Infrastructure Projects in North America Named as Finalists in Bentley Systems’ 2021 Going Digital Awards in Infrastructure

Winners to Be Selected and Announced December 2, as Part of Bentley’s Year in Infrastructure Series of Virtual Events

EXTON, Pa. – Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the infrastructure engineering software company, has announced several North American projects as finalists in Bentley’s 2021 Going Digital Awards in Infrastructure. The annual awards program honors the extraordinary work of Bentley software users advancing infrastructure design, construction, and operations throughout the world. Sixteen independent jury panels selected 57 finalists from nearly 300 nominations submitted by more than 230 organizations from 45 countries encompassing 19 categories.

The Going Digital Awards in Infrastructure finalists will present their project presentations in the following solution areas:

Mobility, November 1 – Bridges; Rail and Transit; Road and Rail Asset Performance; Roads and Highways; and Structural Engineering

Project Delivery, November 8 – Digital Construction; Geotechnical Engineering; Manufacturing; and Project Delivery Information Management

Cities, November 15 – Buildings and Campuses; Digital Cities; Land and Site Development; and Reality Modeling

Energy, November 22 – Mining and Offshore Engineering; Power Generation; Utilities and Communications; and Utilities and Industrial Asset Performance

Water, November 22 – Water and Wastewater Treatment Plants; Water, Wastewater, and Stormwater Networks

To view the presentations, click here on the above dates. To view the full list of awards finalists, visit https://yii.bentley.com/award-finalists.

Winners will be announced on December 2, 2021.

The North American projects named as finalists for 2021 awards are:

Bridges Category Finalist:

East 138th St. over the Major Deegan Expressway

NYSDOT New York City, United States

A bridge structure originally built in 1938 needed to be replaced to eliminate vertical clearance issues and improve vehicle and pedestrian traffic in a congested area. NYSDOT realized that a digital twin could help them overcome construction challenges and accommodate existing utilities. The visualization helped resolve construction sequencing issues and enabled 180 people to review the model during the pandemic.

Digital Construction Category Finalist:

Golden Pass LNG Export Project

Zachry Group Sabine Pass, Texas, United States

Zachry Industrial, Inc. was tasked with developing and constructing a liquified natural gas facility but had to overcome managing a globally dispersed design team disrupted by COVID-19 protocols. They pivoted their workflow using Bentley applications to collaborate remotely and visualize construction planning. They saved nearly 150,000 resource hours while boosting coordination, improving decision-making, and eliminating travel.

Digital Construction Category Finalist:

SeaTac Airport International Arrivals Facility

Clark Construction Group, LLC Seattle, Washington, United States

To accommodate an increase in international arrivals, SeaTac Airport had to construct a three-story terminal and a pedestrian walkway that would become longest in the world. To accomplish these goals, they tapped Clark Construction to create a digital twin that would visualize construction sequencing and enable them to install the walkway without disruption.

Land and Site Development Category Finalist:

Longwood Gardens Overflow Parking

Pennoni Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, United States

A world-renowned destination, Longwood Gardens includes 1,000 acres of botanical gardens and receives more than 1 million visitors annually. Facility managers needed to identify a suitable and cost-efficient location for a 1,200-car parking lot, but using their previous civil design software applications would be time-consuming. With integrated Bentley applications, the project team reduced delivery time by 50% and conceptual engineering time by 25%.

Manufacturing Category Finalist:

Integration of Advanced Work Packaging (AWP) into Global Project Methodology

Dow Chemical Houston, Texas, United States

Dow applies advanced work packaging best practices on large capital projects above USD 10 million, but they wanted to further improve processing time and data availability in the field. They implemented Bentley technology across 15 projects to streamline workflows and reduce modeling time. All personnel can now reduce rework, save time and money, and lower safety risks.

Reality Modeling Category Finalist:

Diablo Dam Digital Twin Modeling

HDR Whatcom County, Washington, United States

To improve safety while inspecting the 160-foot-high Diablo Dam, HDR had to provide aerial drone services to supplement physical inspections. They created a digital twin, accurate within two centimeters, from over 82 million survey points. The digital twin provides a single reference point to understand the structure and reduces project costs, while increasing surveyor safety and facilitating decision-making.

Road and Rail Asset Performance Category Finalist:

Oversize/Overweight Permitting System Improvement Project

Wisconsin Department of Transportation Madison, Wisconsin, United States

Issuing over 70,000 oversize/overweight permits annually, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation wanted a solution with automated features to accelerate permitting and improve routing analysis and restriction management. Using an intelligent digital solution, they can update and verify road and bridge information within hours instead of three weeks, and process permit renewals within three hours per month compared to 40 hours.

Road and Rail Asset Performance Category Finalist:

Stone Arch Bridge Rehabilitation

Collins Engineers, Inc. Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

When rehabilitating the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis, Collins Engineers faced data collection challenges that traditional inspection methods could not accommodate. So, they used 3D modeling to generate a high-resolution bridge model from over 13,000 aerial images. The digital twin solution reduced the design budget by 5% to 10%, will save 10% to 15% in construction costs, and will help with future planning and maintenance.

Road and Rail Asset Performance Category Finalist:

MB MOOVES – Manitoba Infrastructure SUPERLOAD Upgrade

Province of Manitoba, Department of Infrastructure Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

The Manitoba MB MOOVES project was initiated to increase permit issuance for oversized/overweight vehicles along Manitoba’s 19,000 kilometers of provincial roads and highways. Facing varying climate-driven restrictions and permitting rule complexities, the team integrated road and attribute data, streamlining permit application review cycles and eliminating manual interaction. The digital network automates permit fee calculations and enables issuance for up to 66% of permits.

Structural Engineering Category Finalist:

The Pavilion at Penn Medicine

HDR Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

To provide structural design services for a 16-story, state-of-the art hospital with subterranean parking and a 1.25-million-square-foot high-rise with four pedestrian sky bridges, HDR needed to create an integrated project model to analyze and ensure load and geometry accuracy. Bentley’s integrated modeling software optimized coordination and minimized risks, saving time and money. They completed the environmentally conscious design in less than a year.

Utilities and Industrial Asset Performance Category Finalist:

Asset Care to Support Long-term Sustainability of a Fertilizer Manufacturing Facility

Itafos Conda LLC Soda Springs, Idaho, United States

To renew the Conda fertilizer manufacturing facility’s asset reliability program, Itafos had to manage over 9,000 active, maintainable assets and various changes. They established a digital asset management and reliability program, enabling safe and more sustainable operations. The solution reduced asset data collection from days to minutes, providing automated notification of asset abnormalities for immediate corrective action plans.

Water and Wastewater Treatment Plants Category Finalist:

F. Wayne Hill Water Resource Center Membrane Improvements

Jacobs Engineering Buford, Georgia, United States

To increase the existing water flow and treatment capacity, Jacobs Engineering was tasked with a complex retrofit project at a treatment facility. They sought a comprehensive reality modeling solution to overcome coordination challenges and limited as-built models. Bentley’s integrated applications helped them visualize the data, resolve design issues, and save 300 hours of time and 10% in cost.

Water and Wastewater Treatment Plants Category Finalist:

Implementing Digital Twins on a Fully Collaborative Project

Brown and Caldwell Brighton, Colorado, United States

Brown and Caldwell wanted to advance their BIM processes and embrace open-source digital twins, as exporting models from various applications could take up to 12 hours per week. They discovered Bentley applications are compatible with their preferred solutions and could help them improve data flow and design review. Through advanced digitalization and collaboration, they expect to lower construction changes by 5%.