The construction
of the Northern link is one of the biggest road and tunnel projects
in Sweden in terms of scope and budget with a cost of SEK11.6
billion. The procurement of contracts is also extensive. All in all,
there will be about 40 contracts for the construction works.
Per Erik Björkman
works on concurrent engineering
[1] at the Northern link. I met up with him over a cup of coffee one day
in February, 9 months after the start of the construction of the
Northern link. The planning and design work, along with geotechnical
investigations and other necessary preparatory works have been in
progress since 2006.
“My task is to
coordinate all the documents and all the information of this great
project and one of the most important things is to keep all the
documents in order” says Per Erik Björkman.
The Northern link
will be a link in the peripheral route around the Stockholm inner
city area and be part of the E20 European Highway. The part of the
link that is now to be built will be 4 km long and will run between
Norrtull and Värtan, with a connection to Roslagsvägen at
Stockholm University. Most of the link will be housed in tunnels. The
Northern link is designed to solve traffic problems in central
Stockholm. This, in turn, will reduce air pollution and will make
inner city streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
The
total length of the road tunnels of the Northern link is 11 km, of
which 9 km are rock tunnels and 2 km are concrete tunnels.
The Northern link
will take nine years to build (2007-2015) and is estimated to cost
SEK11.6 billion. Bilfinger-Berger, Hochtief, Veidekke, Oden, NCC and
Skanska, are just some of the Swedish, Nordic and European companies
will take part in the project.
“Nine years is a
long time and imagine how many people who will be involved working
with this vast project. We use the Chaos system to keep the documents
in order” says Per Erik Björkman.
What is Chaos? Chaos is a software
system developed by Chaos systems AB for information management,
which handles document as well as drawings. In the first place the
system is used to enable a digital flow between different operators
within one or several projects. The purpose of the system is to
facilitate and support the users’ work in a cost-effective manner.
Chaos is used by the Swedish Road Administration (SRA), as well as
other companies working in relation to SRA.
This
two windows-variant is for the user who only looks at existing
structures like contracts and tender documents.
Gunilla
Sandström, project leader at Chaos systems AB, works with
planning of resources, writes requirement specifications, arranges
and follows up development projects of internal software systems and
consultant development.
Gunilla Sandström
works as a project leader at Chaos systems AB, developers of Chaos.
When I met her early in the morning, she was just about to time
estimate another Chaos project. “I believe there are several
advantages with a good document management system, both in the
perspective of a larger business economy but also for the individual.
For a company this means re-use of data, time efficiency, knowledge
transfer and renders a guaranteed quality possible. For the
individual it means knowing which document is the latest version,
which drawings are delivered and also provides control of the tender
documents and where to find them” says Gunilla Sandström.
The document
management of the Chaos system was put forward in 1996 at the
initialisation of VST Northern link. The software system was intended
for delivery, distribution and archiving of projects for external
consultants and contractors. It was also designed to support the
project’s handling of information by the connection to the project
model of SRA. The system was aimed to be used by advanced concurrent
engineers.
The
advanced user is able to search all over the database and upload/save
and open files.
In the beginning the
software contained only one database and 20 users operating over a
local area network. Today, Chaos contains more than 1,000 databases,
has about 3,000 users of which 2,000 are active, whilst the Internet
has become an important part of the data communication. Chaos users
work at various of levels and have different needs depending on which
stage of the road process they operate in.
“Today we are 350
people working with Chaos at the Northern link, and there are still
just a few contractors getting started” says Per Erik Björkman.
How can Chaos
help in large projects? The system works
with an event log, a version handler and Meta data, describing the
content in the file. All this secures a quality, guaranteed product
as well a quality guaranteed digital flow. Chaos handles all types of
files but separates drawing models, drawing definitions and drawings,
even though they sometimes have the same file type. The information
and the type of handling can be different even if it is the same file
type. External references and layer references in drawings and in
drawing models are supported.
“During an
ordinary day I work with the handling of documents in tree
structures, write routines, support the printing of and finding
drawings, send out memos, administrate new users with authorization
issues in the system, write IT manuals, provide support on questions
regarding CAD, and much more…” says Per Erik Björkman.
“What takes a
little more effort to learn is the name conventions of SRA. To know
it by heart helps a lot – I must say it is necessary – when you
are searching the databases of Chaos” says Per Erik Björkman.
Drawings have their special convention as well as text documents. To
get an old version of a document is as easy as getting the latest
version.
