C+S October 2020 Vol. 6 Issue 10 (web)

diversify celebrate change promote educate

SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 beginning

Zweig Group is extremely excited to be able to provide the AEC Industry an eight-week long experience full of thought leaders, next practices and the ultimate source of learning during our Elevate AEC Virtual Experience.

FREE REGISTRATION includes: - ElevateHer Symposium and the 2020 ElevateHer Cohort presentations - Five great keynote speakers by AEC Industry thought leaders - Panel discussions with our top award winners REGISTRATION PRICE: FREE

PREMIUM REGISTRATION includes: EVERYTHING INCLUDED IN THE FREE REGISTRATION PLUS: - Over ten learning sessions on various key issues and industry topics - Access to four Zweig Group seminars (The Principals Acad- emy ($999 value), Elevating Doer-Sellers ($799 value), Lead- ership Skills for AEC Professionals ($499 value), M&A Next ($499 value), Ownership Transition Strategies ($399 value) - Panel discussions with thought leaders and industry peers - Weekly roundtable discussions with industry peers - Live meetings with Q&A and chat functions REGISTRATION PRICE: $1295

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

QUESTIONS? For group discounts or if you have any questions, contact Olivia Thomas at 479-713-0429, othomas@zweiggroup.com or visit zweiggroup.com.

Everything we do is in pursuit of elevating the AEC industry, bringing awareness of the incredible impact that engineers, architects, environmental professionals, survey- ors, planners, landscape architects and related professional service providers have on the world. Empowering organizations with the resources they need to perform better, grow and add jobs, pay better wages and to expand their impact on the community, Zweig Group exists to advance the profession.

CONTENTS

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THE COVER New Era of BIM Lifecycle Implementation - Part 3 – story on page 10 CHANNELS ENVIRONMENTAL + SUSTAINABILITY 15 Innovative Design of Sludge Drying Beds Using 3D Cellular Confinement STRUCTURES + BUILDINGS 16 Avoiding Costly, and Potentially Deadly, Shortcuts in Netting System Selection 18 The Benefits of Prefabrication in a COVID-19 World 20 Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project 24 Monumental Technology 25 Grand Avenue Bridge in Des Moines TRANSPORTATION + INFRASTRUCTURE 27 Revitalizing a Century-Old Gateway to the Midwest 29 Unseen Asset 31 Chengdu Leverages Digital Twins on Complex CNY 1.38 Billion Infrastructure Project 33 Hot Weather Concreting 34 Diverging Diamond Interchanges WATER + STORMWATER 36 “Water is the New Fire” BUSINESS NEWS 37 We Need to Talk About Systemic Racism in Infrastructure 39 Looking Toward the Horizon SOFTWARE + TECH 40 Maine DOT Uses New GPR Technology to Improve Road Pavement Quality and Service Life 43 JPW Leverages Computational Design to Deliver Australia’s Largest Sustainable Commercial Tower 45 What’s A Digital Collaboration Network? 46 Top Benefits of Using LiDAR for Construction Projects 48 Talking Indoor Air Quality with Green Badger CEO Tommy Linstroth SURVEYING 49 Absolute Accuracy in the Alpine

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departments 8 Events

52 Benchmarks 53 Reader Index Columns 5 Quantum Revolution: Adopting Software and Technology and Planning for Future Phil Keil

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VOLUME 6 ISSUE 10 csengineermag.com

