Description:
There are numerous benefits afforded to using 3D digital design data in highway construction. These include: the ability to identify and resolve constructability challenges prior to mobilization, more accurate estimation and better control of pavement material quantities through Automated Machine Guidance (AMG), faster execution of construction with AMG, which has associated efficiency and safety benefits, faster inspection activities using real-time verification with associated safety benefits, and more efficient workflows to measure payment quantities that provide ancillary transparency and repeatability improvements through the collection of 3D data to support the measurements.
The key to these myriad benefits is 3D digital design data, but State Transportation Agencies are challenged to determine the right time to invest in generating that data. While it is possible to generate sufficiently detailed 3D data, and new software tools make it relatively simple to do so, the data are limited by the uncertainty inherent in the original ground survey and subsurface information upon which they are founded. Incomplete and inconsistently implemented data schemas, and a prevalence of different proprietary software and data schemas used by State Transportation Agencies and their contractor partners, are complications that add to the challenge of having 3D digital design data used directly in construction. Avoiding manual data exchange and careful scrutiny to validate exchanged data often leads in practice to deferring investment in 3D data used in construction, and puts the owner’s engineer at a disadvantage–reliant on contractor-generated data that must be carefully reviewed for consistency with the contract plans.
This research explores opportunities to refine processes for generating the 3D digital design data used in construction, identifies priorities for addressing data schema gaps, offers strategies for determining and controlling 3D data quality, and identifies project characteristics that lend themselves toward creating 3D digital design data for use in construction. |
