Manchester steel rail project scoops Trimble BIM award

The Ordsall Chord project in Manchester has won the Best Infrastructure category at the Tekla Global BIM awards, which recognise jobs that are pushing the boundaries of BIM to create impressive structures.

Forming part of Network Rail’s multi-billion pound North of England Programme to transform rail connectivity in the north of England, the Ordsall Chord will for the first time directly link all five of Manchester’s city centre railway stations, improving travel across the city.

To achieve this, a short length of the Chord will be supported on a new viaduct, and the existing Victorian brick arch railway viaducts that it connects will be extensively altered over a large part of their length.

In total, 3.2km of existing railway track, almost entirely supported on viaduct, is to be upgraded. New structures will be built to accommodate 350m of new track, and a further 345m of existing viaduct will be widened.

To deliver the Ordsall Chord, the Northern Hub Alliance was formed, with Network Rail as the client/owner, and Siemens, Amey Sersa JV, and Skanska BAM JV as key participants.

The civil engineering contractor, Skanska BAM JV, appointed their design team, a joint venture between AECOM and Mott MacDonald, at tender stage, and the steelwork subcontractor, Severfield, was also engaged at the early stages.

The team used point cloud data of the existing infrastructure as a basis for modelling. Later they created constructible structural models, both with steel and concrete.

The Tekla model was presented in place of 2D drawings to assure the Technical Approval Authority that all design duties had been executed correctly and the models were available to contractors during construction planning and execution.