INFRASTRUCTURE
constructionmanagermagazine.com
Infrastructure
HS2 SETS PACE ON CONSTRUCTION’S DIGITAL JOURNEY THE UK’S BIGGEST INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT IS A HOTBED OF INNOVATION WHICH COULD TRANSFORM THE WIDER INDUSTRY. CM FINDS OUT MORE FROM HEAD OF DIGITAL ENGINEERING DR SONIA ZAHIRODDINY Whatever the detractors might think of its very concept, HS2 is an ambitious project – and digital engineering is at the heart of it. The project’s numbers are dizzying: 343 miles of railway track, 45 miles of tunnels, 37 miles of viaducts, 119 miles of cutting, 120 miles of embankment and 30,000 people working on it.
Among them is Dr Sonia Zahiroddiny. As HS2 Ltd’s head of digital engineering, it’s her task to drive BIM and related technologies through the project. Whatever legacies the mega-project leaves behind when complete, the demonstration of the benefits that digital engineering can bring will be to the fore.
“It is one of our ambitions to make sure we can leave that legacy. Professor Andrew McNaughton, who at the time was our technical director, used to say that BIM is the lifeblood of HS2. And it has truly been seen that way from day one,” she states with evident passion. “But since then the thinking has matured, and we have rebranded the terminology, or the way that BIM is perceived, to become more than just 3D modelling, to become digital engineering. And the thinking is still maturing and is still evolving.” Zahiroddiny describes many digital developments being introduced on HS2 as “fairly alien” to the sector.
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