Project Summary
Founded by Max Padovan in January 1988 and incorporated in November 1995 in
response to increased demand for its services, Max Padovan & Associates (MPA)
continues to expand and now has offices in Brisbane, Maleny, Mackay, and
Charters Towers. The firm can best be described as being in the business of
providing surveying services to increase the productivity and reliability of
Project environments through the assessment, implementation and ongoing support
of surveyors, survey crews and in-house surveying computer services. MPA’s key
strength has been the ability to provide a surveying consultancy service with
particular emphasis on the standards and practices used on each project.
From initial assessments through to final implementation, MPA has undertaken and
completed several medium-tolarge Mining and Construction Projects during recent
years, including Projects for several large corporate clients.
Recent
Projects include the Roma Street Parklands, Queensland University Convention
Centre, the Gold Coast Rail Line – Civil 7, the Roy Wallace Building at
Southbank Institute of TAFE, and the Southeast Transit Authority – Package 4 –
for which 12d Model was used with great success.
The Challenge
MPA was the survey consultant to the principal contractor Henry Walker Eltin for
the South East Transit project SET4. The project consisted of 6km of busway from
Brisbane’s Nathan to Eight Mile plains with the addition of transit lanes to the
Pacific Motorway. Associated with the construction was approximately 8km of
retaining walls, 13 bridges, and two bus stations.
The Solution
12d Model was chosen as the main software package used by MPA on site, a
decision which was never regretted as more features were added throughout the
project and greater reliability was placed on it.
As progress claims are
submitted by the contractor at the end of each month, quantities are required
quickly and in such a way as to allow future auditing and justification of the
claim. The use of supertins in 12d Model allowed MPA to complete their 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 80-100 separate
quantities were reported that month in their survey report.
As an aid for
construction planning and mass haul calculation, the remaining quantities to end
of project were also reported. This entire process could be completed within 2
days from the start of the end-ofmonth process.
“Often there is a need to
relate the design concept to field supervisors and Engineers,” said MPA’s Ken
Cross. “12d’s three-dimensional visualisation capabilities were useful in this
regard and they made constant use of dynamic sectioning and drive throughs for
this purpose. The drive through method was also useful when checking for gross
error in end-of-month surveys.”
On the dynamic section through the data,
MPA would typically turn on models representing the original surface, the latest
end-of-month surface, design to subgrade and design finished level. The ease and
speed with which this information could be displayed and updated on screen made
it extremely useful for design visualisation. MPA provided the quantities and
geometry for traffic switches during the different phases of construction. 12d’s
simple editing of horizontal and vertical geometry made this a far simpler task,
as usually the designs were altered several times to suit cost, constructability
and time constraints. At each change, quantities were able to be rapidly
provided and costs determined for asphalt, paving etc.
Several design
changes were made to the original in order to produce cost or time savings,
particularly with the retaining walls, and 12d proved quite useful here for the
rapid display of construction elements in the cross sections.
During the
project, many times per day, Engineers or Supervisors would require spatial
information pertaining to design relative to current construction, and 12d Model
has several useful tools for providing quick answers to questions such as: ‘How
much material do I need to order for a retaining wall backfill?’ and ‘How far
down is it to the existing stormwater pipe from our current position?’ The
dynamic depth between tin surfaces, flow arrows, and dynamic display of
crossfall between strings were just a few of the features MPA utilised
constantly for this purpose.
Another feature MPA used frequently is the
ability to use pipe linetypes in cross section and therefore check clearances to
existing services during construction.
The Result
“We have used 12d Model every day for 2 years,” Mr Cross
said. “In south-east Queensland, for any roadworks that we’re involved in, and
even for construction work, we use 12d. It’s going really well.”
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