HONG KONG, CHINA — (Marketwired) — 09/29/15 — Aconex Limited (ASX: ACX), provider of a leading cloud collaboration platform for the global construction industry, today announced that the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA) has chosen the Aconex platform to manage project information and processes for a HK$21.6-billion development. The West Kowloon Cultural District will include 17 world-class performing arts venues, a museum, a park, and public open spaces.
Situated on 40 hectares of reclaimed land across the harbor from Hong Kong–s central business district, the publicly funded West Kowloon Cultural District is one of the largest cultural projects in the world, blending art, education and open space. Construction began with a ground-breaking ceremony for the Xiqu Centre in September 2013. The first batch of projects will also include the M+ museum, the Freespace performing arts platform and an arts pavilion scheduled for completion in 2016 and beyond. A Lyric Theater, a medium theater, a center for contemporary performance, and resident company facilities will be developed in the second batch of projects.
The scope and complexity of the 10-year development pose numerous construction challenges, including underground facilities such as utilities, an airport express line, a rail line, and cooling mains. The combined project management team involves more than 1,300 team members representing 80 different organizations located in the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia. Fluid communication and collaboration between designers, engineers, contractors, and subcontractors working across multiple time zones is essential.
The WKCDA, a statutory body established by the Hong Kong government, has adopted Building Information Modeling (BIM) for all of the projects in the West Kowloon Cultural District. Reviews, mark-ups and revisions of 3D models are expected to generate huge volumes of data to be managed and shared among project team members.
Dr. Stewart Wan, head of ICT Planning and Construction Management at WKCDA, led the selection of a project information management (PIM) solution for the West Kowloon Cultural District. Dr. Wan had had more than a decade of experience with various PIM solutions, including Aconex. “It–s a must-have in today–s construction environment,” he said. “It–s all about time, cost and quality.”
The WKCDA–s selection criteria included ease of learning and use, information access anywhere at any time, and built-in workflow management that could be easily customized to suit specific requirements. Aconex met all three criteria and more.
Aconex offers West Kowloon Cultural District team members immediate access to project information and correspondence, as well as current and prior versions of documents that are stored securely and permanently in the cloud. To date, more than 500,000 project documents have been registered and over 530,000 project communications have been received on the Aconex platform. “Aconex provides a simple way to store, share and retrieve information at any time and from anywhere,” said Dr. Wan.
Many of the project consultants are located overseas, often continents away from the job site. Marking up and mailing document changes to contractors can take days. Aconex enables consultants to make changes electronically and send them immediately to contractors. “That saves us time and paper,” says Dr. Wan.
With such a complex project, it–s easy to lose track of where a document is in the review and approval process. Aconex provides workflow management for monitoring and reporting the status of thousands of engineering drawings, requests for information, change orders, and other documents requiring review and approval.
Aconex Connected BIM is being used to manage BIM data and processes for project-wide collaboration between design and construction teams. It will also facilitate handover of the model and all project information to the WKCDA at the end of construction for each project.
It took just two weeks for the project team to set up and configure Aconex for the design phase of the first project, the Xiqu Centre, in October 13, 2013. In the next few months, Aconex was then deployed for subsequent projects, including the M+ Museum, the arts pavilion, the park, and district-wide systems.
“The West Kowloon Cultural District ranks among the most highly visible public projects in the world in terms of size, complexity and aspirations,” said Andy Lake, general manager of Asia at Aconex. “The development is a tribute to what can be accomplished for the benefit of society and the community. Aconex is proud to play a role in this endeavor and looks forward to helping the WKCDA complete the many packages of the project on time and on budget.”
Aconex Limited provides a leading cloud collaboration platform for the global construction industry. The platform connects owners, contractors and their project teams in the construction, infrastructure, and energy and resources sectors, providing project-wide visibility and control between the many different organizations collaborating across their projects. With more than 60,000 user organizations and approximately $1 trillion of project value delivered in more than 70 countries, Aconex is the industry–s most widely adopted and trusted platform. Founded in 2000, Aconex has 41 offices in 22 countries around the world, including headquarters in Melbourne, Australia and San Francisco, California. The company–s ordinary shares are traded on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) under the ticker code ACX.
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