Working for Lend Lease Projects, Waterman Partnership were consultants for all civil and structural engineering on Europe’s largest shopping centre. Bluewater Shopping Centre is located south east of London and had a construction value of £370 Million.

The project consisted of 10km of carriageway, 9 roundabouts, dozens of minor intersections, 4 road bridges, 13,000 carpark spaces, 6 manmade lakes and extensive landscaping.

Partway through the design process it was apparent that the civil design team’s modelling and design system was not responsive enough to keep up with the dynamic design and alternatives were sought.

After a demonstration of 12d Waterman Partnership purchased one 12d license, within weeks several extra copies had been purchased as staff enthusiastically took to the powerful new system. What was laborious work was being designed 5-10 times faster.

Eventually all roadworks, carparks, drainage and services were transferred to or modelled in 12d. Waterman Partnership found that 12d was even useful for modelling structural slabs and other features such as complex double helix carpark ramps.

12d's advantage for this project was the ability to perform several ’what if’ scenarios and develop them to detail design very quickly. The ability to communicate other consultants using AutoCAD, Micro Station, Micro Drainage and MOSS was also essential to the success of this project.