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The feature topic of this issue of Civil & Structural Engineer is both timely and important. Most engineering firms in business today are notoriously slow to adopt digital technology and, in fact, most industries have difficulty adapting to technological transformations. Few leaders would disagree with the fact that business today is driven by data and smart algorithms. The problem is the difficulty in which those leaders can predict the impact of such technologies in order to plan for organizational change. It is easier to pursue digital evolution or incrementalism than it is to lead true digital transformation. The focus, in large part, has been on using technology to cut costs, or worse, cut jobs. In fact, the past few recessions have seen a significant increase in labor replacing automation across industries. The challenge therefore is, how do you reimagine what you do for the new era of AI-powered competition? Many firms have begun to shift their culture towards something that should be very intuitive for them. It is a set of principles that has been collectively known as design thinking and reimagining the client experience. Most firms are also beginning to recognize that aggressive integration of digital technologies is critical to remain competitive. Research conducted by Accenture Research shows that the top 10 percent of early adopters of digital technologies have grown at twice the rate of the bottom 25 percent, and that they are using cloud systems over legacy systems to enable adoption. This means there is a lot of opportunity for firms in our industry to differentiate themselves through aggressive investment in advancing their competitive advantage through technology. So, what is your firm doing to access, power, and train the next generation to implement natural language processing tools, quantum computing solutions, and the other advancements? One of the emerging technologies that will arguably have the biggest impact to the industry within the next 10 years, and is simultaneously not being discussed widely, is quantum computing. I’ll put aside my traumatic flashbacks from when I took quantum physics for my undergraduate physics degree, because, well, this is important. Quantum physics has already changed our lives by way of advancements such as the laser and transistor. The recent progress has put us on the brink of a second quantum revolution. This one in particular is within quantum computing and communication. Current estimates predict the quantum computing market will surpass the $65 billion mark by 2030. At the risk of oversimplifying it, quantum computers rely on a fundamental property of quantum particles which can be a powerful resource – uncertainty. While it sounds unnerving at first, it allows for some pretty incredible outcomes. At the level of individual quantum particles, think electrons or photons, it is impossible to determine every property (position and momentum) of the particle at any given moment in time. For Breaking Bad fans, this is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal – a different Heisenberg though. Therefore, in the quantum world we use the language of probability, rather than certainty. Classical computers rely on binary digits (bits) of 0s and 1s, quantum bits (qubits), however, have some likelihood of being a 1 or some likelihood of being a 0 at the same time. The revolutionary idea behind quantum information processing lies precisely in the fuzzy in-between “superposition” of 0 and 1. It provides new, and far more powerful, ways to communicate and process data. To provide some perspective, quantum computers would be able to solve problems that are currently impossible with traditional computers

Quantum Revolution: Adopting Software and Technology and Planning for Future Phil Keil

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or would take them a billion years to solve. Remember IBM’s Deep Blue defeated chess champion, Garry Kasparov in 1997? It had an advantage because it examined 200 million possible moves each second. A quantum machine would be able to calculate 1 trillion moves per second! For math nerds like me, here is a link to another article that dives deeper, but is still accessible. Anyway, the point is, one of the clearest applications is for solving complex optimization tasks and performing fast searches of unsorted data. For those of you in transportation, solutions like “Traffic Signal Optimization on a Square Lattice using the D-Wave Quantum Annealer” research being done at Cornell University. The takeaway then, is that leaders in our space need to develop strategy tools for a shifting landscape. It is time to reinvent the way companies develop strategy due to the defining characteristic of turbulence in today’s business environment. Demographic shifts, technology, regulatory restructuring, environmental pressures, and more have forced us to continually reexamine the competitive landscape. With the increasing rapidity with which this is occurring, the old cadences that firm leaders followed of quarterly or even yearly planning sessions should be dead in favor of a much more fluid and frequent process. Moreover, the traditional strategy tools are static categories and representations (Porter’s five forces, maps, blue ocean thinking) that can only tell us about the past environment in a two-dimensional field. They also assume that an industry is well defined, has a fixed set of competitors, and a fixed set of clients. The variables that are increasingly dynamic are the very ones that these models hold constant. Even some of the more sophisticated tools like game theory deliver mixed results. We must, then, be able to describe and understand the underlying logic and return to the true power of well crafted, purpose driven, mission and vision statements to help guide us. This will be the topic of my next Zweig Letter article. One of the most powerful things that Zweig Group recently did to elevate the industry and address this problem is to form a strategic partnership with OnStrategy to exclusively provide the AEC industry with a proprietary strategy development and management software application as well as process management best practices. This enables companies to more easily coordinate and manage implementation, reporting, and updating of strategic planning. Partnering with OnStrategy provides our clients with a better, more effective way to ensure strategy becomes a living and thriving part of the organization. It gives users tremendous capabilities in managing strategy, sharing performance, and creating alignment and accountability. Never before has the strategic plan had the brawn as it does through this app. It not only solves a challenge for our clients but provides a necessary tool to quickly adapt to market shifts and drive a culture of performance. We will be presenting together during Zweig Group’s Annual ElevateAEC

