BUCESD Undertakes the Engineering Survey Project of Daxing International Airport

On September 25, Beijing Daxing International Airport was put into service. From construction began in 2014 to the airport opened in 2019, Daxing International Airport finally ushers in a new era for air travel to and from the Chinese capital. As a major project of the 12th Five-Year Plan of China, it is the world’s largest land-aviation hub, and a national landmark developed under the care of and promoted by President Xi Jinping personally. It is another magnificent new gateway of China. 

Daxing International Airport was designed by late world-renowned architect Zaha Hadid. The shape of five concourses connected to a main hall is like a flying phoenix. It is also hailed as the top of “seven wonders of the new world” by the media. It created 10 world greatest records: the world’s largest single-structure airport terminal, the world’s first terminal with both high-speed rail and expressway underneath, the most difficult in construction technology, the world’s first terminal with both two arrival floors and two departure floors, the world largest free-form hyperboloid steel roof, the world’s largest steel structure, the world’s largest single-structure seismic isolation building, the world’s largest seismic isolation bearing, the world’s largest seamless complex and the world’s largest airport concrete slab. Each of the world’s top records brought a series of challenges to the project construction. Moreover, the construction period of the new airport was only 1,218 days, only 1/3 of similar airports. 

It is unprecedented to see such a large scale, such complicated construction techniques and such difficulties in measurement as in Daxing International Airport. The arduous precise engineering survey task was assigned to Beijing Urban Construction Exploration & Surveying Design Research Institute Co., LTD (BUCESD). Under the instructions of the expert team which was headed by Ma Haizhi, chairman of the institute, the institute selected top talents and first-class cutting-edge devices to carry out survey with a rigorous and realistic scientific attitude, a work style of seeking for perfection, and high sense of mission and responsibility.

The survey team faced a series of challenges in providing survey guarantee for such the mega project: establishment and maintenance of a highly precise measurement control network in a complicated environment; efficient and precise lofting of massive concrete structures and steel structures; precise location and timely monitoring of oversized irregular free-form surface steel roof; correct connection of structures on the first floor seismic isolation layer, among others. There were no existing standards or norms, or physical engineering project for reference. To solve these challenges and difficulties, the team masterfully designed measurement plans by tapping the institute’s experience, expertise and wisdom, and creatively employed modern new survey technologies. It employed the GNSS Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) technology, proprietary high-standard control network technology and non-fixed station triangulateration network technology to solve difficulties in control survey, and BIM total station to conduct highly efficient lofting of massive structures, which is many times more efficient than the traditional lofting. It used three-dimensional laser scanning technology and survey robots in the steel roof structure construction and successfully completed precise installation, lifting, joining and deformation monitoring of the irregular steel roof that measures about 25 soccer fields large, established the visual expression model for the deformation monitoring of the roof, and provided direct and scientific basis for optimizing design and guiding construction. Moreover, it also applied the indoor positioning technology in the real time tracking of man, machine and materials at the construction site, and significantly improved the construction efficiency and safety with the intelligent site control platform. 

Their great efforts produced fruitful results. The team achieved a handful of invention and utility model patents and software copyrights and published dozens of papers, bringing China’s engineering survey technology of large-scale airport construction to a new level, and showcasing the technological strength and industrial influence of BUCESD. The scientific results have been rated as the world-leading level in the experts appraisal, and have been promoted and applied in many airport construction projects home and abroad. 

At the moment of celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Daxing International Airport was officially put into operation. As recorded by the Book of Documents • Yi and Ji, “after nine movements of Xiao Shao’s music are played, a phoenix will be lured to dance”. Builders of Daxing International Airport are like masterful musicians playing beautiful movements to lure the golden phoenix to dance. It will fly high to witness the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. All members of BUCESD are proud of contributing to the magnificent journey.