used on the project."

MPA uses various tools to deliver its surveying consultancy services. Among these is 12d Model civil and surveying software from 4D Solutions, which was the main survey software package chosen to support the SET4 project. 12d Model allowed for increased productivity in calculating the more than 80 separate quantities MPA was required to provide on different areas on the site at the end of each month. These detailed both the job-to-date earthworks and the remaining earthworks to project completion.

"Quantities were required quickly and in such a way as to allow future auditing and justification of the claim," Cross said. "The use of supertins in 12d Model allowed us to complete our field survey using predominately GPS, then produce a surface which combined all of the previous months' surveys. Often the requirement for detail and bulk quantities to be broken down by geographical area and type meant that 80 to 100 separate quantities were reported in a monthly survey report."

The dynamic depth between tin surfaces, flow arrows and dynamic display of crossfall between strings were just a few of the features of 12 Model that MPA utilised constantly to find quick answers to questions like, 'How much material do I need to order for a retaining wall backfill?' or 'How far down is it to the existing stormwater pipe from our current position?'

"12d Model allowed us to have the quantities completed by one-to-two days after the end of each month, which greatly assisted operational planning," Cross said.

In addition, several design changes were made to the original plans in order to produce further cost or time savings, particularly in relation to the retaining walls on the busway.

"12d's three-dimensional visualisation capabilities made it quick and easy to give this spatial design information, relative to current construction, to field supervisors and engineers," confirmed Cross.

"We have used 12d Model every day for two years," he said. "In South-East Queensland, for any roadworks we're involved in, and for construction work, we use 12d. It's going really well."

About 4D Solutions

12d Model (previously known as 4d Model) was developed by Australian specialist software house 4D Solutions Pty Ltd. It is currently in use at organisations in Australia, New Zealand, Asia, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.

4D Solutions Pty Ltd is a privately owned Australian company established in 1988. Based in Sydney, the company sells and supports 12d Model direct and through distributors.

www.4d.com.au

www.12d.com

 

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