Skip to main content

3D Repo develop virtual reality safety app for Balfour Beatty

3D Repo is working with contractors Balfour Beatty and Vinci and the UK roads agency Highways England to deploy a virtual reality simulation program for safety training. 3D Repo, a spin-off from University College London, develops open-source software for building information modelling in the cloud. More than 40 different 3D file formats are decomposed and federated in the company’s big data repository.
April 18, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
Seeing is believing, and staying healthy: 3D Repo’s construction site simulation
3D Repo is working with contractors Balfour Beatty and 5177 Vinci and the UK roads agency 8100 Highways England to deploy a virtual reality simulation program for safety training


3D Repo, a spin-off from University College London, develops open-source software for building information modelling in the cloud. More than 40 different 3D file formats are decomposed and federated in the company’s big data repository.

The simulated program - part of the UK’s Smart Motorway programme – is a fully immersive simulation to prevent on-site accidents by making highways construction and maintenance projects safer through improved training. It features real world scenarios while the virtual experience gives users different perspectives of the same potentially dangerous situation in order to develop an understanding of safe working zones.  

“In order to demonstrate our understanding of our customers’ needs and facilitate the collaboration between our customers and their clients, we wanted to digitally transform our approach,” commented

Neil Thompson, head of digital research at 1146 Balfour Beatty, said that using a standard visual reality headset, the 3D Repo simulation provides multiple views of different scenarios. The user is immersed in a position relative to an activity, for example bank excavation, so they can examine both the worker’s as well as the plant driver’s visibility. The user can then position themselves where they think they are safe and switch to the plant operator’s position to understand what they would see.

All this is done within the safety of an office or training room and without the need for lengthy manuals, training sessions or specialist personnel. As the scenarios are hosted online, the system can be set up easily from any location and can be deployed across numerous sites at the same time.

“Upon login, users can access all their projects remotely on the fly and without the need to create custom executables each time,” said Jozef Dobos, chief executive of 3D Repo. “We also utilise existing site-specific 3D models and building information modelling (BIM) data so that custom scenarios can be created and uploaded as and when needed.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Efficient Load Out: the digital solution revolutionising mass excavation projects
    November 15, 2021
    Staying connected to customers and colleagues has never been more important and over the last two years, adoption of innovative technologies that enable this has accelerated in businesses in every sector around the world. And for Volvo Construction Equipment, the construction site is no different. Efficient Load Out is a digital solution which connects machine operators, truck drivers and site managers in real-time to maximise the profitability and sustainability of mass excavation projects
  • Cloud-based solution from Leica Geosystems
    March 9, 2017
    Leica Geosystems has released the new Leica ConX at CONEXPO-CONN/AGG. ConX is a cloud solution and web interface to seamlessly integrate, manage and analyse surveying and machine control workflows for heavy construction projects.
  • Analysing intelligent speed adaptation benefits
    February 22, 2012
    Oliver Carsten, Professor of Transport Safety at the Institute for Transport Studies (ITS) at the University of Leeds, UK, discusses Intelligent Speed Adaptation, looking at its safety potential
  • Highways England: new agency with long-term investment strategies
    August 18, 2015
    Highways England, created out of the old Highways Agency, was set up on April 1 to oversee a closer relationship between government client and private contractors. World Highways went to a recent forum in London to hear both sides declare their hopes and challenges. Government reforms are often met with a certain amount of scepticism thanks to years of disillusionment over forgotten ministerial promises. Given that, highway contractors in the UK could have been forgiven if they had raised their eyes skyward