NETPark

The third phase of the premier science park, North East Technology Park (NETPark) is currently under development, and will house more than 40 science, engineering and technology companies. Once complete, NETPark is predicted to bring up to 1,250 skilled jobs and more than £625m to the County Durham region.

Located in Sedgefield, the £49m development will add a new selection of buildings near the already established businesses nearby, creating more than 18,600sqm of research and development floor space across seven units.

BIM Academy sister company Ryder Architecture is leading on the design and principal designer (CDM) on the new development and also commissioned BIM Academy as the Information Manager and BIM Coordinator for the project in line with the international ISO 19650 standard.

The unique challenge on NETPark was that the project needed to comply with PAS 1192-6 – a specification for collaborative sharing and use of structured health and safety information. As a result the Principle Designer supported by BIM Academy were able to display the newly developed 3D Model of risks within the central design review software being used by the Contractor and rest of the design team.

The Principal Designer has an important role in influencing how the risks to health and safety should be managed and incorporated into the wider management of the project – decisions taken during the design phase can have a significant effect on whether a project is delivered in a way that secures health and safety. With this being a scientific research facility, health and safety, and the mitigation of risk is paramount.

To enable this to happen, BIM Academy used 3D Repo and Safetibase software to develop a workflow to move the project information to an Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) format so that interoperability could be achieved for all of the information stored within the models and across the varying construction software’s being used on the project.

Safetibase is a system used to improve the identification, management and communication of health and safety hazards for construction projects. We then integrated this with 3D Repo software to allow the Principal Designer to visualise hazards in the 3D model environment, assisting in hazard mitigation.

At BIM Academy, we undertook this digitally enabled approach to risk management to allow the design team to safeguard the integrity of risk information, which in turn generated improved safety standards across the site.

The result of this effective risk and safety management made the project compliant with both ISO 19650 and PAS 1192-6, and laid the foundations for an excellent safety record to carry through to the construction phase.