New 3D Information Modeling Tools Speed Road Rehab Work Funded by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

CHARLOTTE, N.C: Bentley Systems, Incorporated today announced the availability by year’s end of new 3D information modeling tools for road rehabilitation work in its InRoads, GEOPAK, and MXROAD V8i (SELECTseries 1) products. The innovative tools are included in the software’s Roadway Designer 3D parametric modeling capabilities, which allow interactive design and review in a synchronized viewing environment.

Unveiled at the recent International Highway Engineering Exchange Program Conference, the enhanced Roadway Designer empowers engineers to quickly and cost-effectively respond to road rehabilitation projects funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). These projects, as reported in the Aug. 12, 2009, issue of Engineering News-Record, represent approximately 75 percent of the $16.8 billion in ARRA highway funding that had been obligated as of July 17.

Engineering teams doing road and bridge rehabilitation work can use the new capabilities in Roadway Designer to facilitate on-time, on-budget project delivery. Moreover, because the new tools are well suited for projects relying on the newest construction technologies, teams can take advantage of the workflow efficiencies they provide even when deploying innovative techniques such as automated machine guidance.

Ron Gant, Bentley global marketing director, said, “These new information modeling tools further expand Bentley’s broad range of solutions and products for sustaining transportation infrastructure, which address the entire design-build-operate lifecycle. The many advantages our civil engineering software affords today’s project teams include the ability to extensively reuse design data during construction, to work efficiently and collaboratively, and to interface with equipment employing automated machine control.”

Gant continued, “These advantages reduce construction-site costs, as well as costs due to engineering change orders, speed time to construction, and increase profitability. Moreover, they enable project teams to deliver intelligent infrastructure that, in terms of quality, safety, energy, lifecycle costing, and operational efficiency, is better performing and more sustainable.”

The new capabilities in Roadway Designer underscore Bentley’s long-standing commitment to provide users a recurring stream of development enhancements further supporting complete and intelligent 3D models. Specifically, new overlay tools provide smart modeling, which takes into account existing 3D survey data, maximum/minimum overlay specifications, and cross slope or superelevation design requirements, while reducing expensive grinding requirements – to create optimized resurfacing, widening, or rehabilitation projects. The end result is a complete model that utilizes existing design and maintenance information.

Additional enhancements in the SELECTseries 1 updates include innovative data acquisition, geometry, visualization, and clash detection capabilities. The latter is facilitated by Bentley’s newly introduced i-model, a container for open infrastructure information exchange. A key characteristic of an i-model is “provenance”: knowledge of its origin and evolution – its change management history. More details about the many value additions to Bentley’s civil engineering SELECTseries 1 products will be forthcoming with the release of the software later this year.

Professional training on the tools in InRoads and GEOPAK V8i (SELECTseries 1) noted above is being offered this week at the 2009 Bentley Roads and Bridges Conference.