A well expanded
search function is built-in and searches for file name, type and
content of Meta data as well as searching within the event log.
“Therefore it is
possible to see exactly when the user has entered the system and if
he or she has read a document or look at a drawing” says Gunilla
Sandström. Chaos uses a SQL database where all the data is
stored. This makes an extensive search possible, of Meta data, files
and actions. There is also a built-in function for ordering external
plots of files.
The tree
structure Chaos software uses
all types of documents and doesn’t have any demands of a special
type of naming or structure. All types of projects can be included
within Chaos.
The
Northern link in brief
The
total length of the road tunnels is 11 km, of which 9 km are rock
tunnels and 2 km are concrete tunnels.
The
construction of the Northern link will involve the excavation of 1
million m3 of rock and 0.4 million m3 of soil.
The
tunnels include 13 substations for electrical power, 200 jet fans
and 90 emergency exits.
Outside
the tunnels, the construction works will include 2 km of new and
upgraded road, a new 200 m long railway bridge, a 400 m long
temporary railway bridge, 1000 m of railway track in sidings, 1.5 km
of new pedestrian and cycle paths, and 400 m of temporary pedestrian
and cycle paths.
There
will be 140 000 m2 of asphalt-paved road in the tunnels
and 60 000 m2 outside the tunnels.
“In the tree
structure you are able to build structures of folders and documents”
says Gunilla Sandström and continues: “You can control access
by authorization settings in the tree and you can also search, handle
version, and lock and so on”
“With the Northern
link project we mainly use the structure tree to look at tender
documents, contracts or which documents that are current for certain
contractor” says Per Erik Björkman. “The structure can be
tied to a certain version or if you like – the latest version. The
files are linked to the tree. This work is created by me or by a
consultant/contractor. It depends on what you have decided.”
Among all the
companies involved in the Northern link, there are always a number of
people who receive and deliver files to Chaos. These links also exist
as files in the tree structure. The reason why not everyone gets and
delivers files to Chaos is not because it is too advanced but because
it is a practical issue. Deliveries are made by drag and drop to a so
called Job.
Chaos and the Northern link
The Northern link contains 25,000
unique files, of which 6,000 are drawings for the Northern link
today. (March 2008)
6,000 jobs are currently created
in the project of the Northern link.
The project of the Northern link
has just started, and avery large amount of drawings has not yet
been created, like installation drawings, electrical and control
systems, water, wastewater etc.
The database of Chaos contains
1,500 projects, with the Northern link being just one of them.
Including all
databases,
Chaos contains 685,084 documents, drawings, models, images etc –
unique files, not including all different versions.
In
total, Chaos contains 1,019,462 files.
Jobs in the
Northern link “For an easier
handle of a large amount of document there is something called Job.
Job helps you to add documents to the tree structure or to get a
quantity of documents from the tree” says Gunilla Sandström.
Per Erik Björkman
uses Chaos’ Job in his daily work. A normal course of events is
that a contractor puts a document in Chaos for a review. The
documents are uploaded – a job is created – and an order of paper
copies of the job is made. The review is either made at the paper
copy stage or digitally in Chaos, as you prefer. After the review the
contractor adjust the document and puts it back into Chaos. Paper
copies are ordered for the construction area, and if required, the
documents are linked to a tree structure in Chaos - one for the
reviewed version and another tree branch for the final version.
Per Erik Björkman
and Gunilla Sandström both agree about the importance of
document management and order, especially in large projects like the
Northern link.
“The Northern link
will improve the infrastructure and competitiveness of the Stockholm
region. It will create opportunities for housing developments and
places of employment as well as provide better connection to
Värtahamnen, which is one of Sweden’s most important ports.
I’m glad to be a part of this project and see that is all works so
well” says Per Erik Björkman and finishes his coffee.
Anja Jonasson is employed at Chaos Systems AB, Solna, Sweden For more information: www.chaos.se
Reference:
[1] Concurrent engineering is a business strategy which replaces the
traditional product development process with one in which tasks are
done in parallel and there is an early consideration for every
aspect of a product's development process. This strategy focuses on
the optimization and distribution of a firm's resources in the
design and development process to ensure effective and efficient
product development process.
The construction
of the Northern link is one of the biggest road and tunnel projects
in Sweden in terms of scope and budget with a cost of SEK11.6
billion. The procurement of contracts is also extensive. All in all,
there will be about 40 contracts for the construction works.
Ortofoto Roslagstull - Högupplöst bild
“