Águas do Porto (AdP), a major water company in Portugal, is responsible for managing the entire urban water cycle of the city of Porto. This includes water supply, wastewater drainage and treatment, stormwater drainage, surface waters, and coastal water quality. The company serves approximately 500,000 people, delivering an average of 49,450 cubic meters of water daily and collecting the same amount for treatment. The system includes extensive kilometers of wastewater sewers, stormwater drainage pipes, streams, and ocean coast. The hydraulic infrastructure and water resources in Porto had become dense and complex due to a growing number of tourists, with over 1.5 million people visiting Porto in 2017 alone. To improve water system management and system resilience, AdP needed to create models for various systems that incorporate weather forecasts, water supply, sewer flow, and storm drainage rates. These models would consume large amounts of data from sensors throughout the system, including sensors measuring customer water use and billing. AdP gathered all water system data within dozens of siloed software systems. However, finding information and gaining actionable insights became difficult as the volume of data increased. To manage the growing number of systems and data sources and provide reliable service to its customers, AdP decided that establishing an integrated management system was paramount for handling the entire urban water cycle effectively.

Pestech International Berhad, a company specializing in the manufacture and installation of high-voltage substations, transmission lines, and equipment for utility companies in Asia, was awarded a contract to expand substations at Olak Lempit in Banting, Malaysia. The project aimed to meet the increased power demand in the rapidly growing area. However, the project team faced several challenges. Accessing the site without disrupting neighboring villages and plantations was a significant issue. The team also had to coordinate with another main contractor to deliver a separate section to the substation bays and utilize existing cable trays, ladders, and underground trenches laid by the other contractor from the existing control building. Working within a tight timeline and with a limited budget, Pestech International needed to coordinate its labor resources with other projects on which the organization was simultaneously working. Lastly, the traditional CAD-centric design process was slowing down the design progress and preventing collaboration, leading to countless hours spent manually translating drawings for consistency, finding errors, managing changes across multiple drawings, and creating reports.

The San Francisco-based Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) owns and operates over 1,000 transmission and distribution substations across two-thirds of California. The Substation Engineering Department was struggling to keep up with the volume of projects due to the push to modernize the electric grid. About 95% of the utility’s USD 1 billion substation budget goes to brownfield locations, where existing infrastructure is primarily documented by 2D drawings. The practice of manually converting 2D drawings to 3D models for use on retrofit projects was time-consuming and inaccurate. The laborious process started with the engineers taking the existing 2D drawings of the facilities and filling in information gaps with field measurements. After about 120 hours of manual effort, the resulting models were frequently inaccurate due to errors in the legacy documentation and because the engineers were unable to go on-site to measure energized equipment.

Grupo Especializado en Obras Marinas (GEOMSA), a major developer of pipe-soil systems in the Gulf of Mexico, was tasked with assessing pipeline integrity under various conditions in the clay soil trenches of an underwater pipeline system. The project's objective was to increase domestic oil production in the surrounding region. The team needed to determine how the new pipeline system would react to expansion and lateral deformation considering the route's horizontal curves, the varying widths of the trench, the number of ocean floor levels above the pipeline, and how the pipeline would interact with the clay soil environment in which it was being placed. They also had to determine a logical and reliable behavior of the pipeline by simulating it inside the trench considering variables such as temperature, lateral deformations, and system stress.

PT MRT Jakarta was tasked with the construction, operations, and maintenance of Jakarta's first mass rapid transit system, aimed at reducing traffic congestion and carbon emissions in the densely populated city. The project, which was initiated by the provincial government, was set to add 5.7 kilometers of track and seven underground stations to the existing public transport infrastructure. However, the project faced significant technical difficulties due to its location in a congested urban environment, a national heritage site, and a canal. The challenges were further compounded by multiple contract packages, a large number of deliverables, and the need for coordination during the COVID-19 pandemic. The initial phase of the project was postponed due to the pandemic, and PT MRT Jakarta was asked to accelerate the schedule, ensuring no delays caused by data inaccuracies, inconsistencies in design reviews, or miscommunication. Previous attempts at manually coordinating contractors and implementing various document management systems proved time-consuming and inefficient, resulting in information silos.