Conference on the topic of “Emerging Shifts Leaders are Making to Adapt Strategy During Market Uncertainty.” My final question to you is simply a restatement of where we began. How are you doing to reimagine what you do for the new era of AI powered competition? There will be uncertainty with new companies and technologies vying for dominant design in the next 10-30 years. It isn’t as important as it once was to be the one creating the software innovation for a competitive advantage, but to be the one that can effectively choose, implement, and use the emerging technology that has been developed. Define some criteria to intelligently embrace and implement these systems into your enterprise. Below are a few questions to assist you in determining which technology to integrate into your strategic plan. 1. How does the solution fit into your existing environment? 2. How does the business benefit (even if I cannot show ROI yet)? 3. Who in my organization will use it? 4. Does my staff have the expertise to manage the change? 5. How will the technology affect my clients? 6. What are the risks? 7. Can I test the solution as a pilot program without significant business disruption or cost? 8. Will the solution scale to the entire enterprise? Now that the questions have been asked, it is sometimes necessary to make revolutionary shifts to your firm which will inevitably cause disruption. Change is hard for any organization but must be embraced. Think deeply about why your firm exists and what value you truly provide. In the end, for your firm to continue, all of this must be part of the plan.

PHIL KEIL is director of Strategy Consulting, Zweig Group. Contact him at pkeil@ zweiggroup.com.

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Upcoming Webinar

Driving Consistent Performance Using Technology Thursday, October 29th 2 PM - 3 PM CDT During these unprecedented times, AE nance and accounting leaders have adjusted their business processes to help their teams be successful in the “new normal”. With remote work here to stay, technology will continue to play a major role in driving this success. Join EleVia Software and Chris Nguyen, Principal and Controller from Interior Architects as he shares how his organization uses technology to maximize performance regardless of where their team is located. By embracing technology, learn how Interior Architects is automating mundane tasks to help their team work on the highest order opportunities in their business.

events + virtual Events

October 2020

will be a mix of presentations as well as open-ended Q&A sessions. This will be the same great content that is taught during our in-person The Principals Academy seminar that has trained over 800 attendees in the last 5 years. The Principals Academy is Zweig Group’s flagship training program encompassing all aspects of managing a professional AEC service firm. Elevate your ability to lead and grow your firm with this program designed to inspire and inform existing and emerging AEC firm leaders in key areas of firm management leadership, financial management, recruiting, marketing, business development, and project management. https://shop.zweiggroup.com/collections/webinars/products/ the-principals-academy-virtual-seminar-starting-october-13- 2020?variant=35160826151063 The evolution of three-dimensional products has dramatically expanded the site solution toolbox for civil engineers, site planners and property owners. Certainly, two-dimensional products such as geotextile fabrics, erosion control blankets and geomembranes have proven highly effective in applications such as soil separation, soil surface protection, and filtration. http://www.cvent.com/events/erosion-control-in-the-third- dimension-webinar-1-pdh/event-summary-299d5617db874928b5f87 0ffb45ccc4a.aspx Erosion Control in the Third Dimension october 15 – virtual Learn the Language of Business: Financial Management october 20 – dallas, tx Solid financial management is crucial to the success of any company, and firms in the AEC industry are no exception. This course provides an overview of business financial management – specifically tailored to our industry – to help firm leaders make informed decisions. Topics include: interpreting financial statements; key performance metrics; benchmarking and predictive cash flow management; and how strategic decisions drive the value of the firm. https://shop.zweiggroup.com/collections/events/products/financial- management-for-non-financial-managers?variant=15425604845603 Elevating Doer-Sellers: Business Development for AEC Professionals starting october 26 – virtual This is a four-week program of one and a half-hours each week of a live zoom meeting with our seminar instructors. These meetings will be a mix of presentations as well as open-ended Q&A sessions. Elevating Doer-Sellers: Business Development for AEC Professionals is specifically developed to help design and technical professionals in architecture, engineering, planning, and environmental firms become more comfortable managing clients and promoting the firm and its services. Led by two retired and current CEOs with extensive experience from the design desk to the board room, this one-of-a-kind seminar presents business development techniques proven to drive real growth and value in your AEC firm. Beyond the buzzword heavy, ra-ra

