Victoria’s West Gate Tunnel (WGT) Project has used an immersive 4D collaborative digital environment to bring design and construction teams together and underpin project success.
One of the state’s largest ever urban road projects, WGT will give Melbourne a second freeway link between the west and the city. Delivering a much-needed alternative to the West Gate Bridge and vital second river crossing, WGT will provide quicker and safer journeys and remove nine thousand trucks per day from residential streets.
A partnership between the Victorian Government and Transurban, the project is being built by CIMIC Group’s CPB Contractors in a joint venture. The project selected ToBe Builder™ to optimise logistics, crane lift planning, and high-level schedule verification for critical structures including Bridge 50 over the Maribyrnong River and Bridges 70, 73 and 91.
Advancing industry capabilities
ToBe Builder is a break-through tool used by major project teams to collaborate on design, planning and delivery solutions to improve safety, performance and sustainability.
The cutting-edge solution enables users to integrate complex 3D scenes from Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Building Information Modelling (BIM). Overlaying geographical data with physical infrastructure models provides a comprehensive understanding of the project site.
Further integrating time and complex rigged resources (dimensionally accurate moveable models of equipment and people) creates an immersive 4D collaboration environment. It is in this digital space that multidisciplined users create detailed construction sequences and visualise the project’s progression over time.
Users produce robust, constructable, synchronised sub-plans to deliver every work package, before deploying to site. As the design and plan develop, package solutions can be iterated to proactively manage safety, resource efficiency, clash detection and project outcomes. Work pack visualisation videos further support stakeholder and sub-contractor alignment and work crew preparation and induction throughout the delivery and operations phases.
Read more about ToBe Builder’s development and integrated technologies in ToBe Builder™ delivers 4D collaborative planning breakthrough.
Project application
The WGT project’s use of ToBe Builder included leveraging its high-level macro planning, resource management, and logistics planning features.
High-level macro planning is essential for managing a project's overall scope and schedule. Its integration of the project’s Primavera (P6) schedule with detailed fabrication BIM models, provides the 4D visualisation of the construction process.
On WGT this allowed project managers to identify potential issues early, validate program logic, and ensure all project components remained on track. The ability to playback project sequences provided critical insights into project robustness and maturity, ensuring all parallel work fronts were well-coordinated.
The resource management feature enables users to keyframe the movement of resources, ensuring efficient and safe use of equipment and materials.
For example, crane operations are one of the most complex aspects of bridge construction and require meticulous planning.
With ToBe Builder’s dimensionally accurate digital resource library, WGT’s crane lift planning users created detailed lift simulations. They used this to verify clearances, detect potential clashes and optimise lift sequences, enhancing the precision and safety of crane operations.
ToBe Builders’ comprehensive logistics planning capabilities helped the WGT team to optimise the movement of other resources within the site along defined movement paths. The feature enabled the team to verify access paths, coordinate material deliveries, minimise delays and on-site congestion, and improve safety.
“ToBe Builder and its companion ToBe Maps Augmented Reality tool will allow CPB Contractors to achieve better planning outcomes in its tenders and projects. CPB Contractors is committed to the use and ongoing enhancement of these tools to achieve the right outcome for us and our clients.” - Ron Thomas, General Manager Engineering, CPB Contractors
Integrated digital delivery
CIMIC Group’s Core ICT systems for estimating, site actual cost management and geotechnical monitoring are supporting the WGT project’s digital connectivity, enabling the project to share intelligent data across teams and project phases – improving safe productivity and sustainability outcomes.
In addition to ToBe Builder, the project’s extensive digital toolset includes:
- Cats™ - a powerful estimating platform used to embed value in competitive tenders and add whole-of-life value throughout post-estimate forecasting and facilities management.
- Siterover™ - a productivity toolkit providing near-real time reporting – capturing on-site data such as time and quantities (materials, plant, and labour hours), via digital dockets and daily diaries.
- Geosens™ - an intelligent multi-source data capture, analysis and reporting solution for real-time geotechnical condition monitoring and risk management.
More about ToBe Builder
ToBe Builder, Cats, Siterover and Geosens were developed by CIMIC Group’s commercial software development company, IDD Tech and proven on major construction, resources and industrial services projects. Visit the IDD Tech website.
More about the WGT project
The West Gate tunnel project commenced in 2018 and is scheduled to open to traffic in late 2025. Visit the project website.