BIM
2023
Assignment
Istanbul Grand Airport
The Istanbul Grand Airport is a project covering 76.5 million square meters, located in the
Arnavutköy district, Turkey. BIM was essential to deliver this big project as people will be able
to see. BIM is essential for the construction of the Istanbul Grand Airport (IGA), one of the
world’s largest airport projects currently under construction in the Arnavutköy district, Turkey.
It will be the third international airport to be built in Istanbul after Atatürk Airport and Sabiha
Gökçen Airport. The infrastructure will be ready to host nearly 150 million annual passengers
Due to the large dimensions of the airport, the project range has been divided into 4 phases.
The first one includes the construction of 3 runways, a terminal with 5 piers with an area of 1.3
million m2, a parking with an area of 700,000 m2 and other site facilities. According to the
project scope, the most important assets of the main terminal building, runaways and
emergency exits will be easily achieved. Once the 4 phases are done, the project will provide
nearly 72 million m2 of airport with 6 runaways, supporting up to 3K take-offs and landings
each day, 2 million passengers a year and 350 worldwide destinations. With this numbers, the
project is one of the most ambitious projects in modern Turkish history and it’s planned to
generate billions of additional euros each year along with new employment opportunities.
Figure 1.―Bird View of Istanbul Grand Airport
BIM has been used for the whole project lifecycle, from design, fabrication, and construction
to operations and maintenance. 30.000 people worked on the site each day; communication
was therefore a key point. More than 150 tablets were actively used by site engineers and
chiefs to share the 3D model, but also to shop drawings, and check the Quality Assurance and
Quality Control, which shows the importance of including AR in a BIM strategy.
Dr. Ozan Koseoglu, Director of BIM, İGA stated “Clash reports are issued and assigned to
relevant parties with BIM; design teams from each discipline are involved in the solution to
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BIM
2023
Assignment
ensure the model is fully coordinated and clash-free. More than 320,500 clashes have been
solved so far, saving time and money and preventing rework on site. Any unexpected claims,
time extensions, and cost overruns are also prevented by using BIM.”
Implementing BIM in the Istanbul Grand Airport project
One of the most important points in the process of applying BIM in construction is being able
to lead the project individuals (designers and subcontractors) to get familiar with the use of
BIM products in a coordinated way. Another important aspect is to set the integrated project
delivery in a virtual room, also known as BIM Room, provided by the company for coordination,
collaborative work and making decisions with both subcontractors and designers.
The most important part of the application is the way these key points are reflected,
considering they are done with 150 iPads including all coordinated BIM models used by site
engineers. 2D shop drawings are also provided for the field, apart from 3D models. The
engineers of both superstructure and infrastructure can reach QA/QC, integrated into a cloud
system, with their iPads. All these procedures take place on the Autodesk 360 Field platform.
The company has generated the biggest 4D model in the world, integrating more than 30,000
activities into the model to know the daily and monthly progress to have a dynamic control
over the progress of the project.
From 3D to 7D, Information in all dimensions were available for the many stakeholders, for
different purposes. The 3D model was reviewed by all the participants for necessary revisions
and installation information. The 4D model was used by the executive directors for the project’s
planning. The 5D information was extracted from the model to help anticipate the construction
schedules impact on costs. The 6D model was created for sustainability goals. The 7D model
was built for facilities management post-construction. Health and Safety, with the number of
professionals on the site each day, health and safety were a priority. Therefore, a strategy plan
including worksite analysis, stand and external training was developed for the best efficiency.
BIM life after the airport works is completed
Once the airport is done, it will be operated for 25 years, including the operation stage where
BIM will play a major role. This methodology will allow to reach the necessary information,
solve future operation problems related to the airport systems along the pre-commissioning
and maintenance stages. In addition, BIM will be used for all dimensions. The 6th, that includes
both facility management and lifecycle management stage, is planned to start after completing
the first phase.
With this project, IGA has started to lead and set benchmarks in both the AEC industry and
digital construction. The Istanbul Grand Airport project has accelerated the BIM adoption in
Turkey, becoming a key learning hub in the Turkish Construction Industry. As usual, replacing
conventional methods of construction adopted by this sector with new technologies have
become the most challenging part of the BIM adoption process. According to Akcayoglu, only
with a strategy and a decent execution, this cultural change will be achieved. This means that
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BIM
2023
Assignment
only a theoretical background of BIM is not enough, it is also important to outline a right
strategy for the future.
Figure 2.―The airport boasts beautiful outdoor spaces that give it a sense of tranquility
Once complete, the İstanbul Airport will offer flights to more than 350 destinations with an
annual passenger capacity of up to 200 million. All scheduled commercial passenger flights
were transferred from Atatürk Airport to Istanbul Airport on 6 April 2019, following the closure
of Atatürk Airport for scheduled passenger flights. The IATA airport code IST was also
transferred to the new airport.
It served more than 37 million passengers in 2021, making it the busiest airport in Europe and
13th-busiest airport in the world in terms of total passenger traffic and, by serving more than
27 million international passengers, the 2nd-busiest airport in the world in terms of
international passenger traffic.
Sources:
[Link]
the-istanbul-grand-airport (Accessed: 14 January 2023)
[Link] (Accessed: 14 January 2023)
[Link] (Accessed: 14 January 2023)
[Link] (Accessed: 14 January 2023)
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