Automation process for the delivery of design element statement reports

This paper outlines the development, functionality and benefits of automating delivery of Design Element Reports on the High Speed Two (HS2) Programme, leading to improved efficiency and consistency.

A Design Element is an individual, or group of HS2 civil engineering assets that are summarised in Design Element Statements for the purpose of informing the Environmental Statement, providing an immediate source of information during the petition phase of the project and to act as a starting point for subsequent design phases. The statements collate information from a wide range of sources, link to technical information and capture environmental, engagement and engineering design history. Historically these Word-based reports have been manually populated by individual disciplines extracting data from existing deliverables and project data. This was a complex and time-consuming task that was difficult to manage in terms of the assurance and delivery of data and reports.

An innovative automation process was developed to deliver 483 reports for the HS2 Phase 2b Eastern Leg. The process enabled efficient report population using automatic mining of existing data into an online database, including utilising Building Information Models and Geospatial Information System data.

This innovative method captures revision history, improves consistency and reduces repetitive inputs, formatting and enables live progress reporting to manage the production activities and assurance process. The automation tool is accessed via a web-based portal allowing concurrent editing and reviewing realising efficiencies. Upon completion, a statement or multiple statements can be automatically generated. The portal also includes a delivery progress dashboard.

The automated process demonstrated efficiency benefits during Phase 2b. Further future benefits and improvements have been identified:

• Repurposing of the mined data in other deliverables and reports.

• Use of the database system to manage HS2 registers, enabling more collaborative access and reporting methods.

• Further integration with HS2’s asset management database and reporting tools.

• Increasing the portal’s functionality to extract a wider range of GIS and CAD design information.