When Daniel O’Connell’s Sons won the construction contract in 2018 for the $122-million York Street Pump Station and Connecticut River Crossing project in Springfield, Mass., the owner’s designer, Kleinfelder, suggested pipe jacking to launch three new wastewater conveyance pipelines at the pump station that would run under a railroad and flood wall before crossing the river and passing through a levee to the Springfield Water & Sewer Commission treatment facility in Agawam, Mass.
Chris Andrews has been working with computer-aided drafting and geographic information systems data nearly as long as they’ve been used in construction, “including mapping indoor facilities on the web, starting from work in startups in the late 90’s,” he says.
As was the case with BIM nearly 20 years ago, digital twins are now reshaping the built world in terms of how infrastructure is designed, constructed, and operated.
Digital twins are often touted because of their use for owners and facilities managers, but what about a digital twin for contractors that documents the ever-changing work site?
This article looks at the opportunities presented by delivering the full asset lifecycle business model, the transformative digital journey required, and the enterprise software capabilities firms must embrace to be able to compete.
The latest revision of the popular BIM design software Archicad includes improved rendering options and expanded asset libraries for designers and architects.