Aconex announces that its leading cloud collaboration platform for the global construction industry has been implemented by the City of Greater Geelong to manage information and processes for the upcoming Library & Heritage Centre project.

A government infrastructure and community development project, the proposed Library & Heritage Centre is an iconic addition to Geelong’s architectural and cultural landscape. Designed by the renowned Melbourne firm of ARM Architecture, the new Geelong Library & Heritage Centre features a unique geodesic dome constructed of glass and reinforced concrete.

Designed to replace the City’s previous 50-year-old, two-storey building, the new Centre will not only provide access to printed and digital information but also serve as a community hub in the heart of Geelong with the much larger nine-storey facility offering cutting-edge technology and spaces to encourage interactive learning.

The single largest construction project ever undertaken by the City of Greater Geelong, the A$45.5-million development is being jointly funded by the City, the State of Victoria, and the Australian Commonwealth Government, and is expected to be completed in late 2015.

The Aconex cloud platform will support the ground-up creation of the massive project, improving efficiency and streamlining collaboration project-wide across multiple stakeholders.

According to Scott Cavanagh, manager of capital projects at the Greater Geelong City Council, the platform is user-friendly and broadly adopted in the industry, and has the robust functionality required for the City to manage a project of this scope and complexity within extremely tight project schedules.

Deployed successfully to manage all pre-construction information and processes, the Aconex online collaboration platform is being used by the City for tendering, document control, and workflow management, while Aconex Field is being used for field inspections and defect management. Aconex Field enables inspection teams to quickly and accurately enter data in the field, attach site photos and directly assign defect resolution to the responsible contractor, thereby improving efficiency and reducing risk.

With more than 330 individuals from over 100 different organisations working in the multi-company project team, and more than 100,000 registered documents having been generated and revised so far during the course of the project, the Aconex online platform is facilitating frictionless collaboration for contractors and architects in geographically dispersed locations.

Aconex gives team members immediate access to project information, correspondence, and both current and prior versions of documents, which are securely and permanently stored in the cloud. Workflows and schedules defined by the City keep the entire team’s activities tightly controlled across the project. A complete audit trail that tracks all project communications, decisions and changes is also provided to the City to help reduce the risk of delays and disputes.

Steven Brant, general manager of Aconex’s Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) region observes that the new Geelong Library & Heritage Centre is a prime example of community development that will become part of history. He adds that Aconex is pleased to be able to help the City and their project team deliver the project successfully.