AUVSI Xponential rescheduled: october 5 - 8 – virtual

AUVSI XPONENTIAL 2020 is the global stage for everything unmanned — from state-of-the-art propulsion technology, sensors, energy storage and UAS mitigation solutions to what’s coming over the horizon in AI, 5G, edge computing, and more. As the largest, most significant event for the unmanned systems industry, you’ll find your edge as you explore the latest technology innovations, develop new perspectives as you hear from industry luminaries, and cultivate creativity at special networking events where you will meet some of the most influential leaders in the unmanned and autonomous space. https://www.xponential.org/xponential2020/public/enter.aspx Case Studies to Green Infrastructure october 8 – virtual The menu of products and practices available to site design professionals has grown significantly since the Clean Water Act was signed into law a half century ago. Presenter Peter M. Hanrahan, CPESC will draw on more than 42 years of industry experience to discuss specific green infrastructure projects he has been directly involved with in the Northeast and Midwest. The presentation will focus on evolving technology and best management practices that now provide a significantly expanded toolbox for green solutions on challenging sites. http://www.cvent.com/events/case-studies-in-green- infrastructure-webinar-1-pdh/event-summary-0f3adcc2e9c 84b479722881059681609.aspx You’ve asked. We’re answering. The Elevate AEC Conference can now be experienced 100 percent virtually. That’s right—the same world- class experience, but no travel required. The 2020 Elevate AEC Virtual Experience will be an eight-week long event, providing attendees meaningful content and networking opportunities from afar, highly produced with live interactions. This virtual experience will include daily doses of keynote speeches, Ted Talks, breakout sessions, virtual social mixing events, and awards celebrations. The Elevate AEC Virtual Experience will also include the ElevateHer TM Symposium which will include presentations of our 2020 ElevateHer TM Cohort’s research findings. This is one of the most exciting and requested events of 2020. With one cohort presentation each week, the ElevateHer TM Cohort presentations will be open to all and for anyone interested in learning more about how to solve the AEC industry’s top challenge: recruitment and retention. https://www.zweiggroup.com/virtual-conference/ elevate aec virtual conference september 30 - november 20 – virtual

The Principals Academy starting october 13 – virtual

Program Description: This is a 6-week program of 2 hours each week of a live zoom meeting with our seminar instructors. These meetings

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approach of other business development and sales training seminars, this seminar focuses on what really works in today’s AEC firm utilizing practical and proven techniques that resonate across the organizational chart. Utilizing a unique workshop approach, current CEO of Zweig Group, Chad Clinehens, and retired CEO of Garver, Dan Williams, will lead participants through an immersion of what it takes to grow an AEC firm. Topics include what drives value in an AEC firm, building a strong brand, how to develop more business, and maximizing the client experience taught through a combination of lectures, discussions, workshops, and a complete project pursuit activity. https://shop.zweiggroup.com/collections/webinars/products/elevating- doer-sellers-business-development-for-aec-professionals-virtual- seminar-starting-october-12-2020?variant=35600326000791

program designed to inspire and inform existing and emerging AEC firm leaders in key areas of firmmanagement leadership, financial management, recruiting, marketing, business development, and project management. https://shop.zweiggroup.com/collections/events/products/the- principals-academy?variant=30871424860195

CEO Roundtable Retreat november 12 - 13– napa, ca

The CEO Roundtable Retreat is a unique opportunity for AEC firm leaders to engage and interact with industry peers to discuss current issues facing firms today, explore industry trends and next practices, and confront the biggest challenges they face leading their firms. Zweig Group’s CEO Chad Clinehens, PE, moderates the program guiding group conversations, encouraging integration and networking, and ensuring attendees gain valuable insight, new ideas and tools – and a new network of colleagues – to foster effective leadership at their respective firms. https://shop.zweiggroup.com/collections/events/products/ceo-roundtab le?variant=30872181014563 Elevating Doer-Sellers: Intensive 2-DayWorkshop is a two-day seminar specifically developed to help design and technical professionals in architecture, engineering, planning, and environmental firms become more comfortable managing clients and promoting the firm and its services. Led by two retired and current CEOs with extensive experience from the design desk to the board room, this one-of-a- kind seminar presents business development techniques proven to drive real growth and value in your AEC firm. Beyond the buzzword heavy, ra-ra approach of other business development and sales training seminars, Elevating Doer-Sellers: Intensive 2-Day Workshop focuses on what really works in today’s AEC firm utilizing practical and proven techniques that resonate across the organizational chart. https://shop.zweiggroup.com/collections/events/products/elevating- doer-sellers?variant=30892964577352 Elevating Doer-Sellers: Intensive 2 Day Workshop november 18 - 19– san francisco, ca

