Unsafe Construction Site

 To: Brent Council

Last week I was out in a local shopping area in Wembley, London and had to park my car near Montrose Crescent where Formation Group PLC construction site is in operation.

As I was approaching the car parking pay meter, which was located right adjacent to the site boundary, I was shocked to see a heavy material dangling from a crane exactly above the pay mater WITHOUT any pedestrian protection walkway. Seriously? I haven't seen a construction site with such a poor safety planning for pedestrians in my working life before.

I had to wait for almost 30mins until crane operation is finished so that I can go to the pay meter and pay for my car parking. Also, there is a very busy bus stop next to the pay meter where a lot of travelers wait for the buses throughout the whole day, WITHOUT any safety protection walkway in place and WITH heavy materials dangling above them. Shocking!

As a common sense when heavy materials or equipment are being hoisted, some kind of hazard prevention (either protection walkway or safety nets) is necessary to prevent exposure to hazards associated with any kind of problem with the hoist or fall of material. Can you please investigate this site and get necessary measures in place?

To: Formation Group PLC

I notice that you are running a 'Safe Crane Campaign' on this site. Clearly it isn't working for the pedestrians. Do you care to improve pedestrian safety on this site?

If so, It would be useful to have a protection walkway provided for pedestrians to prevent potential hazards.

Larsen & Toubro

I am pleased to announce publicly that I have joined Larsen & Toubro Construction as their Head of BIM Strategy.

Look forward to collaborating with L&T supply chain, clients, BIM eco system and academia in Asia and Middle East.

To all #UKBIMCrew and #GlobalBIMCrew friends, as we are part of a CDE (Common Digital Eco-system) I look forward to continue our collaboration on all things #BIM and #DigitalEngineering. Also, I am very keen to bring world class Digital Engineering solutions at L&T so if you are interested in any 'BIM / Digital Engineering' collaboration opportunities at L&T then please feel free to contact me.

Change

I have heard some rumours about my role at Lendlease from internal as well as external well-wishers. Thank you for expressing your concerns about my role and future. This blog post is dedicated to you all well-wishers and of course my blog readers.

Firstly, some of you have guessed it right! I have resigned from my role of Head of BIM, Europe at Lendlease, finishing by the end of March 2017.

It's been a fantastic experience working at Lendlease getting involved with a lot of strategic initiatives as well as some of the most complex and quite challenging projects, i.e. Rathbone Square, Elephant & Castle, International Quarter London, Deptford, Wrexham prison, 150 Bishopsgate, 245 Hammersmith, Google HQ London to name the few. I was also privileged enough to get an opportunity to implement BIM and the required change programme from top-down as well as bottom-up and everything in between! 

My role at Lendlease posed some of the toughest challenges I ever had before. However, I was able to succeed in most of my initiatives mainly due to the following four reasons:

1. First and foremost, having the best internal BIM team. A great team (and not a group of people) with the right attitude toward driving the necessary change with passion, resilience and full energy. A massive thanks to all of you BIM’ers!  Keep up the good work!

2. A wonderful internal ICT team and their continuous support in meeting the demands of the required change programme. Thank you all in the ICT team for your kind cooperation and continuous support. 

3. Having some of the best (local as well as global) professionals, project leaders and colleagues around me supporting the BIM implementation with great enthusiasm and passion. Special thanks to the Rathbone Square project team. What a great team! 

4. Fortunate enough to work for some of the best Clients and work with some of the best supply chain members who are truly driving the BIM agenda in the industry. In particular, Great Portland Estates and their continuous leadership and support on project such as Rathbone Square as well as industry wide BIM initiatives. My experience on Rathbone Square has reinforced my belief on the importance of Client leadership and positive collaboration required to implement BIM and Digital. I can’t thank Great Portland Estates enough for their support and leadership.                  

Last but not least, I thank Lendlease for giving me such amazing opportunities during my time. I have gained invaluable experience and learned a lot from some of the best brains in the industry. I wish everyone at Lendlease and people I have worked with through Lendlease all the very best. 

So what’s my next home? Well, I am getting closer to my home so stay tuned! Have a great weekend.

Level 2 BIM Overview

Yesterday I shared "my thoughts" on an overview of Level 2 BIM at the BSI BIM conference in London. 

The following video shows a couple of key slides that I though would be useful to share with the industry wide #UKBIMCrew. 

  

Level 2 BIM and Lead Designer Responsibility

First of all, I am quite pleased to hear that NBS team has won to finish the missing pieces in level 2 BIM puzzle. Well done team NBS. Many congratulations.

1. Digital Plan of Works
2. A unified classification system

Link to the official NBS article.

Personally, I genuinely believe that these two pieces of Level 2 BIM are deal breakers in many ways to realise our Level 2 BIM dream.

I am looking forward to learn more about DPoW tomorrow at "BIM Through Plan of Works" event.

However, just focusing on Level 2 BIM and lead designer's responsibility in terms of design coordination, the following extracts from PAS1192-2:2013 and BIM Protocol summarise it all.

Design coordination through BIM can only be the most effective/efficient if lead designers (and main contractors post novation) start using BIM as a way of coordinating design as per PAS1192-2:2013 section 9.4.

Image Courtesy: PAS1192-2:2013

Image: An extract from CIC BIM Protocol

Trimble acuires Gehry Technologies

Back in 2012 Trimble announced strategic alliance with Bently. Two years later, Trimble makes another big step forward into AECO BIM world and acquires Los Angeles based one of the best design and project management solutions providers; Gehry Technologies.

This is going to be a game changer in terms of construction and operation BIMs.

"The alliance combines deep Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry experience with advanced construction technology to empower visionary designers such as Gehry Partners to build groundbreaking projects on time, under budget and without change orders—enabling designers, builders and operators to collaborate more efficiently."

FULL ARTICLE

BIM Process

This is what I believe about it.