The state government of Uttar Pradesh, India, initiated a project to develop a piped water system to ensure equal distribution of treated water to all 128 villages in the Marihan Block in Mirzapur. The project was aimed at improving the quality of life for the 300,000 residents and the many visitors to the significant Hindu temple, Vindhyachal Dham. ATLC Infraconsultants Pvt. Ltd. was contracted to design the project, which needed to continue operations and accommodate population growth through at least 2053, as well as meet state regulations. The project required augmenting the existing water treatment plant, a new pumping station at the water treatment plant, four additional water pumping stations, and 12 service reservoirs, as well as the many kilometers of transmission and distribution mains and house connections with water meters. The design team faced challenges in obtaining a comprehensive view of the undulating topography, which varied in height by as much as 140 meters, and providing alternate route alignment suggestions. They also struggled to analyze the effects of design changes on water pressure and meet the required 90-day deadline with the older tools they were using.

Sainsbury’s, one of the UK’s largest retailers, faced a significant challenge in managing its vast and complex estate. The company had thousands of 2D drawings of over 300 petrol stations, nearly 800 convenience stores, and over 600 supermarkets. The goal was to enable Sainsbury’s to make the best use of these 2D assets to answer basic questions about their properties. Previously, this would have involved opening every drawing individually to find the necessary information. This process was not only time-consuming but also inefficient. Furthermore, with the brand’s growth and increasing development of existing stores, some store projects required up to twelve interventions a year, often involving costly surveys for each store. The retail industry's shift towards focusing on existing estates rather than building new ones added to the complexity. Sainsbury’s needed a 'single source of truth' to manage their historical data, which was kept in different places and formats.

The Al Ain City Municipality in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, was facing a significant challenge with the theft of iron-covered gully covers used for draining rainwater. These covers, some of which were installed as far back as the 1960s, were being stolen and sold to recycling centers. The city needed to replace these covers as part of an AED 10 million project. The new covers needed to be made of a material that was not as easy to recycle to prevent further theft. They also needed to comply with BS EN 124 standards for load and deflection, and safely withstand a minimum loading bearing capacity of 25 tons. The covers also had to be less than 5 centimeters thick, weigh less than the previous ones, and withstand the harsh, extremely hot and dry climate of the region, along with near-constant direct sunlight and harsh UV light.

In 2014, the Malaysian government announced a plan to develop and upgrade the two-lane trunk road across Sarawak, Malaysia's largest state, to accelerate socioeconomic growth in East Malaysia. The new toll-free expressway, named the Pan Borneo Highway, stretches 1,060 kilometers through undulating, rainforest terrain and protected reserves. The development of phase one of the MYR 16.15 billion government-funded roadway initiative involved constructing a four-lane dual carriageway over a length of 786 kilometers. Lebuhraya Borneo Utara (LBU) was the project delivery partner on this project, facilitating lifecycle digitalization to meet strictly imposed government requirements. LBU initiated BIM workflows for the first time on a Malaysian road and highway project, using ProjectWise to create an open, connected data environment to support the implementation and integration of BIM, GIS, and reality modeling processes. The challenge was to develop a sustainable asset management solution that would meet the government's objectives and set a benchmark for government road projects.

