Atkins together with Scottish Water Horizons have developed an automated tool that validates drainage designs for new homes against current regulations.
The tool is designed to reduce the time needed for technical approvals and help accelerate new homes to market.
The FastTrack Drainage system uses Dynamic Objects – an automated intelligent technology process created by Atkins – to reduce the time required to review drainage designs.
Digital director at Atkins, Guy Ledger, said: “The automation technology underpinning this solution is truly ground-breaking and transformational for the industry. Its application with Scottish Water Horizons demonstrates its potential to significantly save time and cost by speeding up technical approval of new sewer network assets”.
At the moment all new wastewater drainage systems are checked manually against various criteria to ensure compliance with regulations. This is often time-consuming resulting in long delays for developers and creating uncertainty around costs and project timescales said Ledger. FastTrack Drainage’s automation of the process allows the overall approval process to be completed in days and weeks, instead of months.
Operations manager of Scottish Water Horizons, Colin Lindsay, said: “Now more than ever, sites where new homes are being built must be approved, constructed and delivered on time, and on budget. One of the most fundamental components of any new housing development is the wastewater drainage system”.
“With FastTrack Drainage, designs are validated within a matter of days, knocking weeks or months off existing validation processes. The quicker developers get designs validated and submitted for approval, the faster they can get on with their development, saving time and in turn, money”.
Ledger said that the innovation has been welcomed by developers who face mounting pressure to meet increasing demand for new housing, particularly in the affordable housing sector. “What’s really exciting about this technology is its potential to be used in other areas of the planning and development process where technical review and approval of design information is needed against regulations”.