The CIC launches CDE Award to promote digitalization in the construction industry

The Hong Kong Construction Common Data Environment Award 2023, co-organized by the Construction Industry Council (CIC) and Development Bureau, was officially launched on May 16. The award aims to recognize local projects and organizations that best utilize Common Data Environment (CDE) to improve project management, productivity, and sustainability.

As a cloud-based platform that centralizes the storage and access to construction project data, CDE plays a pivotal role to monitor the whole construction life cycle, from planning and design, construction to operation and maintenance.

“Integrated CDEs offer numerous benefits,” says Ir Thomas Ho On-sing, Chairman of the CIC. “It improves project coordination efficiency, allows effective management of information flow, helps on forecasting and reducing risk, and facilitating planning, facility management, budgeting, reducing waste and carbon emissions.”

Ongoing efforts in digitalization

Ir John Kwong Ka-sing, Head of Project Strategy and Governance Office of the Development Bureau, offered insight into tackling the challenges faced by the construction industry in coming decades, especially as Government faces staggering demands for housing.

Kwong explains that Government has, since 2018, been advocating innovation and new technologies to drive productivity and efficiency. More than 300 active contracts, 600 ongoing projects, and 4,000 facilities will be connected to the Integrated Capital Works Platform as an essential step in the digitalization of public works.

In hopes of promoting site safety through this year’s award, Ho stresses that the CIC and the Development Bureau are pushing forward the adoption of Smart Site Safety System (SSSS) – a technology integrated into CDE to monitor high-risk construction activities continuously for early identification of potentially dangerous incidents and taking immediate follow-up actions.

Ho notes that technology has been proven effective in significantly minimizing safety hazards.

Integrating innovation from overseas

A new feature in this second edition of CDEA is the addition of a new Overseas Achievement award under the Organization category to encourage construction stakeholders to share their CDE adoption and innovation for overseas and mainland China projects and how the experience is applied in local projects.

“We should look outside Hong Kong to gain more advanced and innovative knowledge from the mainland and overseas projects,” says Ho. “We hope that the winners of this year will become our change agents by passing on their knowledge and experience, and be the catalyst of transformation for the construction industry of Hong Kong,”

Learning from successful examples

At the ceremony, three Gold awardees from last year shared their experience of CDE utilization in academia and public works.

Prof. Jack Cheng Chin-pang, Associate Head and Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), conducted a step-by-step demonstration on the creation of the HKUST campus’ digital twin. Cheng notes that HKUST is a pioneering university that has digitized the physical campus and integrated different facility systems into a single hub, a project that has significantly enhanced facility management like engineering analysis, and maintenance for the entire campus.

Another Gold awardee was Gammon Construction Limited for the project of Terminal 2 extension at Hong Kong International Airport. The contractor connected all project members using Revizto, a self-developed integrated collaboration platform, to minimize manual processes as well as to track and report progress from anywhere at any time, said Paul Evans, Executive Director and Chief Technology Officer at Gammon Construction Limited.

The other Gold Awardee was the Highways Department. In their major infrastructure project of Central Kowloon Route, six current work contracts adopt CDE with the synergy of BIM, digital works supervision system, and smart site management hub.

Tony Cheung Ka-leung, Project Manager/Major Works in Highways Department, said they had to deal with a huge amount of data in terabytes generated from the construction of the 4.7 km dual three-lane carriageway, but CDE was of immense help in connecting all the contractor data with ease.

The CDE Award is now open for application until August 31 (Thursday). Apply now and share your valuable experience on adopting CDE with the construction industry.

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