Waterford Courthouse is the location for building masterclass

A trip facilitated by BAM Contractors gave students an insight into Building Information Modelling (BIM) and a building management system

Students from the Department of the Built Environment at WIT recently learned about the Design, Construction and Facilities Management of the new state-of-the-art Waterford Courthouse building.

Delivered as part of a Public-Private Partnership by BAM Contractors, the project cost in excess of €25 million to construct, and is currently in the Operation & Maintenance (O&M) phase for a 25 year period under BAM Facilities Management.

Advanced technologies

Kevin Hickey, Virtual Construction Manager with BAM, delivered a very interesting presentation on the design and construction of the Courthouse using the latest innovations in Building Information Modelling (BIM) technologies.

Hickey, who is a graduate of the Construction Management course in WIT, is at the forefront of advanced computing technologies such as BIM in the construction industry and spoke about current and future technological developments.

Kevin's presentation in WIT was followed by a visit to the Courthouse building, where BAM's Facilities Manager, Patricia Sibley, talked about her role in managing and maintaining the building. The visit proved to be very beneficial to the students who saw firsthand how the facility is managed, particularly in terms of how BIM is used to track maintenance tasks and how the facilities services are controlled via a Building Management System.

Behind the scenes

In addition to the public court facilities, the students also got to go behind the scenes and see the various plant rooms and equipment that supply power, heat, ventilation and water to the building. Patricia spoke about the technical challenges of managing and maintaining these systems under the PPP model for the 25 year O&M period.

The visit was organized by Brian Graham (WIT Construction Management Lecturer) and Jason O’Riordan (WIT Construction Law Lecturer). The time and effort of the BAM staff in engaging with the students on the MSc in Construction Project Management and BEng (Hons) in Sustainable Energy Engineering programmes was very much appreciated by Brian, Jason and the students involved.

Best practice

“Engaging with industry leading experts such as Kevin and Patricia present our students with a fantastic opportunity to relate their studies to current best practice in industry; this visit has proven to be extremely successful in that regard,” O’Riordan noted.

Graham added, “it is also great to see two WIT graduates, Kevin and Patricia, excelling in their careers. We would like to take this opportunity to thank them for taking the time from their busy schedules to share their knowledge with the next generation of Construction Managers and Energy Engineers.”

Related Courses

• Bachelor of Science (Honours) in  Construction Management & Engineering
• Master of Science in  Sustainable Energy Engineering
• Master of Science in  Sustainable Energy Engineering
• Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in  Sustainable Energy Engineering
• Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in  Sustainable Civil Engineering
• Bachelor of Science in  Architectural & Building Information Modelling Technology