WSP says its platform has helped increase communication and streamline operations on the ongoing Melbourne Port Rail Transformation Project
Engineering consultant WSP says it is helping improve rail access at the Port of Melbourne by linking 250 team members working on the Port Rail Transformation Project.
As part of the 2050 Port Development Strategy to define critical infrastructure needs and support the economic growth of Victoria, the Port of Melbourne initiated the Port Rail Transformation Project (PRTP) to improve rail freight access across the Australian state. Spanning more than 500 hectares of land at the mouth of the Yarra River, the Port of Melbourne handles about a third of Australia’s container trade. The $125 million railway initiative aims to facilitate and increase rail-road share. It will enable more containers to be moved by rail more efficiently by increasing rail terminal capacity and improving rail terminal operations at the port.
When complete, the project will provide a rail solution to meet the needs of a growing port and reduce truck movements across Victoria, particularly in Melbourne’s inner western suburbs.
“It’s about taking more trucks off inner-city roads and putting more containers on trains destined for outer-suburban logistics terminals,” Port of Melbourne senior project manager of port rail infrastructure Matthew Brooks says.
With more than 130 years of technical excellence in transport infrastructure, WSP was selected as part of an alliance with the contractor and client to provide design consultancy services for the project.
The scope of its responsibilities included designing and building a new rail terminal interfacing with one of the container terminals, as well as upgrading existing lines and connections to improve access and provide operational flexibility for all trains accessing the port.
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To optimise design and efficiently meet the Australian community’s needs for mobility, connectivity, sustainability, and resilience, WSP set out to digitalise workflows and information management across the three organisations working on the PRTP.
With approximately 250 multidisciplinary project team members spread across three organisations, the project presented information management and coordination challenges, compounded by a tight submission timeline for preliminary and final designs.
“The final design planning stage was required to be completed in 12 weeks, including a preliminary design submission at the six-week mark,” WSP digital engineering lead Alexander Yamas says.
WSP selected its applications to create a cloud-based platform, providing a single source of truth for all users to publish, access, visualise and share key project information in real time. Leveraging ProjectWise and the Bentley iTwin platform, WSP established an integrated digital environment, streamlining workflows and automating the federation of 3D models and design information to enable virtual design reviews and issues resolution, as well as optimise deliverables management.
“The reduction in rework helps make sure we meet deadlines and reduces the burden on the design team, particularly given the short time frame for delivery and the risks associated with that,” says Yamas.
WSP digital operations lead Robert Freeman says: “[The] Bentley iTwin [platform] provided a connected data environment to visualise, track, maintain, share, and analyse design information with all project stakeholders to reduce rework and add value.”