Bentley CTO talks up recent projects that changed the infrastructure industry.
Bentley has sponsored this post.
The infrastructure industry has no shortage of engineering challenges. As we move closer to the midpoint of this decade, resources, workforces and supply chains are all strained to their limits. Nonetheless, aging assets and growing populations are producing demand and investment into infrastructure — causing a backlog. Meanwhile, new projects are becoming more complex and are taking longer to complete as societal expectations shift towards smarter, greener, optimized and even AI-connected structures.
Julien Moutte, chief technology officer at Bentley Systems, explains that engineering firms can overcome many of the current engineering challenges and gaps by gaining what he calls “infrastructure intelligence” — the capability to leverage data from engineering technology, information technology and operations technology (ET, IT and OT) to improve project delivery and asset performance. “Increasing infrastructure intelligence starts with data. By unlocking data from silos, sharing it with all teams and leveraging it into daily workflows, organizations can gain infrastructure intelligence. Additionally, data can be reused in multiple projects by creating libraries of pre-made components or generating components automatically with artificial intelligence. Data is the foundation on which digital twins can be constructed.”
A digital twin is a model and/or collection of information that is continuously updated to correspond with a real-world asset. The data is integrated into one platform, accessible throughout an asset’s lifecycle and updated automatically. This smarter infrastructure framework helps stakeholders optimize projects for resources, workforce, supply chain, maintenance, operations, future proofing, energy usage, water usage and much more.
Moutte notes that Bentley has worked with industry leaders that are ahead of the curve and reaping the benefits of digital twins. Many are breaking down silos by creating digital twins that span an asset’s lifecycle. Here are three infrastructure examples he was able to share.
California automates its second largest dam for safety monitoring
California’s New Bullards Bar Dam, operated by the Yuba River Development project, sought to modernize its dam monitoring system by collecting continuous, real-time operational data.
Since the dam is located in an isolated area that experiences frequent earthquakes and inclement weather, assessing the dam’s health is a high priority to maximize safety, power generation, water supply, fishing and more. However, the current costs and risks to collect this data were unsustainable.
The dam holds back 1.19 cubic kilometers of water, forming the New Bullards Bar reservoir. So, if the structure were to fail, it could be highly dangerous to several local communities and wildlife downstream. This means dam operators needed an easy, automated, affordable and safe method to assess the dam.
Yuba Water worked with Niricson to capture a 3D reality mesh from thousands of drone-captured images and process it in Bentley’s iTwin Capture. Yuba then uploaded the photorealistic model to Bentley’s cloud-based iTwin IoT platform, where the model was associated with the monitoring devices to visualize the sensor data in real time.
Collecting this data wasn’t enough; dam operators also wanted the data to be accessible and processed into useful information. The best method to do this was with digital twin technology. The digital twin enables users to visualize, analyze and gain automated decision support with thorough dashboards and reporting on structural integrity and reliability of the dam.
Moutte added, “iTwin IoT incorporates sensor data within the model so that Yuba Water can view the sensor locations within the geospatial context of the dam, determine if they have reached any alert thresholds and monitor deformation and propagation of the dam structure.”
The system now collects 1,000 times more data than previous methods. Using this data, the digital twin can manifest a 3D photorealistic model of the dam, which can be assessed easily and safely.
EchoWater’s wastewater digital twin helps reduce Sacramento’s drought
Digital twins don’t just improve inspection projects, they can also be a big help when it comes to construction. For example, the Sacramento Regional Waste Treatment Plant, operated by Sacramento Regional County Sanitation used a digital twin to upgrade their facility on time and $400 million under budget.
Project Control Cubed managed the ten-year project’s planning, scheduling and cost. It was also the company’s idea to use Bentley’s SYNCRO to simulate construction, ensure safety and improve efficiency throughout the project. The digital twin was built using iTwin Technology to synchronize the changes to the physical site with the digital model. This helped to optimize situational awareness and decision making.
“Enhanced situational and logistics awareness provided by SYNCHRO’s digital twin created actionable intelligence that reduced cost and risk early in the design phase. Compared to previous projects, the quality and timing of the baseline schedule review and acceptance vastly improved, taking weeks instead of months. The digital twin streamlined contractor and stakeholder coordination and optimized construction sequencing, reducing overall program costs by USD 400 million.”
This information was essential to synchronize the 22 projects running on the site simultaneously. In the end, dozens of concrete structures, pump stations and electrical stations were made. This took 40,000 tons of steel and 225,000 cubic yards of concrete. To continuously optimize construction and anticipate issues, production and supply chains were simulated and choreographed through the digital twin.
Because everyone, from designers to contractors, could access the twin at any time, data siloes, and handoffs were eliminated. This also contributed to stakeholders finding issues earlier in development. This enabled Project Control Cubed to avoid and mitigate obstacles and shutdowns, saving time and money.
Traffic to mountain resorts reduced along the I-70 using visualized data
Digital twins can also be used to optimize infrastructure during the design phase — as was done for Colorado’s I-70. The highway connects many popular resorts and acts as a major east-west artery for the trucking industry. This has led to the route becoming congested and dangerous at various locations.
To address this, the Colorado Department of Transportation hired AtkinsRéalis to engineer and design a $700 million project to address I-70’s bottlenecks, access, safety and environmental impact.
The mountainous topography, tight corners and waterways presented considerable design challenges for AtkinsRéalis. However, using digital twin technology, they were able to design a new tolled express lane, auxiliary lane and frontage-road (for emergency response). Bentley’s ProjectWise technology was used as a common data environment for all stakeholders, eliminating data silos and simplifying communications. The digital twin itself was built using iTwin; geometries were made in Bentley’s Open applications—OpenRoads and OpenBridge.
The digital twin also included 3D models which made it easier for stakeholders to intuitively understand how the highway would look in the 3D world. LumenRT was used to produce 360-degree static and video visualizations, which were key to getting the public onboard.
“The community is often a key stakeholder group,” says Moutte. “By showing realistic 3D models, stakeholders can easily visualize the designs, which reduce the overall risk of the project.”
Overall, the digital twin saved 97% of the effort needed to share data on the I-70 redesign. This reduced work hours by a total of 50,000 and saved a total of $7 million. As the project is set to finish in 2028, AtkinsRéalis and the Colorado Department of Transportation can expect to see more savings throughout the project’s lifecycle.
Open, scalable digital twins are the future of infrastructure
Digital twins connect the virtual with the real world through multiple data sources like scans, photogrammetry, lidar, IoT sensors and various software or engineering platforms. But Moutte believes that we are only just scratching the surface benefits of digital twins. Soon we will be able to extract much more data by leveraging open standards and interoperability, where users can integrate external data sources, third-party tools and their own analytics directly into a digital twin.
“We believe open data ecosystems allows data to flow freely, tools to be combined for more thorough analysis, and reusability, and allows infrastructure teams to work more efficiently, make more informed decisions and ensure long-term value.”
Bentley believes an open, scalable digital twin platform that ingests and integrates data from various sources and disciplines will enable infrastructure professionals to make more informed decisions at every stage of the asset lifecycle—from design and construction to operation and maintenance. This open approach drives innovation, fosters collaboration and enables users to break down data silos, leading to more efficient project delivery and improved infrastructure performance.
Digital twins are an important tool in the future of the infrastructure industry. To learn more, visit Bentley’s website here.
