Infrastructure

Utah DOT Transforms Construction with Digital Delivery

By Terry Bills

The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT), a leader in digital construction, is going completely paperless for the infrastructure projects it constructs, including highways, bridges, express lanes, and paved trails.

Over ten years and many pilot projects, UDOT provided digital design files as the legal document to contractors with more than 15 projects not cutting sheets, and using only rovers and mobile devices in the field.

The infrastructure world has long fixed on digital construction. It’s the ultimate digital transformation of a complicated multi-step and multi-stakeholder process. Digital delivery replaces paper plans with digital drawings for each construction phase—from planning, preliminary design, design, construction, and ultimately maintenance.

The UDOT Digital Delivery brings together two key infrastructure technologies: geographic information systems (GIS) and building information modeling (BIM). BIM becomes the legal record of the design and sequence each contractor must follow. GIS tightly integrates with BIM to provide the geographic context of what surrounds the project and where construction activities are occurring.

“We’ve had all the details in our BIM models, but when we put it into a paper plan, we lose all that data,” said George Lukes, the state standards and design engineer who leads UDOT’s Digital Delivery of Model Based Design and Construction program.

To keep track of inspection details, some construction inspectors would write notes on their paper plans. But the notes in the margins meant that only one person had the knowledge or knew the status and it led to possible human error in copying that information into daily diary software. The vision at UDOT is to establish a single digital source of reliable, real-time asset information.

“We’ve been pushing toward a digital twin, using digital tools in the field to collect and view data and make sure everyone has access to information,” Lukes said. “We want to make it so you can pick it up and use it faster and easier than the amount of time it would take you to learn how to use paper plans.”

Creating a Digital Twin

As part of a digital twin strategy, teams are compiling information about each project UDOT manages and maintains, and the location and condition of component parts. One of UDOT’s goals is to be able to share real-time conditions and construction status across the entire transportation system.

“Everybody says digital twin, but what they really mean are 3D models,” said Andy Cordes, electronic business project manager at UDOT. “We’re understanding digital twin to mean we have the data about what exists and are able to visualize and share it.”

While much of the digital delivery workflows center on sharing specifics of what will be built, the digital transformation at UDOT also includes a new level of real-time awareness at project sites.

For instance, now when materials are inspected on a UDOT pilot project, inspectors use an app built on GIS technology to record inspection details and automatically make that information available on a map.

“With GIS technology, we have the flexibility to come up with creative solutions for our inspectors to record valuable data,” Cordes said. “We want to make it so data can be collected and shown in near real time in as few apps as possible.”

Sharing when inspections occur has many benefits, including keeping the project flowing and the work happening in the correct sequence. Visibility of inspections also helps eliminate duplicate actions while maintaining a lookout for construction compliance.

When projects span large areas and items construction progress is constantly on the move, knowing where or when an inspection was completed can be a huge time-saver. Access to information in an app also cuts time by removing the need to go to the trailer where the paper plans are kept.

“When crews and contractors get into the field, most have found great benefits in finding information more quickly,” Lukes said.

Achieving an All-Digital Workflow

UDOT had digitized many construction steps in the past but faced some persistent barriers to data flow from design to construction. A series of brainstorming sessions with contractors, vendors, and consultants moved UDOT beyond the pain points.

“The innovation happened because everyone sat down and helped us figure out how to make it work,” Lukes said.

The flexibility of modern software, with low-code or no-code configurations to make purpose-built applications, streamlined some important steps. Other barriers of data flow between toolsets have been solved by having software vendors work together to achieve interoperability.

Another key to making the leap to digital delivery has been a series of grants from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). “We received an AID grant in 2019 and another in 2021 that gave us the resources to bring in consultants to help us structure our workspace,” Lukes said. “We would not have been able to do that internally.”

Recently, UDOT was awarded a $5 million Advanced Digital Construction Management Systems grant from FHWA that will help document and standardize the workflows and data structure. These steps can take UDOT from pilot projects toward full enterprise-wide implementation.

Lasting Value for All Involved

UDOT has found additional value in the way GIS enables managers to compare current projects to past projects. “The geospatial location is great to have for analysis 5 or 10 years down the road to know what materials and approaches worked well and what didn’t,” Cordes said.

Given the ability to improve efficiency and unlock insights from paper files, UDOT stakeholders recognize digital delivery as the preferred future practice.

“Everyone’s heard about digital delivery, but there’s still not a huge percentage of folks that have actually done a project,” Lukes said. “On one of our projects that’s under construction, a contractor approached us and asked to be involved [in the digital process]. They wanted to increase their skills and knowledge and make sure they didn’t get left behind.”

 

Learn how GIS technology strengthens operational efficiency for roads and highway organizations.

 

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