design-build conference and expo october 28 - 30 – national harbor, md

Design-Builders in the Water/Wastewater and Transportation sectors will be the focus of two dedicated tracks of education targeting the unique needs of each sector. https://dbia.org/conferences/design-build-conference-expo/

asce 2020 convention october 28 - 30 – virtual

The American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) Convention is the Society’s premiere membership event. It is the single annual opportunity where the entire Society joins together reflecting the diversity thatASCE encompasses. The Convention program is designed to have integrated, multi-disciplinary, technical, and educational components to meet the needs of the profession. https://www.asceconvention.org/registration Practical leadership skills are vital to the health and success of every company in any industry. Effective leaders motivate their teams to achieve exceptional results, inspire others to be better than they thought possible, and create an environment where their team is focused and working towards a common vision. Zweig Group’s team of management experts – who have extensive experience working with AEC firms providing solutions to the challenges facing AEC firms today – deliver practical solutions that technical professionals can put to work immediately to lead their firms to success. https://shop.zweiggroup.com/collections/events/products/leadership- skills-for-aec-professionals?variant=30889848569891 november 2020 Leadership skills for AEC Professionals rescheduled: october 29 - 30 – dallas, tx

The Principals Academy november 5 - 6– phoenix, az

The Principals Academy is Zweig Group’s flagship training program encompassing all aspects of managing a professional AEC service firm. Elevate your ability to lead and grow your firm at this impactful two-day

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cover

The advancement of technology and information systems have pushed the world into a data explosion era. The capture capability and focus of information has evolved from products, services, and customers, to the current data-centric status. With the enrichment of available data, the potential becomes limitless to apply it to enable higher performance design, more efficient construction processes, and more effective operations and maintenance solutions. However, it also introduces another layer of complexity that has never been experienced before. A simple data base is no longer sufficient. The means and method of how to collect, manage, distribute, and streamline the data from dif- ferent stakeholders for various building lifecycle stages has become the determining factor for the overall performance, effectiveness, and efficiency of the design, construction, and operations and maintenance. The development of the ISO 19650 series and various classification standards, i.e. COBie, Uniformat™, aim to address the need for in- formation standardization. While ISO 19650 is still being developed, there is an urgent desire for an immediate solution. None of the exist- ing coding standards can fully address the needs during the hand-off process nor are sufficient to support asset management. This leads to various “Frankenstein” solutions arising from individual organizations that need to tailor standards for their specific data requirements. To that end, this article introduces an Facility Management- (FM) ori- ented Data Dictionary Management System (DDMS) as the conceiv- able and practical solution to bridge the gaps of the project lifecycle delivery. It can potentially support the future ISO 19650 Series when it is released and serves as the foundation of the data management for the FM digital twin. This article first reviews the current as-is condition during the handoff process and the issues found in traditional asset management practice, followed by introducing the example of a cus- tomized FM-oriented Data Dictionary Management Solution. Lastly, it depicts how an FM-oriented Data Dictionary can change asset man- agement and serve as the backbone of the FM digital twin. As-is Condition While there are foreseeable long-term benefits of BIM integration from the Project Information Model (PIM) to the Asset Information Model (AIM), the experience of the practical applications is far from ideal. On top of that, there is an inherent data management issue during the operations and maintenance stage. Part 3: Implementation of An FM-oriented Data Dictionary Management System (DDMS) for Lifecycle Project Delivery Continued from PARTS 1 AND 2 By Dr. Eve Lin, Dr. Xifan (Jeff) Chen, and George Broadbent New Era of BIM Lifecycle Implementation

