This blog explores how Bruce and his team saw the unique opportunity and challenge of utilising a railway bridge for the Kamo shared pathway, which was originally constructed and installed in 1903 in the middle of the North Island of New Zealand.
Bruce fully utilised BricsCAD to model the structure of an old, decommissioned Railway Bridge with outstanding results.
The bridge, Bruce identified, was removed in 2015 because of structural concerns around the age and the wide loads of today’s trains knocking the sides of the bridge.
Bruce came up with the idea to transport the bridge from the middle of the North Island to further up North, approximately 450 kms in distance. Once it arrived in Kamo, Whangarei a contractor was engaged to reassemble and fabricate the new deck. It was then shifted to the Kamo shared pathway site in large pieces and there began the process of the assembly of the shared path walkway.
Using BricsCAD, Bruce created the model for visualisation purposes, which proved invaluable for this project. The initiative to use the bridge wasn’t the original plan and being able to present visually to the key stakeholders the 3D model convinced them it was the way to go.
The process to get to this stage included the Structural Engineer from NZ Rail providing Bruce with the spec drawings, and from there, he could model the assembly and fabrications drawings formed from the 3D model.
Using the digital method of working through the complex logistics process in the re-assembly of the bridge and visualisation also helped Bruce understand the problems and challenges he needed to tackle.
The solid modelling side of BricsCAD was used by Bruce and a perfect example of picking up a toolset and using a selection of intuitive functions to produce an impressive re-design of a rail bridge over 100 years old.