New ECS stainless-steel ballast tanks keep Pillings radial gate open
ECS wins nationwide award for modelling
ECS Engineering Services’ ability to use software to enhance every stage of complex construction projects has won it a UK Tekla Award and it will now go forward to the international stage of the competition.
The UK Tekla Awards celebrate the success of projects modelled using Tekla software in the UK and Ireland. Tekla is a software product family that consists of programs for analysis and design, detailing and project communication. It is widely used in the construction and related industries around the world.
The judges define the criteria they used for assessment of the entries as: showing collaboration between multiple participants and the use of open BIM (building information management); challenges solved with Tekla software products; perhaps a multi-material aspect or complexity of geometry; and most importantly the cool factor – uniqueness of the project and creativity in the project execution. 
Projects of all sizes and degrees of complexity could be entered into the competition, so long as they demonstrated collaboration and innovation using digitisation solutions. Many prestigious construction projects, both large and small, were entered into the 2018 UK awards, including multi-storey offices, cultural buildings and sports facilities, industrial and commercial developments and infrastructure projects.
The judges considered all entries and drew up a long list of the most worthy. These were then opened up to review by the public via a dedicated website, who voted for their favourite and the overall winners in each category.
For the competition ECS created a model that integrated a number of recently completed water control projects set in a fictional site. It included lock gates, an FRP (fibre reinforced plastic) footbridge, trash screens, radial gates, fish passes, radar sensors and platforms, stop logs, limpet dams, a hydraulic lift bridge, flap valves, penstocks and associated ladders, access steel, winches, hand railing and fencing.
ECS’s James Kirk explains: “We really wanted to demonstrate our ability to bring together different parts of a project, seamlessly integrating all the data so that everyone has complete information on the project and its progress. Our ambitious entry paid off because it was liked by both the judges and the voting public. The judges said they particularly appreciated the inclusion of the moving mechanical items such as lock gates, which added extra dimensions to the model.”
Tekla’s UK Managing Director, Richard Fletcher, offers his view of the competition: “There are a lot of talented users of Tekla software amongst our customer base that we like to recognise. This year’s entries were a showcase for the digitisation of design for manufacture and assembly within the UK and Ireland. It is great to see the wide variety of work that Tekla Structures is used for.”
ECS is no stranger to award ceremonies. It has just won a RoSPA Health & Safety award for the tenth year in succession. Kirk again: “Awards let us benchmark ourselves against the best in our industry, bring prestige and publicity and are something the whole company can celebrate.”
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