Figure 1: As-is IPD Scenario

Gaps from PIM to AIM As discussed in the previous two articles in this series, despite the availability of several classification standards based on owners’ experiences, they spent extra time and effort on overcoming dif- ficulties regarding data sufficiency, interoperability, and consistency from upstream phases (i.e., design, construction, commissioning). The main contributing factor is the lack of an industry-accepted asset data classification and codification. Moreover, several essential data requirements for the facility management stage fail to be encompassed in the Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) Process, and BIM Executive Plan, contractual language (as shown in Figure 1). At the outset of its initiation, all the project stakeholders, i.e., architects, engineers, and contractors, should be around the table drafting, and developing their project deployment plan to streamline the design construction process. Unfortunately, facility managers are often the ones left out during the planning. Before occupancy, when the owners or facility managers acquire as-built models for the use of their operations and maintenance (O&M) routines, the delivered models contain all the details with per- fect graphical representations. But they are missing the data required for facility management, i.e. warranty information, serial numbers; or have inconsistently populated data, like manufacturer, model numbers, etc. The reason is because during the delivery phase, designers, general contractors, and commissioned parties don’t fully comprehend what the facility manager needs. Meanwhile, there are no specific AM (As - set Management) /FM data requirements or standards to regulate Qual - ity Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC)) for their data submission. In spite of early project integration efforts, without a standardized and accepted data dictionary that meets their asset data management needs, each stakeholder still works in their own silo, focuses on their own specifications, uses different contractual languages, and has different sets of parameters in their PIM. When the time for handoff comes at the end of construction, the scattered information becomes unmanage- able and difficult to consolidate. Before a feasible AIM can be formed and input into a maintenance management solution, additional work and resources are required to untangle this inconsistent and ambiguous data, as well as gather all the missing information from the PIM. Issues in Traditional Asset Management Data Dictionaries Besides the aforementioned gaps between PIM and AIM, there are several inherent issues and drawbacks within the traditional asset management realm. The first regards the asset management data dic - tionaries, which are typically either maintained or directly hosted on Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS), such as IBM Maximo®, SAP, or Archibus. For example, when setting up a Maximo® environment, it is necessary to define a set of classifica -

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Figure 2: An example of inconsistent data definition and ambiguous data structure in a Traditional Asset Management Data Dictionary

tions and attributes – a form of a data dictionary. However, once the dictionary is defined in the CMMS, it remains in the system after implementation. New classifications and attributes can be added but the established structure cannot be easily altered or refined. In this inflexible data dictionary environment, the cumulative data update during the O&M period makes the inconsistent and ambiguous data structure unavoidable (as illustrated in Figure 2). In order to prevent future ambiguity and inconsistent information, a complete asset data dictionary first needs to be cleaned and refined prior to uploading to a CMMS. This leads to the second commonly observed issue in tradi- tional asset management – scattered asset information. Outside the CMMS platform without a designated central platform, asset information is usually maintained and tracked by different in- dividuals from separate departments in various formats, including but not limited to BIM models, CAD files, Excel spreadsheets, paper binders, text files, and PDFs. All these different formats and languages need to be gathered before reconciliation and consolidation for these diverse data sources and information can be established. Then comes to the issue of reconciliation and consolidation of the data. Different departments have their own individual means to track their information in various spreadsheets. There are also numerous systems that might be input in different periods by different individuals. While there is no im- mediate solution to query all the existing classifications and attributes among these scattered spreadsheets, the go-to method of those data

