New, large residential area

Funbo is a new residential area being planned outside Uppsala. The goal is to build a brand new suburb with up to 1,000 new housing units in the coming years – with associated roads, streets, water and sewage network, and landscape design etc. Everything must be done entirely from scratch, because the area is largely forested and currently unoccupied. The terrain is very hilly and rocky.

Demanding pre-project

– We must therefore think very carefully when we set heights and model the streets and WS, says civil engineer Niklas Invall at Bjerking. He says the fundamental data are based on contour curves from the municipality´s elevation data. One WS engineer, two road engineers and two landscape architects from Bjerking were working on the project. In addition to several people who were involved in the geo-technical surveying.

Multidiscipline consultants

Bjerking AB is Sweden's oldest consulting firm that is owned by the employees. The company has roots dating back to 1943 and has been staff owned since 1957. Today Bjerking has over 260 engineers, project managers, landscape architects and other experts. With modern technology and methodology in planning and design of infrastructure, buildings and construction, the company is well established in Uppsala and Stockholm.

Bjerking AB is in no way a novice when it comes to Novapoint. The company has used the discipline design tools for many years – both for road, WS and landscape design. Constant upgrading to new versions has been natural in order to remain technologically in front, hence, also upgrading to the new Novapoint.

Innovative engineering

– When the BIM capabilities arrived with the Novapoint 19 version it did not take long before we began to look at it, continues Niklas Invall. – When we won the Funbo project we felt it was quite natural to adopt 19 and Quadri in full. It is a great advantage that several designers can do the modelling in parallel and as such coordinate streets and WS as best as possible.

– The new version means we have to think in a new way in many cases. And that was a challenge at first. We have therefore had to turn to Vianova´s Support when questions have come up. But on the whole, everything went very well, without much need for training.

Transparent and smooth coordination

– Everything becomes very much clearer in Novapoint 19, says Invall. – It is very useful to see both roads, streets and WS in the same BIM model. You discover directly multi-discipline problems. This is the biggest change. Hence it goes much faster to find and correct errors. The multidisciplinary collaboration in the Quadri model works very well.

– The Quadri solution has been a great help since we now have been able to work several engineers simultaneously on the model. As a road design engineer I can easily share my changes with the WS engineers, who at once can see the changes in the model. They can thus decide and execute their changes on the fly and continue to work in parallel. In that sense, one can say that quality assurance is done continuously, highlights Niklas Invall.

– The collaboration has gone very smoothly and saves both time and money.

Not a big transition

– The transition from Novapoint 18 was not difficult. You just have to think a little new the way you work. Novapoint 19 makes the design process very clear and efficient. I think it went pretty fast to get into it. Sometimes you of course get stuck after all, but then it's safe to call Vianova Support. They are very helpful and talented, and have been very supportive. They have always solved the problems we have encountered, concludes Niklas Invall.

At present it´s time for Bjerking to deliver their pre-design of the Funbo project – and then thereafter start working for the detailed design assignment to go Bjerking´s way as well...

We wish them good luck on their "journey"!