Project
A USD 35 million highway and railway intersection redevelopment project in Aventura, Miami-Dade County, Florida consists of removing an at-grade railroad crossing and constructing a new 355-foot-long pedestrian bridge, widening an existing bridge, and constructing two new ramp bridges of 592 feet and 600 feet. AECOM was tasked with the initial planning phase to evaluate various concepts to determine a preferred design and was ultimately responsible for providing a final engineering design. The project team was faced with proposing a highway design that would reroute foot traffic and road access within tight property limits. AECOM also needed to minimize the environmental impact on nearby water drains and wetlands caused by idling vehicles waiting for trains to cross.
Solution
AECOM implemented civil infrastructure information modeling (CIIM), which helped the project team visualize potential designs and measure the performance of features including sight lines and vehicular clearances. Once the team selected the final design, it streamlined the creation of cross-sections and simplified areas with complex grading. The team was then able to quickly evaluate the proposed structure, drainage, and road footprints, as well as adjust dimensions and details to avoid environmental damage. To collaborate effectively across the multidiscipline and distributed project team, AECOM established an open, connected data environment to allow each team member to access the latest data.
Outcome
The connected data environment allowed AECOM to significantly increase efficiency on the project and save 610 resource hours through improved coordination among contributors throughout the state. Using CIIM advancements to create a 3D model, the project team could visualize the proposed roadways and ramps, which helped reduce errors and lower design time to save an additional 430 resource hours. Moreover, AECOM used the CIIM model to find a solution that minimized traffic disruption during construction and ensured that cranes would not block passing trains, all while visualizing the design to inform the public how the design would impact traffic.
Software
AECOM’s civil infrastructure information modeling team, which is leading the company’s going digital efforts, used OpenRoads to evaluate engineering constraints, such as sight lines and turning paths, and OpenBridge and LumenRT to visualize the proposed structure footprints and reduce the project’s impact on nearby structures, wetlands, and sensitive areas. ProjectWise was used to streamline the submission process and allow remote designers to develop and evaluate the plans in real time. Lastly, AECOM visualized the project with OpenRoads ConceptStation and ContextCapture to illustrate the design to community stakeholders.
