Interview Questions for Cyndee Hoagland, Trimble's Senior Vice President
In the realm of infrastructure development, a digital revolution is underway, transforming the way we approach highway improvement projects. This transformation is particularly evident in Minnesota, where the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) has embraced the use of digital twins in a groundbreaking $158 million project to enhance a three-mile stretch of Highway 169 in Elk River.
The project, the first of its kind in the state, utilizes a 3D digital, paperless model, a practice made possible by Trimble, an industrial technology company that creates digital twins for various industries, including construction, agriculture, transportation, and geospatial.
The EDC-6 program, a federal initiative, promotes the use of "Digital As-builts" and identifies digital data, such as 3D models, as beneficial to building road projects. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) further supports this digital shift, providing funding for advanced digital construction management systems and related technologies, enabling Departments of Transportation (DOTs) and other government agencies to accelerate the adoption of digital design and construction technologies.
The Advanced Digital Construction Management Systems (ADCMS) grant program, funded at $20 million per year for a total of $100 million over five years through the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), aims to maximize interoperability, boost productivity, manage complexity, reduce project delays and cost overruns, and enhance safety and quality.
Digital twin technology, at the heart of this transformation, creates detailed virtual models of physical assets like roads, bridges, and tunnels that behave like their real-world counterparts. These digital twins integrate real-time sensor data, inspection reports, and geographic information to provide a comprehensive view of infrastructure conditions.
One of the key benefits of digital twins is their ability to monitor asset health and maintenance scheduling. By detecting surface degradation, load strains, and maintenance risks early, teams can prioritize repairs and reduce traffic disruptions, leading to safer roads and longer asset life.
Another advantage is optimizing construction and improvement projects. Digital twins enable the simulation of multiple "what-if" scenarios to identify inefficiencies, reduce delays, and control costs, improving project outcomes by anticipating potential challenges before they occur.
Digital twins also enhance urban planning and traffic management by offering end-to-end visibility of traffic patterns and infrastructure use, facilitating real-time decision-making that can optimize traffic flow and reduce congestion during highway upgrades.
In the case of Highway 169, digital twin technology unified the owner-operator and project team efforts, enabling continuous iterations of the design and earlier public notices for relocating underground orders, speeding up the timeline and eliminating any winter work. Construction on the highway is now beginning, and MnDOT will continue to leverage the digital model to ensure that the project is constructed as designed, reducing rework and waste of materials.
The use of digital twins and collaborative digital as-built approaches has also proven to be a cost-effective solution. Leveraging digital data helped identify an estimated $10 million in savings during the planning phase before construction began. Trimble's domain expertise allows it to publish a living digital twin of an asset and deliver a complete Asset Lifecycle Management (ALM) cloud solution to the owner.
The adoption of digital twins and digital as-built technology is not limited to Minnesota. Since the inception of the EveryDay Counts Program, each state has capitalized on 20 or more of the 52 innovations promoted through the program, with some states deploying more than 45 advances.
Cyndee Hoagland, SVP at Trimble, discussed the benefits of digital as-built technology and how it helped improve a highway improvement project in Minnesota. The Dodge Data study "Connected Construction: The Owners' Perspective" reveals that 60% of owners have digital workflows for at least half of their project data within their organization, while only 28% report a similar level of digital data exchange with external companies.
In conclusion, digital twins provide a powerful tool for highway improvement projects by enabling continuous monitoring, predictive maintenance, scenario planning, and informed decision-making that increases operational efficiency, safety, and community resilience. As more projects adopt this innovative technology, we can expect to see even more significant benefits in the future.
- In the realm of highway improvement projects, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) is leveraging Trimble's digital twin technology, a practice enabled by industrial technology companies like Trimble, to digitally model a three-mile stretch of Highway 169 in Elk River, marking the first state-level application of such technology.
- The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) supports this digital shift by providing funding for advanced digital construction management systems and related technologies, fostering the adoption of digital design and construction technologies among Departments of Transportation (DOTs) and other government agencies.
- Integrating digital twin technology into highway improvement projects offers manifold advantages, such as predicting potential issues before they occur through simulating multiple "what-if" scenarios and enhancing traffic management by providing real-time insight into traffic patterns and infrastructure use.
