The South-to-North Water Diversion Project is a major foundational strategic project to alleviate the severe shortage of water resources in northern China, especially in the capital of Beijing
The Beijing Institute of Water was tasked with this CNY 3.4bn project to support the Hexi Branch sub-project in creating construction drawings of multiple pumping stations, water transmission lines, and water treatment plants.
Leveraging BIM methodologies to manage the design and information management, the entire system was designed using 3D modelling and Bentley’s ProjectWise as the central collaboration environment. From these design models, construction drawings and secondary design analyses were conducted using MicroStation for annotation and rebar assessment, greatly improving the efficiency of creating detailed drawings.
In addition, the project team used Descartes to create surface digital engineering models and building models, allowing the team to track construction completion digitally, rather than relying on paper queries for information.
Bentley’s HAMMER was used to analyse and calculate the hydraulic transition between the pumping stations and to calculate pressure distribution along the path in case of pump shutdown, ensuring that the system can operate safely under any circumstance.
Three-dimensional geological models of the entire site using MicroStation resulted in 60% faster modelling times compared to previous 2D methodologies. This process also enabled the direct creation of a complex pipeline mesh model to calculate the shortest clear directions to optimise the design and protection of various pipelines. This innovative, first-of-a-kind approach saved 80% in design time compared to previous 2D methods.
By combining full lifecycle management concepts, the Hexi branch project carried out design work of intelligent water in the initial design phase. From this intelligent water design, the project has developed a strong technical basis to support operation of the project through leveraging 3D collaborative design results, building reliable model information archives and enabling the project to fully realise digital design, digital construction management, and digital operations.
Xin Yin, chief engineer of the Information Center for the Institute, said: “This project is not only an example of 3D application in water supply engineering for an urban long-distance tunnel, but it is also a successful 3D practice in design, construction, and management.
“Taking this project as a symbol, we will lead 3D design trends in long-distance, super-large-pipe water transmission engineering, ushering in a new era in the industry in which 3D collaborative design is widely applied to the field of water conservancy design.”
