Belfast Grand Central Station sets exemplar for Northern Ireland

Translink, Northern Ireland’s public transport body, faced major challenges with the construction of Belfast Grand Central Station, the island’s largest integrated transport hub with a footprint bigger than London’s King’s Cross station.

With five major contracts running in parallel – enabling works, bridge works, rail, station construction and utilities – the digital challenge included managing vast amounts of data and ensuring real-time collaboration between contractors, the Department for Infrastructure, regulatory bodies and local communities. Each had different priorities, requiring a robust framework to ensure compliance, efficiency and consistency.

ISO 19650 standards for information management were being integrated into the organisation for the first time. Translink also wanted the seamless transition of asset data into its FM system, enabling automated maintenance scheduling, asset validation and optimised reporting.

Thus, Translink’s approach to digital transformation on the project was strategic, research-led and outcome-focused. The project team conducted an early-stage digital audit, identifying that traditional data exchange and manual validation processes would cause delays and compliance risks. To solve this, Translink adopted a BIM-first strategy, integrating ISO 19650-compliant workflows.

Managing the data exchanges across five different contracts and the unavoidable use of four common data environments proved to be challenging, and developments were made with Python scripting and Power BI dashboards to enable automated review and validation of document registers and data sets, eliminating eight hours of manual review per week.

The vast majority (93%) of the 13,000-plus auditable data exchanges achieved compliance in naming conventions.

Additionally, stakeholders gained deeper insights beyond visualisation, enabling data-driven decision-making for improved station operations and passenger experience.

To enable improved stakeholder buy-in, VR technologies were sourced following an R&D exercise with Digital Catapult NI. Translink implemented VR-based engagement sessions, generating an estimated £10,000 saving.

Real-time COBie asset data was embedded into Translink’s Property FM system, cutting processing time, improving maintenance workflows, and enabling predictive asset management.

Read about the rest of the winners.

The Digital Construction Awards are organised by Digital Construction Week, CIOB, Construction Management and Digital Construction Plus. To find out more about the Awards and enquire about sponsorship or entering next year’s event, visit digitalconstructionawards.co.uk.