So, what's new?

Humans were averse to getting their feet wet long before Dunlop Wellington boots were invented and started to build bridges where once they trundled through river fords. Early examples, built by the Romans were massively over-engineered and many of the stone structures they erected still exist today. The constraints they had to work with, though, are uniquely different to building a house on a stable bit of dry land, and massively complex as the forces they deal with are not just the weight of the structure itself, but the forces of inclement weather, heavy traffic and long construction spans. That is compounded by the aesthetic designs of the bridge designers who try to balance slimness and elegance with strength.

A collaborative effort is needed, therefore, by all technologies involved, and whilst the use of BIM has facilitated such an approach in building construction and infrastructure development, it is not until recently that it has been introduced into bridge building. This has been rectified by Nemetschek who are showcasing some bridges designed and constructed using Allplan, their headline application.

It's not the first use of BIM in bridge building – and maintenance – a touch of asset management here - as a mediaeval footbridge in Exmoor on the River Barle is currently being rebuilt in its original form. It's a regular occurrence, as the autumn or spring floods sweep down tree trunks which dislodge the large slabs which constitute the bridge. To make it easy to re-erect, each stone is numbered and mapped, so that when the river subsides they can be replaced exactly as they were before. Have our mediaeval forefathers robbed modern bridge designers of the first instance of BIM technology being used in bridge design?

David Chadwick

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