Yankee, New Meadowlands Stadium Project Teams Discuss Their Use of BIM

By Jack Buehrer
March 10, 2009

Turner Construction considers the $1.5 billion Yankee Stadium job as its biggest “first generation” BIM projects. (Photo by Jack Buehrer. 3D Model courtesy of Turner Construction)

The idea of 3D modeling is nothing new to Frank Falciani.

Now a senior vice president with Skanska USA Building, Falciani says he worked back in 1982 for a small firm that was doing 3D modeling using “those old, clunky IMB AT computers.”

“We were doing 3D cross sections in buildings in 1983,” says Falciani, who is the executive-in-charge on the $1.6 billion New Meadowlands Stadium project in East Rutherford, N.J. “Each of us had a terminal in our office and we had e-mails. We had job sites hooked up to modems doing our cost accounting in 1984. This was eons ahead of the industry. The guy I worked for saw what was coming 25 years ago. He knew that this was where we were going to be.

“And here we are.”

Building Information Modeling has become as ubiquitous as the idea of “green.” Given the economic recession that has cooled the area’s building boom, BIM has become the industry’s next great hope. And on two of the region’s most high-profile stadium projects, it has been something of a lifeline that has helped two extremely complicated – yet completely different – projects to stay alive when many others have been forced to slow their pace or, in many cases, sit idle until the financial cloud is lifted. Both Skanska and Turner Construction Company, which built the recently completed new Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, have embraced BIM and incorporated it in different ways on their jobs. New York Construction recently sat down with members of both teams and discussed the benefits – and challenges – of using 3D modeling and integrated project delivery on two such massive projects.

As the industry is still getting to know BIM and is still learning when and how best to use it, are the benefits more easily realized on large-scale projects like a multi-billion dollar stadium job?

Brian Tighe (Director of Project Controls for Skanska): It’s definitely easier to see the efficiencies that are gained by BIM because everything is on such a bigger scale. So if you tweak something just a little bit times X number of square feet, that’s where you really see the benefits. You can say, “We eliminated X number of hits on a job.” Well, here the opportunity for hits is much greater. So a fraction of a percentage times 2.1 million square feet is where BIM really shows itself on a job of this size and scope. We always use the analogy of missing a washer on one of the seats – just one little detail. Well, that’s 82,500 seats that you missed this detail on. That turns into a big problem. The scale of a big job like a stadium really allows you to see those measurables.

James Barrett (Regional Manager of Virtual Construction Technologies for Turner Construction): We’re pushing BIM on every major project we do and we’re now seeing it start to trickle down to our smaller projects as well. We’ve got over 100 projects, close to $15 billion worth of work that we’ve completed across the country using BIM and trade coordination. The process we’ve instituted here at Yankee Stadium we’re starting to get it down pretty well and we’re moving on to our next steps. It’s sort of been natural to start on large complex projects like this one. Within Turner, we now have a regional BIM manager in every part of the country who reports to every executive vice president.  So we have someone dedicated solely to implementing BIM in all of its aspects in every region of the country. It’s a measure of how valuable we find BIM as a business practice.

Skanska was forced to have the original 2D drawings of the New Meadowlands Stadium converted to 3D before the model could be created. (3D Model courtesy of Skanska USA Building)

Albert Zulps, AIA, LEED AP (Regional Director of Virtual Design and Construction for Skanska): You also have to consider the complexity of the project. A project like New Meadowlands or any big stadium is very complex. If you look at some of the mechanical components you’ll see it’s amazing we could even put it all together. A smaller job may not be as complex – maybe if it was a small Frank Gehry job, perhaps – and there may not even be a reason to use BIM because you’ve done it all before.

So a job of the size and scope of a Yankee Stadium or a New Meadowlands Stadium, in a way, serves as sort of a “guinea pig project” – or a way to figure out how and where you’re going to use BIM in the future?

JB: We’re always trying to find better tools so we can be better builders. There’s always room for improvement. I think we build very well, but there’s a lot of great stuff going on innovation-wise that we have to look at and we are. There’s just an explosion of interest in BIM and we’ve tried to cut through some of the hype and say ‘what can we do right now? What’s tangible? What’s real? What can we do that will produce a measurable result?” We’re still trying to separate the wheat from the chafe so to speak. We consider Yankee Stadium one of our “first-generation” BIM projects. This is first generation in the sense that we had all trades working from the model. This is where you had structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection all working in the model. It’s the first completely comprehensive trade coordination with BIM.

