Reclaiming land from the sea: what happens when Hong Kong runs out of land?
Will artificial islands solve Hong Kong's housing crisis? Artificial intelligence and digital engineering may provide more cost-effective and sustainable solutions.
Change your location to view content tailored for you.
Given its position as one of the world’s most densely packed cities, Hong Kong’s push to move more of its infrastructure underground makes perfect sense. However, with the heightened costs of below ground construction ranging between two to three times higher than above-ground work, Hong Kong must harness digital engineering to deliver better efficiency, say Aurecon’s Ray Chan and Jason Chin.
Hong Kong has an ambitious plan to create a network of underground cavern developments to ease the pressure of land supply to the country. At Aurecon, we believe this exciting and innovative initiative has the potential to help the country build a brighter future, freeing up valuable land and creating more sustainable and future-ready communities for the nation.
However, to achieve success, the program must embrace different thinking, including harnessing the power of digital engineering. Below we give five examples of how that might be done.
Understanding geological conditions is a key focus for the successful delivery of underground construction.
Unfortunately, this typically relies on interpretation using 2D sections with a small amount of 3D visualisation. This makes the whole process time consuming and often causes a lack of clear communication. However, using software can both speed up construction and deliver higher quality. At Aurecon we use Leapfrog, which offers three significant benefits.
Firstly, it enables real time updates to the visualisation which gives greater efficiency and accuracy and saves substantial time in drafting. Secondly it improves collaboration through easier sharing, because having geological data available from a centralised and auditable environment makes it easier to bring project teams together, helping them stay connected and enhancing decision making.
Finally, using a software package such as Leapfrog facilitates better compatibility with different parts of the design. Being compatible with BIM, GIS and various other analytical software programs makes for easier and faster overall project management.
In combination, the benefits of 3D geological modelling bring tangible improvements in the engineering process, including offering better risk management of geotechnical issues which offers increased safety to site personnel.
Using a Geographic Information System (GIS) for the Blasting Assessment Report avoids the need to manually engineer the vibration contours when designing the blast plan for underground construction. It also delivers accurate 3D visualisations of the blast plumes and vibrations limit on existing structures above ground.
At the construction stage, these detailed graphic representations are helpful in enabling stakeholders to understand the effects of the blasting performance and builds trust among key audiences. Most stakeholders are unfamiliar with the drill and blast process and that uncertainty can raise concerns among communities and building owners.
Having these accurate and detailed visualisations go a long way to alleviating worries, allowing work to proceed to schedule.
Once blasting work has completed, laser scanning of the excavation can be employed to accurately map the cavern profile and detect areas of potential overbreak and underbreak. This is done by taking a scan both before and after the lining of the cavern has been applied.
To bring further efficiency to this stage of the process, developers should also consider using sprayed concrete to create the cavern permanent lining, as opposed to cast-in-situ concrete.
By comparing the point cloud data at various points in the cavern from both before and after the lining is applied, areas of weakness or over-fortification can be easily identified allowing adjustments to be made; this will lead to greater efficiency, especially in optimising how much concrete is used in the project.
At Aurecon, we have developed our own bespoke program for this.
Following excavation, another way digital tools can help the construction progress is through digital rock mapping. During construction of the cavern, the rock face of the subterranean space must be mapped regularly by a geologist to record data such as material type, joint count, water characteristics, roughness and alteration.
At present, this is typically recorded using a pen and paper. However, with new customisable apps, it is possible to record the data via a smart device. This improves accuracy, speed and safety, and also means data can be uploaded in real time improving ground support optimisation.
A further option for digitising work during construction is to use a device-based app for site inspections. Ideally this app will take the form of an online database that allows users to create their own forms for repetitive data capture. Incorporating this customisation allows onsite personnel to tailor the form to the project.
Data collected from the form should be automatically uploaded to an online portal where it can be easily accessed by other stakeholders, reducing work duplication and the risk of errors.
Looking to move more infrastructure underground is not new, but the scale of Hong Kong’s ambition is unprecedented. To truly reap the rewards of this ambitious effort will require new thinking and, more importantly, new technology. With a wholehearted approach to digital engineering, Hong Kong has an opportunity to create a position as a world leader in moving infrastructure underground.
Managing Director – Hong Kong & Macau
Executive Director, Ground & Underground Engineering – Asia
Will artificial islands solve Hong Kong's housing crisis? Artificial intelligence and digital engineering may provide more cost-effective and sustainable solutions.
As the government in Hong Kong reclaims land to address the needs of its growing population, how can environmentally sustainable methods pave the way forward?
Asia’s transport networks must evolve to deliver sustainable, connected mobility. Learn how Aurecon is shaping Asia with innovative infrastructure solutions.
