Located at Hong Kong’s busy Wai Chai district, Exhibition Centre Station was built as a new station of the East Rail Line to Admiralty, forming the Hong Kong section of the Shatin-to-Central Link (SCL). The 3-level underground station provides convenient access to the nearby Convention and Exhibition Centre and offers cross-platform interchange with the future North Island Line. 

Arup acted as the lead consultant for the construction scoping and sequencing of the Hong Kong section of the SCL which includes the construction of Exhibition Centre Station, 600m integrated 4-cell cut-and-cover tunnel, 1.8km twin bored tunnels, and large-scale reprovision of community facilities. 

Our multidisciplinary team, encompassing architecture, civil, structural, geotechnical, building services, quantity surveying, fire, landscape design and transport consulting, worked closely with numerous stakeholders and partners to deliver this highly complex project. 

Our full use of BIM throughout the design and construction process – one of the earliest infrastructure projects in Hong Kong – played a vital role in tackling the unique challenges posed by limited work sites and numerous interfaces and achieving quality and timely delivery of this highly complex project. 

The complexity of the project posed major challenges to our project team – limited work sites with numerous interfaces.  The team had to prepare the temporary traffic management plans, deal with existing structures and underground utilities and coordinate with another concurrent major infrastructure project, Wan Chai Reclamation Phase II, whose work areas overlapped with this project. Adding to the complexity was the abandoned foundations and the left behind WWII explosive charges within the proposed station site. 

Minimising impacts 

The tunnel alignments were designed to avoid the foundations of the existing viaducts approaching the Cross Harbour Tunnel, the substructures of the Convention and Exhibition Centre and the existing Tsuen Wan Line tunnel. Monitoring and protection measures were implemented to ensure safety and continued service of these essential infrastructures. 

We created a large-scale BIM model to integrate GIS data from multiple sources and formats, and consolidated the information with the proposed station, tunnels, public facilities and as-built records of the adjacent buildings. The model offered a holistic view and an integrated solution for the entire construction sequence, helping to facilitate smooth construction and ensure effective project implementation.

Exhibition Centre Station

A large-scale BIM model was created to consolidate the information with the proposed station, tunnels, public facilities and as-built records of the adjacent buildings.

Seamlessly integrated 

Exhibition Centre Station houses a range of building services, electrical and mechanical system installations to support the rail operation including the tunnel ventilation system, traction power system, and operation and signalling systems. All these require structural and architectural provisions. 

BIM enabled the production of fully coordinated construction drawings, allowing Arup designers to plan and review space arrangements for the architectural, structural and building services elements. Clash analysis greatly helped the design team to identify discrepancies between various disciplines so that engineers could coordinate and resolve issues well in advance of construction, thus minimising actual conflicts and rework on site.

A large-scale BIM model was created to consolidate the information with the proposed station, tunnels, public facilities and as-built records of the adjacent buildings. 

Award-winning approach 

The project is also a vivid illustration of how we can design more sustainable outcomes by designing smarter. We used BIM in the re-provisioning of Harbour Road Sports Centre and Wan Chai Swimming Pool to integrate a wide range of sustainable design strategies. For example, the tool was used to optimise the building orientation and to minimise solar heat gain while maximising daylight. Both provisioning works achieved the BEAM Gold certification. 

Our pioneering use of BIM and the valuable outcomes was widely recognised in the industry – the Arup team was honoured with the 2014 Autodesk Hong Kong BIM Award, as well as First Place for ‘Excellence in Infrastructure’ at the international 2015 Autodesk BIM Awards. 

Harbour Road Sports Centre and Wan Chai Swimming Pool

We used BIM in the re-provisioning of Harbour Road Sports Centre and Wan Chai Swimming Pool to integrate a wide range of sustainable design strategies.