Now, on New Meadowlands, you guys didn’t use BIM right out of the box, right? Did you not initially want to use it on a project of this magnitude when you knew a lot of the trades you would depend on might not be up to speed on working within a model?

AZ: Well, you can’t always implement BIM from the beginning, especially if you’re not an integrated project.

BT: [New Meadowlands] is a design-build. So we were basically assigned an engineer and an architect after they’d already done the preliminary conceptual design with the owner directly. We could’ve gotten rid of them and gotten a new architect, but the reality is you’re pretty much limited to the design you’re given and the architect we were handed was not a 3D designer or maybe they were just a gun shy of working in 3D on a job of this magnitude.

AZ: Since we can’t choose the team, you sort of have to decide if BIM is worthwhile in a case like this and if so how do you implement it. And as a CM we often get caught in the middle where we don’t have any control over implementing BIM from the beginning. But I really believe that any BIM is better than no BIM and that was definitely the case with this job. We were able use SCUP (an internal modeling resource available through Skanska in Sweden) to convert the 2D drawings to 3D. They were very efficient and very good modelers. The structural engineers can work in Tekla and the fabricators were already working in Tekla so we were able to integrate them that way. Then we were able to fill in the gaps and complete the model. With a bit of luck we were able to assemble a model that supported the clash detection. For the sequencing model we used a separate model that was created originally in BIM software when we were trying to win the job. We used that model and kind of sliced and diced and were able to create one that is still alive today.

And what about the subs? Are they on board? Did that scare you going in, wondering if they would know how to work within a model?

Mark Pulsfort (Vice President and Operations Manager for Turner Construction):
We said to all our subs that this was going to be a 3D project and if they had it in-house that’s fine, but if they didn’t have it, they needed to go out and learn it. There were a couple third party subs out here that facilitated the subcontractors work through the BIM modeling and those worked out well. But it was a mixed bag.

JB: Right. This was one of the first major jobs in New York that was doing this at this level, so the subs were all learning. This was a full coordinated effort with all the subs. It was such a high profile job it gave us some leverage to encourage them to do this, as well. Going forward that’s going to mean a lot to these subs on future jobs and it’s going to mean a lot to us because we’ll have an idea of who to look for on certain jobs. And now they’re pushing us. They say “We want this to be a BIM job.”

BT: Now, going forward, we’re pushing to do more design-build work. So in choosing a partner, moving forward, one of the criteria is “are these guys BIM-savvy?” Do they have the 3D makeup to work with us? If they don’t, they’re not going to be on our list for preferred partners. On this job, we got sold from these MEP subs that they can do 3D. They said they’d done it before. But when it came down to it …

AZ: Some did and some didn’t.

BT: Right. Some did and some didn’t. And it didn’t necessarily go as smooth as they would like. A lot of firms outsourced it out to a third party. And when you have a third party they don’t always share the same drive to stay on schedule the way we do. If you’re going to do the 3D coordination with the sub, you’re going to rely on them having the expertise to populate the information into the model. And if they don’t have the wherewithal to do it, they’re the weak link.

AZ: And some are learning. Some are better now than they were at the start of the job. So you can look at it like we, or large jobs like this one that employ a lot of subs, are bringing the industry up. The first time is always rough, so the next time you work with a lot of these subs they’ll have a better idea of what you’re looking for. It’s about relationships and trust.

FF: We got hurt a little bit because a lot of subs said they could keep up with the pace and they couldn’t. And you could tell where we were able to do it. We’d have zero hits and we’d blow through the area. As the economy tanks, owners want jobs faster, they have to be able to get out of that construction sequence and turn over to permanent financing, which is a lot cheaper. Subs have to get on board because there are a lot of things that are driving construction to go a lot faster. They all realize it and they’re trying to hire to support that.

Then isn’t it kind of a Catch-22 situation? You’re not going to be able to get work unless you’re BIM savvy, but you can’t become BIM savvy unless you’re out there doing it in the field.

Click here for more Newswatch >>