Sterlite Power Transmission Limited was tasked with the NER-II Transmission Limited Project, a INR 1.95 billion renewable energy initiative aimed at serving over 30 million residents in India's most remote areas. The project involved developing transmission lines spanning 448 kilometers and constructing a 400-kilovolt/132 kilovolt substation in the state of Tripura. The substation was critical for delivering power to Tripura and needed to be completed quickly. However, the project faced several challenges. The geographical and environmental conditions were complex, with the project site located at the foothills of the Himalayas amid dense forest subject to heavy rains and flooding. The tight timeline and resistance from the indigenous population added to the complexity. Sterlite Power's traditional 2D design methods for substation planning had minimal data-sharing potential and did not support the design team's needs for detecting potential clearance problems between electrical components and support structures. Their conventional software had limited capability in terms of managing interdependencies and linking design, planning, and construction works. These inefficiencies posed enormous risks in the substation timeline, prolonging inspection, stakeholder approval, and handovers.

Atkins, a multinational engineering and consulting services company, faced a significant challenge in managing geotechnical data across its diverse projects. The geotechnical team at Atkins used multiple technologies and applications that needed to work in harmony. The company needed to provide timely, detailed, and engaging analysis and deliverables to its clients, making geotechnical technology and data integration, as well as proper project workflows, crucial for efficiency and quality of service. To assess ground conditions, Atkins used Bentley’s OpenGround Cloud and established a detailed geographic information system using QGIS or ArcGIS. However, the process of manually exporting the geotechnical project data from OpenGround Cloud and importing it into QGIS or ArcGIS in the form of multiple CSV files was time-consuming and prone to errors.

Keystone Engineering was tasked with designing jacket-type substructures for five, 6-megawatt wind turbine generators for the USD 290 million Block Island Wind Farm. The challenge was to optimize the design to mitigate risk, minimize steel weight, and reduce fabrication and installation costs. The design needed to account for the complex aerodynamic and hydrodynamic loading, including extreme loading situations such as turbine control faults and hurricane-force winds. The team had to calculate the loads, model the fatigue performance, and engineer the platforms to withstand various load combinations over a 20-year design life. The project aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of offshore wind as an alternative energy resource for U.S. coastal cities.

SMRT Trains, the first rail operator in Singapore, operates and maintains over 282 kilometers of rail track. With an average daily ridership of over 2 million people in 2020, SMRT needed a method to keep the tracks in good condition to avoid delays and ensure reliability. They measure the system’s reliability using mean kilometers between failure (MKBF), where a failure is defined as a service delay of more than five minutes. To improve their reliability, SMRT set a target of 1 million MKBF for all their lines. However, they were relying on intensive, time-consuming, and manual maintenance planning using tens of millions of data points per year across separate data silos. They needed to upgrade their legacy processes and improve their maintenance strategy.

Sweco, one of Europe’s leading architecture and engineering consultancies, was facing challenges in advancing their project delivery. With offices in over 14 countries and projects in over 70 countries, they were looking to transition to digital workflows to improve their infrastructure. They aimed to implement a connected, digitalized approach across their global projects, enforce consistent standards and workflows, and shift to data-driven management processes. However, traditional methods of project information management, collaboration, and decision-making were proving insufficient. These methods were time-consuming, labor-intensive, and error-prone, with unstructured data housed in multiple locations, leading to dispersed and duplicated information. Sweco needed a solution that would encourage collaboration and manage their information in a centralized, up-to-date data model, ensuring adherence to BIM standards and best-practice workflows.

TYPSA Group, a Spanish engineering consultant firm, has been assisting global clients in delivering complex infrastructure projects for over 50 years. Despite leveraging BIM workflows since 2008, these were mostly applied to smaller projects. As an organization operating across five continents, TYPSA Group recognized the need to adhere to the highest technical, sustainability, and integrity standards across all their projects. The challenge was to expand and systematize their use of BIM methodologies to demonstrate their competency and secure more contracts. To prove their commitment to BIM workflows and digital transformation, TYPSA Group aimed to receive an ISO 19650 certification. However, they needed a reliable way to ensure that all their BIM workflows were managed at the level that this certification required, and to scale this management to accommodate their array of complex, global projects. Their existing file-share platforms were not fully meeting their needs, as they faced difficulties implementing BIM standards and adhering to best practice workflows.

