Valued at over £20 billion and estimated to take 10 years to complete, Hinkley Point C in Somerset is the first in a new generation of nuclear power stations, providing zero-carbon electricity for around six million homes. The main civil engineering works are currently being delivered by BYLOR, a joint venture between Bouygues Travaux Publics (TP) and Laing O'Rourke, with a range of Trimble products and technology used throughout.

Speaking about the project, Alina Turda, Quality Systems Engineer – BYLOR, said: “Hinkley Point C is one of the largest and most complex projects currently being constructed in Europe, as we are building two identical nuclear reactors concurrently. To give you an idea of scale, we have about 5,000 people working on site day in day out; we have 50 cranes working concurrently; and we have the largest land-based crane in the world. On a project of this scale, you would never be able to do anything with just paper.”

In addition to Trimble’s constructible modelling software (Tekla), BYLOR also employed Trimble Viewpoint’s Field View on the project – a cloud-based mobile solution designed to replace pen and paper in the field for forms, defect management, project delivery and handover processes.

Greg Bond, Business Intelligence Manager – BYLOR, said: “Right from the beginning of the project, we knew that we needed a digital system for all our records. At the start, a lot of the focus was on how we could capture and maintain those records in a digital format, making them really easy to retrieve, easy to audit and easy for people to take out into the field – which is why we chose Viewpoint Field View. We wanted to help our engineers get out onto site, rather than being sat at their desks in the office.

“As well as the focus on documentation delivery, we also have an ongoing requirement to keep our client informed of progress and help our teams out on site to understand what items need actioning. Field View allows us to capture this information really easily out in the field but also allows us to process that same information. Given the size of the project, not everyone can be at the work front looking at what’s physically happening. As a result, the ability to move that information into a digital dashboard - far faster than a person could run up to the office, the boardroom or the client - is really useful.”

BYLOR first introduced Trimble Field View to Hinkley Point C back in 2017, using the cloud-based solution to digitise its biggest piece of work to date: the reinforced concrete inspection and test plan.

Alina explained: “The digitisation consisted of breaking down the execution checks into a series of sequential steps, which are each represented by a Field View process. Behind each of those process steps are the associated form templates, which reflect the requirements within the inspection and test plans. Having developed the forms to aid the engineer through the process, one of the huge benefits of Field View is that we can adapt the forms to suit what is required. So, if there were any lessons learned from site, we could implement that in Field View.

“Field View has proved instrumental in providing us and helping us maintain a quality system and record system that is fit for purpose. Through the records produced, it delivers consistency, transparently and full visibility, both for us and for our client.”

On a project as large and as complex as Hinkley Point C, with over 220,000 tonnes of reinforcement and about 1.3 million cubic metres of concrete to be poured, huge amounts of data will be generated as a result. The task of ensuring that this data is organised clearly and concisely, in such a way that it can be easily accessed, is critical.

Alina continued: “Field View was key in effectively managing the flow of data coming from all areas of site. For example, by using the 3D model, we were able to import the individual concrete pours to Field View, with each pour inheriting a unique ID and hierarchy according to the client’s coding system. We then associated a process against each individual pour ID and allowed the engineer to use this on site. Once the records had been completed, the individual pour ID is visible on the output from Field View and we can see straightway the associated records for that specific pour.”

BYLOR’s use of Field View on Hinkley Point C has also proved valuable for Trimble’s internal software development process, with feedback from site feeding directly into software updates, including the Overnight Sync feature within Field View.

Trimble Field View is just one of the Trimble portfolio of products that have been used and continue to be used by BYLOR on the construction of Hinkley Point C, with Tekla’s constructible modelling software used for detailing all the concrete, rebar and embeds.