【Safety Walk with Thomas】Innovation, Efficiency, and Sustainability: Moving Towards a New Era in National Sports |【安全誠行】創新．高效．綠建 邁向國家體育新進程

The Beijing Winter Olympic Games (Beijing Winter Olympics) have pushed the technological boundaries with various groundbreaking technologies. The most representative and iconic venue is undoubtedly the National Speed Skating Oval, colloquially known as the “Ice Ribbon”, which is the newly built speed skating venue in the Beijing Winter Olympics. From design, construction and operations management, innovative and green concepts are integrated throughout, making the Skating Oval a smart venue. Ir Prof. Thomas HO, Chairman of the Construction Industry Council (CIC) led a delegation to visit the “Ice Ribbon”, to know more about the adoption of national research, with a view to promoting sustainability in sports.

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Setting the Structural Work and Achieving World Records

The National Speed Skating Oval is approximately 198 meters long and 124 meters wide and is the largest single-story and two-way orthogonal saddle-shaped cable network structure in the world. This innovative architectural concept uses slender steel cables and connecting nodes to form a unique saddle-shaped rooftop. Compared with traditional support structures, the new roof requires only 25% of the amount of steel, making it lighter and more durable. By reducing the overall height by 8 to 10 meters, this technology can speed up the structure construction time and lower its cost. In view of the building structure and its efficiency and safety, the project team established 1,093 real-time monitoring points, not only to monitor the condition of the cable network structure but also to improve construction safety and risk management.

The design of the Ice Ribbon’s curved glass curtain wall is also an indispensable highlight of the venue. It consists of 3,360 glass components of different sizes and curvatures, seamlessly embedded into the frame made of 160 S-shaped steel ribs. The glass components selected by the team are all domestically produced, with high light-transmittance and low emissivity, embodying the goals of green and low-carbon construction and creating a glass curtain wall combining advanced technology, functionality, and aesthetics.

From structural design to the construction process, this project has overcame different challenges. By utilising Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology in the full construction life cycle, optimising the installation of prefabricated components, and thoroughly digitalising the management process, the team has surmounted these obstacles to enhance quality and efficiency.

Breakthroughs in Creating the “Fastest Ice Surface”

As one of the main venues for the Beijing Winter Olympics, the facility was designed to ensure the ice surface is in best conditions. The ice surface of 12,000 square meters is divided into four sections, each of which has independent ice temperature controls, allowing for synchronised operation with different uses. National Speed Skating Oval adopts Carbon Dioxide Transcritical Direct Evaporation Refrigeration Ice-Making System, which helps to reduce carbon emissions and brings a carbon reduction equivalent to planting over 1.2 million trees. In addition, the system can enhance its effectiveness by maintaining the ice temperature variances within 0.5℃, which provides strong support for top-level ice performance with a flatter and smoother ice surface. Hence, skaters have better chance to break the Olympic records or even the world records. The process of creating the ice surface is interconnected, the construction project team and research team across universities in the Mainland have pushed the boundaries of traditional technology, laying a solid foundation for the “Fastest Ice Surface”. Energy recovery, saving energy and participating in a variety of sustainability initiatives are all achieved at the same time by collecting waste heat generated during the cooling process and using it for hot water delivery, heating, ice melting, and other applications in the Skating Oval.

Operating the Smart Venue and Accelerating Innovation

Apart from embracing innovative constructions and technologies, the team is committed to incorporating technology into operations by constructing a digital twin platform to establish a contemporary and smart venue. This platform consolidates 36 independent systems, gathers an array of data sets on a real-time basis, and transmits information to enable the integration and analysis of environmental data, including electromechanical equipment performance and energy control. Consequently, the management team is endowed with enhanced capacity to mitigate risks effectively, render precise as well as dependable assessments to enter an integrated and new management mode.

Ir Prof. HO applauded the “Ice Ribbon” as a world-class construction project that encompasses excellent design, construction, operations management. It is great to see the adoption of innovative technologies such as BIM and Internet of Things (IoT) throughout all phases, with the team working to complete this leading project.

北京冬季奧林匹克運動會（北京冬奧）以「科技冬奧」突破不少界限。最具代表及標誌性必然是北京冬奧唯一新建的冰上競賽場館 — 國家速滑館，又稱「冰絲帶」，由設計、建造至運營，把創新科技、綠色理念貫穿始終，達至真正的智慧場館。早前建造業議會（議會）主席何安誠教授工程師與參訪團一同到訪這座「冰絲帶」，瞭解如何應用國內創新科研，在體育領域上推動可持續發展。

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築起主體 創下世界之最

國家速滑館在世界體育場館中創造了規模最大的單層雙向正交馬鞍形索網屋面，長約198米，寬約124米。這種創新的建築概念採用了細長的鋼索和連接節點構成一個整體，形成了獨特的馬鞍形外觀。與傳統的支撐結構相比，所使用的鋼材用量僅為傳統結構形式的四分之一，令屋頂更輕、更耐用，整體高度更可降低8至10米，有效減少結構工程所需的時間和成本。考慮整個結構建造和運營期間的安全和性能，工程團隊特別設立了1,093個即時監測點，不但能實時監測索網結構情況，更能提升施工安全和風險管理的水平。

「冰絲帶」的曲面玻璃幕牆設計也是場館一個不可或缺的亮點。它由3,360塊尺寸和弧度不一的玻璃組件組成，組件需要無縫嵌入160條S形鋼龍骨打造的框架。團隊選用的玻璃組件，都是於國內生產，具高透光、低傳熱性，體現綠色低碳目標，構建出結合科技、功能性及美感的玻璃幕牆。

這個項目從結構設計到施工過程都面臨不少挑戰，但團隊遇強則強，通過全生命周期應用建築資訊模擬技術（BIM），優化預製組件的安裝程序，以全面數字化的管理流程，提升施工質量和效率。

破舊立新 締造「最快的冰面」

作為北京冬奧主要場館之一，迎接世界頂級賽事，對冰面要求更是一絲不苟。將12,000平方米的全冰面劃分為四個部份，每部分可獨立控制冰面溫度，實現＂同步運行，不同使用＂，並採用創新的二氧化碳跨臨界直冷製冰技術，大大降低製造過程中所產生的碳排放，相當於種植約120萬棵樹而減少的碳排放。另外，團隊利用二氧化碳製冰技術提升效能，令冰面溫差保持在0.5℃之內，意味著整個賽道的冰面硬度更均勻、更平整，更有利運動員於冰面上滑行，創造佳績。製造冰面過程環環緊扣，團隊與大學科研團一起打破固有技術界限，為創建「最快的冰面」打下堅實基礎。同時，場館更將製冰過程所產生的剩餘熱力回收，用於場館內熱水供應、供暖、融冰等用途，實現能源回收，節約用電，推動可持續發展。

智慧運作 加快創新步伐

除了應用創新建築技術外，團隊銳意把科技帶到營運管理上，建立數碼分身平台系統（Digital Twin）打造成現代化智慧型場館，平台連接36個系統，收集多項實時數據傳送至平台，有助整合分析場館環境數據，如機電設備運行情況、能源管控等，讓管理團隊能善用數據輔助作出準確和可靠決策、控制風險，大大提升效率，建立出一體化的管理新模式。

何安誠教授工程師讚嘆「冰絲帶」是世界一流的建築項目，從設計、施工到運營，廣泛利用先進技術包括：建築信息模擬（BIM）、物聯網（IoT）等貫穿各個階段，團隊攜手成就這首屈一指的工程項目。

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