WSP, a global management and consultancy services company, was tasked with designing and constructing the 50-story Principal Tower in London, a project valued at GBP 200 million. The challenge was to build this tower on a small footprint, adjacent to the city's financial district and the third-busiest train station in the country, Liverpool Street station. The design had to ensure that construction did not interfere with rail operations or damage the Victorian-era masonry tunnels. The tower's design also had to accommodate a six-track railway and a protected corridor for future development of two additional tracks. The project required a design that would not only fit into the limited space but also meet the owner's aesthetic and logistic specifications. Furthermore, the design had to account for frequent vibrations caused by the railway and minimize soil displacement.

La Société Wallonne des Eaux (SWDE), a regional water corporation in Belgium, faced a significant challenge in maintaining its aging water towers. Some of the structures were very old, and the data on them was either inaccurate or unavailable. The SWDE tower in Juprelle, built in 1981, was deteriorating and in need of repair. The tower's concrete structure caused condensation on the interior walls, leading to significant degradation over time, including burst joints, cracks, and the separation of edifice bricks. Traditional manual surveying methods, such as ground-level photography or using elevators to lift workers onto the tank, were inefficient and incomplete. SWDE attempted to use drones to survey the damage, but the drone footage still required human interpretation, which came with a significant risk of error. Small cracks could easily be overlooked, which could lead to long-term deterioration and compromise the reliability and safety of the water network.

MCC Capital Engineering & Research Incorporation was tasked with the design, procurement, and construction of a large-scale, multidisciplinary manufacturing facility in China’s Leting Economic Development Zone in Tangshan. The project, which covered 534 hectares, included 42 plants and a 26-kilometer roadway. The aim was to create an advanced, green, and intelligent modern factory with an annual output of more than 7 million tons of iron and steel. The project was complex, involving multiple disciplines in various locations, presenting coordination, technical, and engineering challenges. Traditional design methods were inadequate due to site constraints and strict timelines. The enormity of the project scale and complicated process system made it challenging to determine the general plant layout and avoid collisions and errors among the different specialties during the design stage. MCC faced communication and data sharing difficulties and needed collaborative BIM technology in a connected data environment to generate a digital twin deliverable for lifecycle asset management.

The Chaoyang underground pumping station project was designed to pressurize and transfer water to purification plants, improving water supply to 1.5 million residents in China’s Liaoning province. The water would then be distributed throughout the region at a maximum capacity of 440,800 tons per day to help alleviate the water shortage for industrial and agricultural production, the ecological environment, and domestic use. The project, worth CNY 82 million, was expected to promote sustainable economic, social, and environmental development. Liaoning Water Conservancy and Hydropower Survey and Design Research Institute served as the design unit for the project, which featured numerous aboveground and underground structures, including a power plant buried 75 meters underground, a water supply tunnel, a substation, nine pumps, and aboveground management infrastructure. They faced technical, engineering, and coordination challenges managing 13 different disciplines amid a tight timeline. The project area was narrow and presented complicated geological conditions, compounded by the underground plant requiring connection to the power distribution room in the aboveground management zone.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (Air District) was established in 1955 as the first regional air pollution control agency in the United States. Despite significant improvements in regional air quality since its inception, some communities in the San Francisco Bay Area still experience higher pollution levels due to their proximity to pollution sources such as freeways, busy distribution centers, and large industrial facilities. In 2017, the California State Assembly passed Assembly Bill 617 (AB617) to reduce exposures in communities most impacted by air pollution. West Oakland was selected as the first community to be evaluated under AB617 due to its proximity to surrounding freeways, the Port of Oakland, major railyards, and heavy industries. The Air District, in partnership with local environmental justice advocates, community members, industry representatives, and other stakeholders, formed a Steering Committee to develop a community emission reduction plan, referred to as the West Oakland Action Plan. The goal of this action plan was to reduce the health effects of air pollution in West Oakland through adoption of targeted mitigation strategies.

