Laing PROJECT: Redevelopment of Basingstoke town center, one of the largest town retail developments in the UK, worth an estimated £110m. PROBLEM: Laing wanted to be able to identify inaccuracies in the design that would affect the sequence of the construction program. SOLUTION: JetStream, allowed Laing to combine over 100 project models and navigate through the design so they could view the cut-throughs and elevations of different sectors to make informed decisions on scheduling. RESULTS: The team identified a serious problem in the construction sequence prior to the building phase that would have otherwise caused a a significant delay resulting in huge costs in terms of time and money.

The benefits for construction project management - Laing & The Basingstoke Town Centre Redevelopment

Operating for more than 150 years, Laing is one of the top five construction companies in the UK. With a staff of over 7,000 world-wide and a turnover exceeding US$2.5bn, it provides construction project management, infrastructure investment and property development services in the UK and overseas. Recently Laing have also been responsible for some exciting and high-profile construction projects, including the Millennium Dome at Greenwich and the Second Severn Crossing.

JetStream from NavisWorks is being used by Laing for probably one of the largest town retail developments in the UK, the redevelopment of Basingstoke, worth an estimated £110m. It is being used within several stages of the design and construction of the town centre, both as a review tool for the client and also as a means of identifying errors and build processes within the model. But by far the most beneficial module for Laing is the collision detection.

The CAD consultant department within Laing, headed up by Mervyn Richards, have created several models for the project and used JetStream as the tool to bring all the models together in one file. Altogether they have created more than 100 models totalling around 160MB. Once imported into NavisWorks the in-built compression reduced the file in size to only 14MB. This allowed JetStream the ability to navigate through the entire model for the first time. Mervyn Richards' department of 3D modellers is responsible for looking for details where inaccuracies may occur. If a potential error is identified then this is sent back to the designers to check.

For Laing the sequence of the construction program for such a complicated project is vital. Using JetStream the cut-throughs and elevations of different sectors allowed informed decisions to be made on scheduling and it was during this process that they were able to identify a major error in the build process. The team identified that a brick stair tower in the centre of what would have to be built prior to the adjacent retail outlet as there would have been no room to put up scaffolding.

Mervyn Richards outlined just how JetStream is helping during the Basingstoke project.

If we had not been able to identify this error prior to the building phase the project would have been subject to a significant delay resulting in huge costs in terms of time and money.

Mervyn Richards, Senior CAD Consultant, Laing