Merthyr Tydfil has been revamping its station facilities, using Bluebeam projects software to design a transport hub that will better serve bus and rail commuters in the Welsh town.
Alun Evans, strategic infrastructure programme manager for Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council (MTCBC), says Bluebeam’s software supported communication and boosted project efficiency.
“Bluebeam proved particularly helpful as the contractor was able to present timely information to the client in the decision-making process,” Evans was quoted as saying.
According to Bluebeam, the six-year bus interchange project entailed collaboration between 10 local partners of the Cardiff Capital Regional Transport Authority.
The team at construction company Morgan Sindall were able to stay on track through the pandemic with digital tools, including Bluebeam Revu.
Ross Williams, site manager and project lead at Morgan Sindall, says the Bluebeam capabilities enabled changes to be communicated in an open and transparent way, and expectations managed day to day.
“When a [software] feature is clear and simple, it’s really striking for those who use it. Historically with information scribbled on paper, finer details might have been lost in translation,” Williams was quoted as saying.
“With Bluebeam, Williams could keep both MTCBC and Capita informed quickly and accurately.”
As is commonplace with public-sector projects, the team had to iterate its design many times as available information changed, as well as approaches to funding from the government.
The new 14-bay bus station has won several national awards and been designed to take into account the push for electrification of transport over time, including ULEV charging facilities, the vendor says.
According to Bluebeam, quantity and estimating processes were at least 80% faster as a result of using the digital tools available.
In addition, the overlay function helped compare plans, quickly spot design differences and communicate updates when plans changed, while markup functionality meant the project planner could more easily and quickly schedule work.
“When we tested some different solutions, Bluebeam seemed to be the one that made the most sense because it was designed specifically for the engineering industry and it had a lot of the tools for annotating,” Williams adds.
( Photo by Chris Curry on Unsplash )
