Abstract Manager

Owners and operators who are responsible for managing, inspecting, and repairing bridge infrastructure are currently faced with an increasingly difficult task.  Bridge inspection can be a tedious, often dangerous, and time-consuming effort. Inspectors need to meticulously survey every inch of the asset, often in high-traffic areas or in hard-to-reach environments. Regardless of these challenges, bridge inspection is a central part of public safety and resilient infrastructure. In some cases, such as the Robert Street Bridge located in St-Paul Minnesota, it even plays a crucial role in maintaining the city’s historical value by preserving its architectural heritage.

The rapid increase of structures that are due for repairs or replacement combined with an expanding network and labor force challenges requires an innovative solution from the industry.  It is imperative that the owner/operators and the consultants they rely on leverage the latest technology to provide more accurate and consistent data in less time. 

As we increase our ability to collect and analyze large amounts of data using unmanned aerial systems (UAS), reality models, artificial intelligence (AI), and Internet of Things (IoT) sensing to create digital twins, we are revolutionizing the way bridges are inspected and managed. Building reality models in a collaborative cloud-based platform introduces the new workflow of pre-inspection, on-site inspection and report delivery which allows:

• Better asset assessment even before starting the inspection job
• Better planning of resources and equipment for the inspection job
• Increased worker efficiency
• Reduced on-site time
• Increased safety for all workers and travelling public
• Data-rich delivery enhanced with insights to stakeholders
• Better decision-making based on more data than previously available.

This presentation covers how Bentley and Collins Engineered collaborated on the Robert Street Bridge Rehabilitation project using UAS, reality data models, AI, and IoT. These technologies enabled a new and improved inspection workflow, to preserve the century-old architectural marvel that is this bridge. We will cover how leveraging the digital twin, we were able to attain:

• 30% reduction in inspection hours which is over $90,000 USD in savings.
• 20% estimated future construction savings which could translate to up to $15M in savings.
• 20% fuel reduction.
• 10% reduction in material production during future construction.
• 1000x increase in the amount of quantifiable data available to decision-makers.