Águas do Porto (AdP), the water utility responsible for the integrated management of the entire urban water cycle of the city of Oporto, Portugal, faced challenges due to the density and complexity of the hydraulic infrastructure and water resources. The need for integrated management of the urban water cycle was paramount, but integrating the vast number of existing systems throughout the company was a significant challenge. The data gathered simultaneously from a wide range of systems and sources, spread over dozens of individual software systems, needed to be integrated into a single platform. The main challenge in the implementation of the system was the city water cycle scale, which required detailed resolution for many models and domains, including meteorology, water supply, sewer, and storm drainage. The city water scale also required the ability to consume large amounts of data from real-time sensors and consumers’ telemetry and billing.

China Railway Engineering Consulting Group (CEC) was tasked with the design and construction consulting for the Beijing-Zhangjiakou high-speed railway, a part of China's national railway construction initiative and a preparation for the 2022 Winter Olympics. The railway, which is the world's first high-speed train with a design speed of 350 kilometers per hour, was to reduce travel time between the two city venues for the Olympic Games from three hours to 50 minutes. The project involved 23 main engineering disciplines and 56 design sections, presenting significant challenges due to its complexity and changing environmental conditions in a high-altitude area. The project also required complicated structural solutions due to surrounding cultural infrastructure. To optimize design, efficiently coordinate the project, and implement effective 3D collaborative design and construction processes, CEC needed integrated digital design applications.

Dockwise, a subsidiary of Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V., was tasked with the installation of the nearly 22,000-metric ton jacket and 30,000-metric ton topsides with deck support frame for the SHWE platform in the Bay of Bengal, Myanmar. This was part of the USD 1.5 billion SHWE field development project. The installation involved one of the largest jackets and one of the heaviest topsides in the world, pushing the limits of the installation barge. The barge's unique bottle shape satisfied the stability and jacket footprint requirements but posed challenges for the mooring arrangement and transportation global strength needs. The short, fat, and heavy jacket also brought challenges to the launch operation. The project was distributed across three office centers in The Netherlands, United States, and China, which posed challenges in data access, accuracy, traceability, and workflow, especially for the final product design drawings.

The Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) faced a significant challenge with the Interstate 10 (I-10) highway, particularly in Mobile, Alabama. The George C. Wallace Tunnel, constructed in 1973 to accommodate 36,000 vehicles per day, was experiencing heavy congestion due to increased traffic volumes, averaging 73,000 vehicles daily and peaking at 100,000 during the tourist season. The tunnel's design, which reduces four lanes to two and includes a hairpin turn that slows traffic to 25 miles per hour, was causing bottlenecks. Additionally, vehicles transporting hazardous materials (HAZMAT) were restricted from using the tunnel, resulting in an hour-long detour. To alleviate these issues, ALDOT proposed a bridge and bayway widening project. The proposed infrastructure design was a six-lane cable-stayed bridge, spanning approximately 2.75 miles with 215 feet of air draft clearance across the Mobile River. The USD 850 million project required approval and buy-in from the Federal Highway Administration (FHA), environmental agencies, local government and businesses, and the community.

WSP was tasked with providing structural solutions for the complex geometry of One Blackfriars Tower, a 50-story mixed-use development in London. The project site had varying depths and remnants of a previously demolished building, which posed significant challenges. The design also had to accommodate 274 apartments within the skyscraper, each with unique layouts and no repetition throughout the building. The team also had to design temporary on-site client facilities and ensure the structural integrity of the asymmetrically shaped tower. The project required a high level of collaboration with architects, clients, and contractors to deliver an elegant super-structure with spectacular views of London.

