Norway
Randselva Bridge
World’s largest drawingless bridge
Sweco’s BIM experts from Denmark, Norway, Finland and Poland have done the modelling for a 634-metre concrete bridge that crosses the Randselva river in Norway. The bridge is the largest in the world to be designed and built without the use of drawings.
The Randselva project is part of a major contract for the extension of the E16 motorway in Norway on the Eggemoen-Åsbygda section north of Oslo, with the main structure being the new 634-metre concrete bridge.
- Location
- Norway
- Client
- Statens Vegvesen
- Contractor
- PNC Norge
- Static load demonstration
- Armando Rito
- Service
- Design
- Length
- 634 m.
- Status
- Under construction
Information model as the only document on site
Sweco has performed the work in an international collaboration where Sweco’s BIM experts from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Poland have worked together. The Danish team has special responsibility for the parametric rebar models for columns, foundations and the bridge’s superstructure.
Norway is a Nordic leader in drawingless bridges, and the Norwegian authorities require information models for most new construction projects. In the Randselva project, Sweco is responsible for modelling the bridge, managing the drawingless process and designing the road structures around the bridge.
The parametric 3D model developed by Sweco for the project is therefore the only official documentation for the comprehensive infrastructure project. A project that would have been very difficult to manage without a precise information model. The bridge currently contains more than 200 tension cables and 200,000 rebars. This level of information would be virtually impossible to handle manually, since over half of the bridge has a varying cross-section.
BIM kiosk and cloud solution eases the work
The 3D information model for the Randselva Bridge is the only basis used for communication at design and construction meetings. The model and its details are available to all parties in the project via a cloud solution. The model is also designed to ensure that each member of the project group can stay up-to-date on the status of all model elements and the information that can be used for ordering building materials etc.
The contractor has daily access to a ‘BIM kiosk’ in the form of a portable container with a computer inside from which the model can be viewed. The model makes it possible to transfer the various surfaces directly to machine automation systems, and for excavations to be dimensioned and placed precisely. The structures are also dimensioned on site using coordinate and measurement information in the model. All concrete and reinforcement work is done on site using a combination of placement data and augmented reality.
The Randselva project entered a new phase in September 2020, with the commencement of work on the bridge superstructure.
