OpenBridge Designer
Unifying bridge engineers, railway engineers, and contractors from the outset of a civil project.
The civil industry plays a key role in keeping our world moving and is crucial to the development of sustainable mobility and our long-term economic growth. However, designing, building, and maintaining civil infrastructure is a complex process. Between working within constrained budgets and timelines, multiple stakeholders, and managing the huge volumes of data created, it is no wonder that design managers are under increased pressure to deliver. Civil designers need a seamless tool set to go from planning to design to optimization to documentation to construction, supporting BIM processes that streamline design and collaboration, ensure effective project delivery, and enable informed decision-making during operation.
Bentley applications allow project teams to effectively collaborate with multiple disciplines and external partners. By identifying issues from the outset, project lag can be minimized, and costly on-site change orders avoided. The ability to continuously share, reuse, and repurpose data across multiple disciplines and locations is critical to the project’s success. Using a digital twin, OpenBridge provides a sustainable platform for ongoing health monitoring, maintenance, and asset management. Collaborate with your project team in real time from the beginning of the project and throughout its lifecycle.
Learn more by reading the following real-world examples of global civil engineering projects.
Indian Railways - Chenab Bridge (India)
Amid rugged and mountainous terrain in a highly active seismic zone, the Chenab Bridge is an under-construction rail bridge located between Bakkal and Kauri in the Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir, India. Indian Railways’ USD 184 million bridge project will be the world’s highest rail arch bridge at 359 meters above the riverbed with an arch span of 467 meters. Being constructed for a dual carriageway with an overall length of 1,315 meters, the project presented numerous geological and alignment challenges that would affect design and constructability.
Indian Railways developed a reality model using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), providing checks on construction in complex terrain, better planning for project resources, and identifying potential issues. The organization used the reality model for many locations that were difficult to inspect with traditional methods. The 3D reality mesh allowed the organization to manage the site progress and conduct construction inspections, speeding up the process and offering higher quality and more repeatable inspection documentation. Indian Railways could also superimpose the construction alignment drawings with the reality models. By using drones and reality modeling to survey the project site, Indian Railways saved 225 resource days, saving USD 40,000. OpenRail Designer was used to help the team transition the bridge rail alignment from straight to curved. OpenBridge and STAAD helped with the structural behavior and analysis during the planning stages. By using OpenBridge and OpenRail the project team identified potential issues, managed site process, and conducted construction inspections safely and efficiently. These strategies also reduced construction inspection time by 80 percent to save more than USD 100,000. Indian Railways’ reality model will also be part of the bridge asset information system for future projects at the site.
Nagpur Metro Rail Corporation Limited - Maha Metro Rail Corporation Limited (India)
Railway Facility for Manggarai to Jatinegara - PT. WASKITA Karya (Persero) Tbk (Indonesia)
Larsen & Toubro - Western Dedicated Freight Corridor of India, CTP-14 Integrated Package (India)
The second phase of India’s Western Dedicated Freight Corridor is under construction to meet the growing demand for freight services in the states of Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. The project will reduce the unit cost of transportation and quadruple the current average freight speed from 20 kilometers an hour. L&T is constructing Package CTP-14, a 128-kilometer corridor between Rewari to Dadri passing through the regions of Rewari-Alwar-Mewat-Gurgaon-Palwal-Faridabad-GB Nagar. Since the adoption of BIM methodologies in rail in India is still in its infancy, and in light of significant increases in government expenditure in infrastructure, L&T realized its success on the project could be a game changer. Using a multidiscipline portfolio of Bentley applications, L&T was able to conceptualize, design, and construct the project in a timely manner, leveraging BIM methodologies to share information across the different disciplines involved in the design, delivery, and maintenance of physical assets along the railway.
In its work, L&T faced many environmental and technical challenges, including difficult and inaccessible terrain, ground stability concerns in areas of deep cut and high embankments, and optimizing horizontal and vertical alignments to reduce earthworks. In a critical section laying within a sensitive ecological zone of the Aravalli Hills in the northern part of India, the route crosses terrain requiring a vertical alignment with a maximum cut depth of 25 to 30 meters, plus a viaduct and tunnel. L&T explored two route options using OpenRail ConceptStation and leveraged reality modeling with ContextCapture using drone surveys to gain a comprehensive appreciation of the surrounding terrain and infrastructure and to visualize the potential challenges it could encounter during construction.
As detail design progressed, the dynamic interface of OpenRail Designer and OpenBridge Designer allowed team members to compare different scenarios to help simplify logistics, reduce cost, and create a safe environment for site personnel during construction. The team were able to reduce costs and optimize its resources – machinery, materials, and manpower – as well as provide a better understanding to stakeholders and achieve greater client satisfaction.
“Bentley software helped L&T achieve its vision of digitalization and implementation of BIM to enable designers, planners, and implementers to use a single repository for the free flow of accurate information and a collaborative way of working through the process of designing, delivering, and maintaining physical assets,” said Nikhil Jose, assistant engineering manager-civil with L&T.
China Railway Shanghai Design Institute Group Co., Ltd. - Chizhou-Huangshan Railway (China)
The Chizhou-Huangshan Railway is a high-speed rail network located amid mountainous terrain in the southern part of the Anhui province in China. The railway includes a 10-kilometer tunnel and cable-stayed bridge. China Railway Shanghai Design Institute undertook preliminary survey and design, involving multiple engineering disciplines. Faced with a sensitive environment and complex geological conditions, the institute initiated a 3D BIM strategy to streamline workflows and optimize design. The project team used MicroStation, OpenBridge Modeler, and OpenRoads Designer to produce 3D digital models of the terrain tunnel and bridge, reducing design time by 20 percent. ProjectWise improved design efficiency among the disciplines by 50 percent. Using an integrated BIM environment, the team estimates a savings of 10 percent in construction costs and 30 percent in operations and maintenance costs.
Managing the infrastructure lifecycle involves many collaborating disciplines where the work is interconnected, with thousands of decisions and changes for material choices, design, aesthetics, structural integrity, safety, and more. To be successful, users must be able to manage all of the data, from conception through construction. Manage this massive infrastructure challenge with design and modeling solutions like OpenBridge and OpenRail, so users are equipped to easily handle constant change.
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Your success goes beyond software. It is also dependent on doing business the way that best serves your organization. That is why we have a variety of subscription and license options as well as 24/7/365 support to ensure you are up and running on your software quickly and continuously.
CALL US TO LEARN MORE: 1 800 236 8539
PARTNERSHIP FOR SUCCESS
Your success goes beyond software. It is also dependent on doing business the way that best serves your organization. That is why we have a variety of subscription and license options as well as 24/7/365 support to ensure you are up and running on your software quickly and continuously.
CALL US TO LEARN MORE: 1 800 236 8539