|
contents | business | |||||||||
| Pulkovo Airport nears completion  Parametric modelling techniques have delivered savings in the expansion of Russia's fourth largest airport. The refurbished Pulkovo Airport has an annual passenger capacity of 17 million, up from 8.4 million, and plays an important role in connecting Russia to new development possibilities.Pulkovo Airport in St Petersburg is Russia's fourth largest airport, after the three major airports in Moscow, and provides a critical gateway into Russia. However, the airport has been close to maximum capacity for several years and in 2007 an international competition was launched for the design of a landmark terminal and surrounding airport 'city'. One of the most ambitious aviation projects currently underway In 2008 a €1bn public-private partnership development programme was announced (the first PPP in Russia) which will see the airport grow to over 100, 000m2 with annual passenger capacities of 17 million, up from 8.4 million. The Northern Capital Gateway Consortium (NCG) was awarded the 30-year concession and appointed Ramboll as the lead design consultant. The teams at NCG and Ramboll didn't delay initiating Phase 1 of the reconstruction project given the main terminal building had to be complete and open by 1st January 2014, with all works being completed by 2016 - all whilst keeping the existing Pulkovo Airport fully functioning. "We are very excited to see Pulkovo Airport so close to completion with ORAT (Operational Readiness and Airport Transfer) having begun on 10th September. It has been a fascinating project to work on and truly pushed technical boundaries of innovation in Russian Aviation. Ramboll acting as lead consultant provided design leadership as well as the majority of engineering disciplines with a team spread across 4 countries" said Shonn Mills, Head of International Markets in Ramboll UK. Engineering Russia's 4th largest airport As the lead design consultant Ramboll have been working on Pulkovo Airport since March 2008 and have been formed a multidisciplinary team including structural, civil, MEP, façade and geotechnical engineers, as well as acousticians, fire and safety experts, sustainability and environmental specialists and project managers. In order to deliver the very best blend of expertise this team includes global experts from across the UK, Denmark and Sweden, as well as resource in Russia. Ramboll's mission was to engineer the design of Pulkovo to realise Grimshaw Architects ambitious vision for the airport in the most efficient and effective way, all within the tight timescale set by the client and the need to maximise flexibility to enable further development in the future so the airport can grow with the passenger numbers. New techniques to deliver big savings The complexity and scale of main terminal lead to an exciting challenge for the structural engineers and technicians delivering the design and integrated modelling of this structure: "To adapt quickly to changes in the architecture we had to utilise parametric modelling techniques to ensure our structural and CAD models for main terminal roof were always current and as accurate as possible. Optimising the structural elements to Russian and European standards in parallel lead to the development of bespoke programs and analysis scripts. The reward for developing these new techniques on a project of this scale is that small refinements in structural efficiency were seen as a big saving in overall roof steel tonnage", said Design Engineer Kevin Hares, who did most of the analysis on the roof. write your comments about the article :: © 2013 Construction News :: home page |