The weather and the COVID-19 pandemic combined to make the construction schedule for the whole project extremely tight. On top of that, the project needed to highlight themes such as high tech, smart tech, green, and environmentally friendly.
Arcadis assisted in the construction of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games venues by providing consulting services on construction costs for the Chongli Taizicheng Snow Town project.
While serving as a venue for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in Zhangjiakou, Taizicheng Snow Town showcased the warmth and hospitality of China to our friends around the world.
As a global landmark sports event, the Beijing Winter Olympic Games benefited from the tireless efforts of many people in the construction of its venues. As a key component of the Olympic Games venues in Chongli, the Snow Town project featured world class design and facilities. The cold weather limited the window for construction to nine months out of the year. This coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic made the construction schedule for the project extremely tight. As a result, we faced huge challenges when it came to estimating and controlling costs, as the project design, construction and procurement were carried out at the same time.
Overlooking Snow Town from the sky, roofs of different sizes and shapes appear scattered around the mountain like snowflakes. Each building in the town was individually designed, making the task of calculating and estimating costs extremely challenging. To meet this challenge, we mobilized people from four different offices, in Beijing, Shenyang, Baoding and Changsha. After just three months of close collaboration, we had completed cost calculation and estimation for all items of the project, as well as reconciliation with more than ten different contractors participating in the construction, ensuring timely and effective payments of project funds and accelerating construction.
In order to cope with the rolling terrain where the national guest villas are located and the extreme difficulty of earthworks calculation under these conditions, we quickly learned how to use South CASS software, to efficiently solve the earthworks calculation problem. With the help of SketchUp modeling software, we also successfully completed calculation of the construction work for the complex facades of the cultural and creative commercial streets, the convention hotels and the national guest villas.
At the same time, in order to minimize the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, our team of professionals communicated closely with the field staff and the back office, held regular online meetings with the property owners and the design team, followed up on cost estimates of specific items in a timely manner, and proposed optimization plans and provided feedback on variable costs to keep project costs under control.
Sporting events are important cultural activities that have always served to promote world peace and bring people together. A successfully organized sporting event has many positive impacts on people and the world. Before the opening of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said, 'It's almost a miracle that despite the challenges of the pandemic, the preparations for the games have progressed so smoothly. The venues are really excellent... With regard to sustainability, they are giving already a very good example.'
Taizicheng Snow Town is the first cultural tourism project in the world to receive the LEED platinum precertification for urban planning and design. Following the successful completion of its role in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, it will be transformed into a world-class tourist destination for people to enjoy throughout the year. Taizicheng Snow Town will offer tourists and local residents a place to experience winter sports and appreciate the beautiful scenery. In this way, the project solves the global problem of utilizing stadiums following major international sporting events.
©XINHUA NEWS