PT. Wijaya Karya (WIKA), an Indonesia-based construction company, was tasked with designing the Design and Build Harbour Road 2 Project in North Jakarta, Indonesia. The project, budgeted at USD 530 million, involved the construction of an 8.95-kilometer toll road, including a 3.95-kilometer double-decker bridge along the Ancol River, the longest of its kind in the world. The project was crucial to improve transportation and the economy in North Jakarta, and was expected to accommodate 63,500 vehicles per day, cutting travel time between Ancol and Pluit in half. However, WIKA faced several challenges. Traditional 2D design methods were inadequate for such a large and complex project. The project also had to be completed before the start of the FIFA 2021 U-20 World Cup, held at the nearby Jakarta International Stadium. Furthermore, the Indonesian government mandated that the project should avoid placing piers in the water to protect the ecosystem and existing river traffic, and also avoid underground gas pipelines, water pipes, fiber optic cables, and buildings.

DPR Construction was tasked with upgrading a drug production plant in Durham, North Carolina, for a leading neuroscience research and development company. The $32 million project aimed to increase the manufacturing capacity of an innovative Alzheimer’s disease therapy drug. The upgrade required a three-month plant shutdown and involved complex construction work, including the installation of over 7,000 linear feet of stainless-steel piping, 11 miles of new power and data cabling, and over 40 tons of steel platform work. The project also required the removal of existing equipment to make space for larger vessels and new skids. DPR faced significant pressure to keep the project on schedule to meet the client’s commissioning timeline and resume operations as quickly as possible. The company also faced challenges in integrating new and existing assets within the confined space of the plant. The client had frequently modified their 20-year-old drug plant, making it difficult to locate assets. DPR needed a digital solution that could provide a quantitative, visual representation of asset tracking and construction monitoring.

Highways England, a company owned by the Secretary of State for Transport in the United Kingdom, is responsible for operating and maintaining the motorways and major “trunk” A-roads that make up England’s Strategic Road Network (SRN). The SRN spans 4,300 miles of roadways and includes various structures such as bridges, tunnels, drainage systems and technology assets. Despite representing only 2 percent of the total road length in England, it carries around one third of all motor vehicle traffic and two thirds of all road freight in England, amounting to over 4 million vehicles per day. Managing road closures across the SRN costs the government GBP 140.4 million every year. Highways England sought to reduce costs, maintain the key performance indicator of at least 97 percent lane availability at all times, and manage the closures more effectively and expediently. The organization aimed to reduce 3,600 lane closures each year, potentially saving around GBP 7 million per year.

The Shaoxing Urban Rail Transit Line 1, the largest infrastructure project in the history of Shaoxing, China, was a complex undertaking due to its confined sub-surface envelope and complex hydrogeological conditions. The CNY 24 billion railway project was mainly underground, requiring the design to pass through a confined sub-surface envelope with the potential for leakage within foundation pits during construction. The project also had to integrate with existing infrastructure assets to serve commuter passengers within the city and connect with the city of Hangzhou along the Hangzhou-Shaoxing inter-city line. The railway passes through Shaoxing’s old town, which features narrow roads with large traffic flows, river courses, 26 bridges, two railways, and cultural and historical protection zones, making planning and traffic organization difficult. These challenges were compounded by issues with integrating the numerous technical interfaces used by the multiple design and construction disciplines, as well as the governmental departments in Shaoxing and Hangzhou.

Global consulting engineering firm Hatch Mott MacDonald was using a conventional CAD-based system to design rail signal systems for its clients worldwide. However, this approach had significant limitations in an industry where building information modeling (BIM) and its processes and standards are becoming critical success factors. Traditional methods meant designs lacked intelligence or connections to related documents, including bills of material (BOM). Designers had no way to model their work in 3D or collaborate on designs, which slowed down projects and made adherence to required standards a challenge. The firm's in-house design workflow, while trusted and proven, was manual, time-consuming, and tedious, with no automated controls to ensure the latest versions of CAD elements were used. Design checking involved significant manual effort, everyone worked sequentially, and there was little collaboration.