The Kai Tak Sports Park is the most important investment in Hong Kong sports infrastructure in recent decades. Occupying 28 hectares of land, the Kai Tak Sports Park is about 47% larger than the Victoria Park and will become the largest sports infrastructure in Hong Kong. As a brand new and sports infrastructure, its construction methodology and safety standard are also leading the industry. Complexity and time-constraint are the tough challenges for the construction team. Nonetheless, the team strives to maintain good safety management and has adopted innovative technologies which effectively minimise work-at-height activities, enhance productivity and accuracy, and set a new benchmark in the construction industry. Last week, Ir Thomas HO, Chairman of CIC and Ir Albert CHENG, Executive Director of CIC, and Sr Thomas HO, Member of CIC visited the site of the Kai Tak Sports Park. The Hip Hing project team shared how they adopt innovative technology to enhance construction safety.
Leading Transformations through Collaboration
Kai Tak Sports Park comprises three large sports facilities, including: the “Main Stadium”, the “Indoor Sports Centre” and the “Public Sports Ground”. Bringing sports and leisure together. According to Mr. Eric Lau, Construction Project Director of Hip Hing Engineering Company Limited, the Sports Park adopted the model of “Design, Build and Operate”, under which the design team has been working closely with the construction and operation teams since the early stages of the project. Moreover, different teams also relocated their bases to the site office at the Sports Park, to perform their roles in a timely manner with respect to various construction designs and transform different ideas into reality.
Besides the design, construction and operation team, the project also involves many other contractors in building services, structural steelworks, external facades of buildings and retractable roof construction. Therefore, extensive use of Building Information Modelling (BIM), Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) and Multi-trade integrated Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MiMEP) techniques has been using in this project to increase the efficiency of design and production, as well as enhancing the construction safety and risk management. The construction team fully utilises BIM for the preparation works of construction, allowing them to identify conflicts and figure out solutions in advance and proceed the construction safely and smoothly. Once the designs are ready, different prefabricated parts will be produced overseas factories for simultaneous prefabrication and the completed assemblies will be delivered to the site and finally handed over to operation team. This does not only greatly reduce the construction period, but also reduces the manpower and helps to create a safer working environment for frontline workers. This project fully illustrates how technology brings positive change to the site, and was awarded the “2020 BIM Achievement Award'' by the Council.
Mr. CHU Tat-chi, Managing Director of Hip Hing Construction, pointed out that the “Design, Build and Operate” model enabled them to plan the construction and operation arrangement at one go. They also had ample time and space to complete the works which made the project more cost-effective, boosting the efficiency and productivity of the project.
Sharpening tools for the tasks ahead
The retractable roof is one of the special features of the Main Stadium of Kai Tak Sports Park. Its roof is mainly supported by four sets of main steel trusses with a span of 180 m maximum and such scale is considered to be a mega building project in Hong Kong. The main steel truss consists of large steel circular hollow sections, with the diameter of the largest section being up to 1.6 m. Making use of computer-controlled welding machines for welding, the construction team also adopts advanced technologies such as BIM and DfMA in the prefabrication process, so as to improve quality and speed up the construction progress in terms of the on-site construction, the team also makes use of BIM for better visualising the design and facilitating the overall enhancement and construction processes. By transforming all the prefabricated components into “exploded-view drawing”, this illustrates the different functions of the components and the design for assembly in a three-dimensional way, so that contractor clearly understands the steps and methodology of installation for each procedure, e.g. external façade installation, building services installation and retractable roof construction, etc.
The Main Stadium of the Kai Tak Sports Park will accommodate 50,000 spectators and the steel structure of the roof involves 13,600 tons of structural steel. This, coupled with the area needed for the cranes, the storage of materials and the assembly of prefabricated components, requires a significant amount of space. Therefore, the team builds a travelling gantry, for the installation of around 1,700 prefabricated units for the upper rows of seats. All these are completed with the aim of design for safety, productivity and sustainability, minimising work-at-height and crossing operations in mind.
A step towards “paperless site environment” through the use of advanced technologies
In order for frontline workers to have a clear understanding of how to bring innovative technologies into construction sites, the project team makes use of a platform called “Dalux” which not only facilitates the planning and execution of BIM tasks, but also allows site personnel to go into the site without the need to bring along the drawings. The GPS tracking function allows personnel to have a clear understanding of the project and tasks’ progress in real time, while also keeps information constantly updated through the use of cloud technology. The whole team therefore simultaneously monitors the progress and minimises mistakes. Hip Hing’s professional team once again demonstrates the industry’s continuous pursue of excellence and the spirit of “Life First” and “Zero Accident” with concerted efforts.
