Executive design railway section using Autodesk solutions

Sint s.r.l. is a company that has been operating for more than 20 years in the field of engineering, specifically dealing with the design of:

• Infrastructures for electrical networks, ranging from low voltage to high voltage;
• Infrastructures for telecommunications networks;
• Mechanical systems, particularly thermal, aeraulic and water networks.

It is a team composed of electrical, energy and mechanical engineers with years of experience. It is an industry-certified facility and generates integrated value-added services.

The infrastructure engineering services created by including the various stages of design (preliminary, final, and executive), site surveys, construction management, safety coordination, and ultimately plant testing.

Sint Srl carries out all the activities from scratch and adapted to standards with licensed personnel, installations falling in the electrical, TLC and mechanical fields. Sint Srl was faced with a particularly compelling challenge. It had to provide for the design of all plant engineering parts (electrical, fire-fighting, and mechanical systems-excluding traction and signaling systems) within tunnels and railway stations of a new railway section. Three-dimensional MEP modeling of rail tunnels, as complex nonlinear structures, included many unknowns and doubts to be addressed.

The project involved the achievement of some very important objectives for the construction of a new railway section. These included the executive design of facilities in the buildings, infrastructure elements using BIM methodology. 

The entire project involved not only the railway stations but also the tunnels and viaducts of the entire new network. In addition, all service areas to the stations or tunnels such as ventilation and fire stations were to be included within the integrated design.

Sint s.r.l. has to also take care of the design of the fire-fighting stations present in the various service areas to the tunnels and stations, the distribution of the fire-fighting network with hydrants and hose reels. For mechanical design, it was to implement the air distribution and return networks, smoke extraction inside the railway tunnels, and all hydronic systems in the stations.

Finally, for the electrical design he was to implement the main distribution networks through gangways and piping with the inclusion of ordinary lighting devices, emergency lighting, control devices and special communication and signaling systems.

After careful analysis of Sint Srl's approach to the work, a tailored, highly operational and interactive coaching plan was developed. Through project coaching, a technician specializing in plant engineering disciplines joined the entire SINT design team. It was then possible to create a workflow for the implementation of plants on complex structures.

Software used:

• Autodesk Revit
• Autodesk Civil 3D
• Autodesk Navisworks
• Autodesk InfraWorks
• Autodesk AutoCAD
• Autodesk Dynamo Studio

Thanks to the use of BIM methodology with Autodesk Revit and the help of Autodesk Dynamo for Computational design, Sint's design team was able to precisely and methodically realize the installations within complex structures, and thanks to the algorithms and workflows they were able to repeat the automatic positioning of elements within the vai spaces. With these methods it was possible to decrease errors and meet the constraints given by the client.

Through project coaching and shadowing, the experiences needed for complete project management on their own have been established. With the skills acquired and the experience gained through the MEP design of the new railway section, Sint s.r.l. can now carry out the activities with standardized workflows and established methodologies for designs on complex infrastructure works.