Infrastructure development is in a state of transition. While everyone involved faces new pressures to deliver and innovative new technologies hold great promise, not all traditional ways of doing work are stuck in the past, said Kaushik Chakraborty, senior vice president and regional executive, APAC at Bentley, who is leading the effort to make traditional methods more efficient.
“Today we are in a state of the infrastructure sector where we are neither in the old way nor in the 3D digital age,” he explained. “We’re at an in-between point.”
Tried and true methods of project delivery still hold great value, and some areas are not quite ready for total disruption. But at the same time, these methods collide with higher expectations and pressures to deliver sustainable infrastructure quickly. Fortunately, there are ways to give the old methods a boost without having to suddenly abandon them and take a leap into the unknown.
Challenges with Tradition
Today, traditional project delivery methods face three main challenges. The first is the inefficiencies of paper-based workflows. Having to take care of a printer is bad enough, but 2D-first approaches often create silos of data between teams at every step of the process.
“Silos lead to clashes and lack of coordination between design firms, construction contractors and, of course, property owners and funding agencies,” Chakraborty said.
All too often, design firms that now design projects in 3D still keep them to themselves and only provide 2D drawings when the project moves to construction and delivery. As a result, much of the built-in data, vision, and design intent can be lost in the transition. Design doesn’t have to be the only phase of development that benefits from 3D models.
The second challenge comes from a lack of awareness of site-based risks. In the past, designers often did not examine potential problems with the development site. Suddenly, a design that worked well on paper can’t hold up if construction crews discover that subsurface conditions aren’t strong enough to support it. Without full knowledge of geotechnical and environmental challenges, a project’s design may need to be revised after construction begins, leading to significant delays and construction overruns.
Finally, there are the challenges related to the lack of a shared data platform. Individually, designers, construction crews and operators can carry out the highest quality work. But without clear communication, they may not be aware of critical changes and issues that may affect teams in the future.
“When they work separately, it is very difficult to coordinate decisions, solve problems in time and correct conflicts during construction,” Chakraborty explained.
Although the infrastructure sector has relied on 2D design for many decades and continues to rely on this methodology, it lacks connectivity. In this era of tighter deadlines, reduced budgets, increasing pressure for sustainability and increased workloads, infrastructure development organizations can no longer afford to keep each step of the process separate from each other.
Linking all collaborating teams
The answer is to consider the entire project life cycle from the beginning of the design. With the right technology, 3D models can be useful well beyond the design phase. They can be used to create detailed construction animations to better plan each step of construction. They can be seeded with detailed technical information to help inform operations and maintenance. Projects can be further enhanced by using them to build a digital twin, establishing a digital replica of the state of the project site, the assets to be built, or even the current health of each item as it ages. This vision can be combined with existing workflows, avoiding disruption and smoothing the transition.
The key is to use open technology and connected data so that models and information can be easily passed from one application to another, rather than having to adapt the information to a new format for each step. Not only can open technology break down silos and improve communication, but it can also eliminate errors that arise when material moves across formats. When design and construction teams are connected to the same digital models, they can more easily spot clashes before starting the field, saving significant time and cost.
Additionally, providing intuitive 3D models and animated walkthroughs in addition to static documentation can improve public transparency, Chakraborty explained.
“Public consultation has become very common these days,” he said. “Interactive digital twins help with that by allowing area residents to better understand the asset that will be built there. It helps with buy-in.”
Coordination of a nation’s water development
A good example of how digital models can help with project development is the latest Tuas Water Reclamation Plant (WRP) in Singapore. Singapore’s national water agency, PUB, is building a second phase of the plant that will extend to the western and southern parts of Singapore and diversify the country’s water portfolio, creating sustainable water management for the country’s future.
Designed to maximize water recovery and reduce energy consumption, the Tuas WRP will be the world’s largest membrane bioreactor facility when completed, treating 800,000 cubic meters of used water per day. But these advanced technologies posed significant development challenges, including how to visualize unprecedented work and handle massive amounts of data transfer between 16 different contract packages.
Their solution was to leverage the Bentley iTwin platform to create a digital twin of the project early in development, Chakraborty said.
“Everyone is working with a model, which will persist throughout the life cycle of the project,” he commented.
Connecting all teams and establishing a clear vision of the project has already brought significant benefits. The time to contract construction and the bidding process were reduced by 50%. The time required for drawing production was reduced by 70%. As a result, the digital twin has reduced the planned capital expenditure by more than 5%. Even as teams contribute they continue to rely on their existing ways of working.
Combining the past and the future
Beyond digital twins and connected workflows, software developers and project managers continue to find new ways to use technology to connect teams early and save time. Artificial intelligence is a particularly promising field. Generative AI can now automatically place elements into 3D models as needed. AI also has the potential to automate the still-required production of 2D drawings, which can take about a third of project development time.
“If we can reduce that time and make it more efficient, we’ll save a lot of manual work,” Chakraborty explained. “Engineers can take on more exciting work and don’t have to get stuck in mundane tasks.”
Adopting new technology can be daunting. No one wants to abandon what they know and spend time learning new systems that may not provide what is needed. But connecting existing workflows can bring the best of both worlds: proven ways of working combined with improved visibility and greater connections with other project teams.
Author’s bio
Senior Vice President, Regional Executive, APAC Kaushik Chakraborty has over 28 years of experience in senior management roles in international sales and business development across multiple industries including government services, defense and emergency, utilities, transportation and geospatial. He joined Bentley in 2015 and is focused on growing Bentley’s broad range of engineering and geospatial solutions to accelerate project delivery and improve asset performance for the infrastructure that supports our economy and environment. Prior to joining Bentley, Kaushik was Group Vice President of Hexagon and held leadership roles at both Intergraph and Leica Geosystems in the Asia Pacific and EMEA regions. Kaushik holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering and has earned certificates in management and leadership.
