The evolution of terminals 2B & 2D at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport

World-leading airport designers ADP Group called on Thinkproject for document and BIM management during complex expansions at Charles de Gaulle airport.

World-leaders in airport design

Project

The ADP Group, the world leader in airport design, construction, and operation, welcomed more than 234.5 million passengers in 2019 across its network, including 108 million in Paris.

At Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport, ECP (Engineering and Capital Projects), the ADP Group’s integrated engineering subsidiary, played a leading role in the design and implementation of the Terminal 2B improvement project, the construction of a connecting building between Terminal 2B and Terminal 2D.

In total, this project involves the renovation of a structure covering more than:

77,500m²

floor space area

24,500m²

connecting building area

2,500m²

area of extension of terminal 2B

9,250m²

aeronautical areas

  • “Collaborating, searching for and classifying information efficiently are the key issues of digitisation today so that the efforts of our project stakeholders remain focused on their expertise and not on the tools.”
    Julie Greguor-Henault
    Head of the Digitisation Department at ECP.ID
Centralisation of asset data

Challenge

For an airport terminal development project, such as the 2BBD project, the reception phase is a major challenge for contractors. They must be able to identify and process a maximum number of snags on an area covering several tens of thousands of square meters.

It is necessary to locate this information directly on the plans and the BIM model, consulted by the people in charge of processing the snag and finally saved to ensure traceability.

After acceptance of the work, the operator will be able to consult the history of observations and quality controls that have been carried out.

In all these years, the partnership between ECP and Thinkproject has guaranteed the success of many projects. ECP has decided to integrate the use of the platform by contractors right from the work contract drafting stage, making its use a contractual requirement.

“On the 2BBD project, we have registered more than 20,000 observations on the platform, 10,000 of which were processed before acceptance. The remaining 11,000 snags were dealt with within 6 months. These numbers show the robustness of Thinkproject in handling a large volume of data.”

“The Thinkproject VDC solution meets the challenges of collaboration, centralisation of reception information and tracking of snags, and optimisation of staff mobility on-site.”

Ensuring the digital continuity of the project through BIM

Solution

A project of this magnitude and with so much at stake requires particularly strict follow-up from the design stage to the operation of the asset and optimal collaboration between all the project’s stakeholders.

The ADP Group has known the importance of BIM (Building Information Modelling) for many years and is pushing for its use in the design phase in most of its projects. This is where the 2BBD project stands out from the Group’s other projects. Indeed, for the first time, BIM was used from the design phase through to the operation of the asset.

For this, it was necessary to implement BIM-compatible tools, and therefore decided to integrate the plans from the REVIT model into VDC MANAGER solution. The IT teams thus configured the workflow campaigns and groups to allow all project participants to work in 2D and 3D in complete mobility. Finally, thanks to the add-on, models could also be added and consulted on the VDC COLLABORATION solution. “The teams in the field are satisfied with Thinkproject’s solutions, both in mobile and fixed mode. They find the use is agile and efficient,” says Julie Greguor-Henault, Head of the Digitisation Department at ECP.ID.

Adoption of Thinkproject by all the teams

Ensuring the support of the teams with strong digital maturity is crucial to the successful deployment of a construction and asset project management tool. The ADP Group is committed to providing a digital platform that will bring complete satisfaction to its teams. Also, the company appoints technical advisers to support their colleagues in their discipline and on the use of the application in the office as well as on-site. These advisers connect most users – 90 on this project – with the Thinkproject Consultants teams and are also the primary contributors to the harmonisation of the business-specific objects contained in the platform such as standard observations and standardised forms for quality and safety audits. Julie Greguor-Henault emphasises the importance of using an easy-to-use solution: “The intuitive aspect of Thinkproject favours and simplifies the change support needed for the digitisation of a company.”

Total collaboration for maximum efficiency

Result

The 2BBD project, in addition to the ECP teams, which are composed of 6 BIM Managers and 8 System Administrators, brought together hundreds of participants from all professions and all companies.

For optimal collaboration, it is fundamental to make digital tools available to all the teams while complying with the technical processes imposed by professional standards: For example, a contractor that delivered joinery kits could identify the location of stock and share the information instantly with the interior carpenter for assembling the doors.

Julie Greguor-Henault explains: “Within Thinkproject, we have implemented different roles: the Project Administrator role, who masters the issues of the site and has extensive rights; the Asset Owner role for the final client; The Delegated Asset Owner role; the Project Manager role; the Prevention role for safety issues; and the role taken by all stakeholders who perform the work.”

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