How the Lendlease–Bouygues Construction Joint Venture used 12d Synergy to manage the data tsunami on NorthConnex

The Challenge

NorthConnex was a project of exceptional scale. At 16.3km total length, it is longer than the Eastern Distributor, M5 and Cross City Tunnels combined, and its deepest point sits 90m below ground where it passes beneath the Sydney Metro North West Tunnel at Beecroft. The $3 billion project was designed to improve freight movement, road safety, traffic flow and environmental outcomes, with capacity to carry 100,000 vehicles a day and ease major congestion on Pennant Hills Road.

That scale created a serious data management challenge. At peak, the project had 2,000 workers on site, 20 road headers excavating 2.25 million cubic metres of material 24/7, 60+ surveyors, 75,000 fieldwork submissions totalling 25 GB, 5 million survey points including 3.5 million as-built points, and 2,000+ tunnel profiles. In some areas, a single tunnel lining could generate around 100 million scan points.

The team needed a Common Data Environment that could securely handle this volume of design, survey and construction information, support offline work in the tunnel, integrate with 12d Model and 12d Field, maintain strict QA standards, and optimise data transfer speeds across constrained underground environments.

The Solutions

12d Synergy was selected as the collaboration and data management platform for NorthConnex, providing a secure and central Common Data Environment for survey datasets, 12d Model projects, reporting documentation and project files. The platform supported the project’s need for strong security, controlled permissions, fast access to current information and reliable synchronisation across the life of the job.

As the project evolved, 12d Synergy also supported a range of automation initiatives designed to improve efficiency. Elements of both field data and design data were automated, with attributes such as location, state, current user login, date, time and source details attached automatically. Survey macros were developed to support data collection, QA and reporting, while 12d Synergy provided the flexibility and structure needed to accommodate those workflows.

Later in construction, the team also used 12d Synergy to support two critical optimisations: automated PDF plotting from survey data, and a new approach to storing large volumes of attribute data outside the live model while maintaining secure links back into the project environment.

The Result

• Managed 880,000 files, 1.6 million file changes and 3.9 TB of project data in one Common Data Environment.
• Supported 60+ surveyors and 75,000 fieldwork submissions across the life of the project.
• Reduced one example project from 8.2 GB to 1.3 GB, an 80%+ reduction in size.
• Cut file transfer time from 13 minutes to 2 minutes for that same example project.
• Skipped 5 million duplicates and exported 180 million attributes to improve performance and reduce model size.
• Supported automated plotting, reporting, QA workflows and structured file management across a live tunnel project.

A tunnel project of this scale demanded a stronger Common Data Environment

That made the real spotlight here the project’s data environment itself. Rather than treating file storage as a back-end function, NorthConnex used 12d Synergy as a core part of how the project was delivered — supporting collaboration, quality assurance, automation and faster access to trusted information.

Spotlight Project: NorthConnex

For the joint venture, 12d Synergy provided the Common Data Environment needed to manage this volume of information at scale. It enabled project data to be stored centrally, accessed by the right users, and structured in a way that supported collaboration and quality assurance even under demanding site conditions.

Automating plotting and reporting to improve decision-making

As construction progressed, the team needed a faster and more reliable way to generate PDF plots from survey data. To solve this, a customised macro in 12d Model was set up with standard PPFs and plot frames so that once survey data was received, both sketch and formal plots could be produced automatically. Each plot was added to a drawing register, automatically named, enriched with additional attributes, moved into the correct QA folder structure, and pushed out to the team.

This automation reduced manual handling and helped engineers and managers make more informed and efficient decisions during design and construction. It also showed how 12d Synergy could support data-driven workflows well beyond simple storage and access.

Reducing the data minefield through attribute management

One of the biggest technical challenges on NorthConnex was the sheer volume of 12d Field attributes attached to every vertex in the tunnel. These attributes made as-built models extremely large and affected loading speeds, storage requirements, device memory and bandwidth in underground conditions. In one example, a project with 65,000 elements and 900,000 points had grown to 8.2 GB, taking 13 minutes to download in the office and even longer on site.

To address this, attributes were exported to files on the server and replaced in the model with secure links. 12d Synergy provided the environment that allowed this process to work smoothly and securely. The result was a dramatic reduction in project size to 1.3 GB, with transfer time reduced to 2 minutes. Across the broader project, 5 million duplicates were skipped and 180 million attributes were exported, significantly improving performance and freeing up time for higher-value work.

Strengthening QA, structure and security

Consistency was essential across the project. With large volumes of scan data, survey submissions and reporting outputs moving through the system, NorthConnex needed a clear structure for quality assurance from the outset. 12d Synergy supported this through strict file naming conventions, structured folder management, permissions control and automated QA checks built into the team’s survey macros.

This helped make audits more straightforward, reduced duplication, and ensured that the right people could access, upload and manage project information securely. For a tunnel project operating around the clock, that level of governance was critical.