Europe's longest rotating pylon cable-stayed bridge

Belgium-based Victor Buyck is a leading international steel construction company. The steel fabricator enjoys tackling complex and special projects, such as the Govan- Partick Bridge: one of the largest opening footbridges in Europe with a total length of 110 meters. A project with various challenges and which found its success through the combination of various software such as Tekla Structures, Rhino, Grasshopper and Trimble Connect. It earned the steel builder a BIM Award in the Infrastructure Projects category.

ONE of the largest opening walkways

Bruno de Roo, Project Draughtsman at Victor Buyck: "The first bridge I drew for Victor Buyck was a huge challenge because everything was in 2D. When I got the opportunity from the company to take a training course in Tekla Structures, I was excited anyway. It really is a powerful package." Together with his colleague Dana Verstringe, he currently models bridges such as the Govan-Partick Bridge in the BIM software. De Roo: "The Govan-Partick Bridge is a bridge that consists of two long steel main tubes with a deck plate in between supported by longitudinal and transverse stiffeners. The road surface is supported entirely by the tethers connected to the pylons. The entire structure is supported on a kind of slewing ring." 

Challenges in the project

The project faced several challenges. De Roo: "The difficulty was in a number of things. First of all, there was the geometry, because you have curved and rotated plates. In addition, you can't see from the outside how much internal stiffening is needed, so everything has to be welded double-sided per plate. We have to analyze each piece of bridge separately to see how to build it up. A third challenge is the weight of the bridge. The center of gravity is hugely important, since the bridge rotates on a pivot that is unevenly distributed relative to the length of the bridge. We first did the monitoring of centers of gravity theoretically in the model and then checked in practice that this corresponded. This could not have been done without the right software."

Difficult geometry possible thanks to combination of BIM software

In addition to Tekla Structures, his colleague Dana also used Grasshopper and Rhino in the project: "We use Grasshopper to program the geometry visually. The conversion to the visual model is done with Rhino. This allows us to transfer the skeleton or model structure in layers via the reference models in Tekla Structures. Should anything change in the geometry, we can easily modify it.

Often we also use the Tekla Live Link within Grasshopper's plug-in capability for this purpose. This makes it possible to control slabs directly from Grasshopper in Tekla Structures in real time." By combining various software, the challenges faced in the project were tackled. 

No surprises thanks to Augmented Reality

Since last year, they have also been using Augmented Reality (AR) in work preparation and production at Victor Buyck. "Our models are often busy because they are full of lines. It is not always easy for everyone to make a 3D model of that, to determine how things should be welded or to determine the construction sequence. We use Trimble Connect for that," De Roo says. "For example, Trimble Connect is used to see what pos number of plates need to be welded in where, and a video rolls out for the construction sequence with a step-by-step plan or assembly sequence with views created. In the near term, there are plans to further innovate with the Trimble Connect AR app so that we can see the components of a project early on the construction site. This will ensure that we can get ahead of the game with no surprises."

Good communication with partners in BIM

BIM remains important to Victor Buyck. De Roo: "Thanks to BIM, we can exchange information with subcontractors. More importantly, I think we can share ideas for solutions to challenges in the model, in this case for example with the slewing ring. I got the info for this from a subcontractor." He continues his story with how Victor Buyck is taking this further: "In most projects, BIM is now contractually fixed. So the client always has insight into how his project is actually progressing. And it is additionally very convenient to run through the schedule during consultations with cooperating partners."

Watch the video of this project via www.construsoft.nl/victor-buyck.