collectors or managers is to come up with their own definition for their data and information at hand. As the example illustrated in Figure 2, three different asset definitions including a misspelled word are defined by three different individuals at three different time periods. Although the pumps in the example serve three different systems - hot water, chill water, and treatment water; they can be categorized and refined into one “Centrifugal Pump” without a typo, and have a consistent at- tribute naming convention, i.e. Manufacturer, since “Manufacturer,” “Maker,” and “Manufacturor” are essentially the same attribute (as shown in Figure 3). This is just one small example within a haystack of asset information. Furthermore, this dispersed and unsynchronized solution impedes teamwork and collaboration, limits data analytics support, and at the same time creates a lot of unnecessary rework throughout the larger organization. Instead of capitalizing on the abun- dance of the available data for intelligent operations and maintenance, the facility or data managers drain their time trying to find the most updated spreadsheet. A Solution that Bridge the Gaps – An FM-oriented DDMS Illumed from the current issues and users’ needs, a more fundamental and practical approach might be an FM Data Dictionary Management System (DDMS), which can support different stakeholders and is ac- cessible to various parties. ADDMS does not merely serve a dictionary or database. Its functionalities are specifically designed to address the commonly seen issues during PIM to AIM transition as well as during operations and maintenance. A well developed DDMS in this era should be designed as a web ap- plication focusing on an intelligent cloud-based solution to help reduce the effort required to manage asset data information. It should also maximize the quality of data, as well as streamline data flow interop- erability from delivery to the operational stage. It is a cloud-based, multi-tenant solution. Hence, there is zero infrastructure required to apply. It focuses on facility equipment and all the associated attributes that need to be collected and included for all the different pieces of equipment. It enables users to migrate from traditionally scattered spreadsheets and fixed CMMS solutions that do not support the under- standing of the data structure and performance to a fully functioning data management solution that provides a central and flexible platform

Figure 3: Confusion in CMMS query caused by data inconsistency

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for the entire enterprise. Furthermore, the current trend of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML) can be used behind the curtain to aggregate the wisdom from all DDMS clients in the cloud to benefit each other. Details of that will be shared later. How does the DDMS Bridge the Gaps? Compared to another industry, say, manufacturing, the adoption and utilization of current trending technologies in the AECO industry are lagging behind. The bright side is there are a lot of mature technolo- gies to take advantage of including AI, ML, Cloud-based computation, and big data. Variations of other algorithms and technologies should also be combined in the package to form the core functionalities that address the current issues among PIM to AIM transition and asset data management. Several key features of the DDMS will be discussed in the following content. FM Data Dictionary Health Assessment Main issues mentioned before are the ambiguous and inconsistent data structure and naming conventions. All CMMS implementation should start with a clean, consistent, and meaningful data dictionary, rather than fix all the troublesome data in the future. Therefore, the DDMS should apply various algorithms to evaluate FM data dictionary health - Semantical ambiguity occurs everywhere in a data dictionary draft. Semantical issues are inevitable especially for some large- scale organization or agencies. The same asset or attribute can be named differently in different systems or by different stakeholders (i.e., “hot water pump” vs “pump-hot water.” Figure 2 is a good example of this kind of issue). Fuzzy analysis is applied to identify non-exact matches of assets to spot the potential duplications of assets and/or attribute naming. Different semantic patterns can be automatically recognized and applied to corresponding fuzzy match- ing algorithms. Based on successful past project experience, this analysis can greatly help firms purify their data dictionary in a timely manner, especially for heavy Excel users. from different angles, including: • Semantical Analysis (Fuzzy analysis)

asset (i.e., CWS-GEN-CHILL). Missing one acronym will create an incomplete asset code. Meanwhile, it will create confusion if two as- sets have the same acronym or one asset has two acronyms. Again, if team members are utilizing Excel spreadsheets to manage and develop data dictionary, these data glitches will be everywhere.

• Classification Consistency Analysis

- The classification and consistency check ensures all the clas- sifications under different systems and subsystems have the same set of attributes (again, Figure 2 is a very good example to show how a same classification can be developed differently). These health checks refine and consolidate the potential data duplica- tions, as well as standardize the attributes and classifications. When all the asset information is aggregated from Excel spreadsheets or other formats, the DDMS goes through all the asset information, including categories, systems, subsystems, assets, child assets, attributes, as well as all properties for attributes (domain, type, unit, etc.). All detected issues will be provided to the user in an interactive decision-making approach (as shown in Figure 4). This process provides a tremendous advantage for the data or facility manager who doesn’t have to go through every entry to purify the data dictionary. Cloud Knowledge Community & Smart Recommendation “Knowledge on the cloud” is the term not only being heard more and more, but actually already in use for a long time. From Wiki, Quora, Pinterest, to streaming media like YouTube and TikTok, users share their thoughts and knowledge and wisdom to form a community that can absorb every member’s contribution and in turn benefit each other. A single user’s thumb up or down will impact the piece of contents’ popularity among the entire knowledge tank. To many, this is not something new, however, to the AECO industry, it is. Every user and individual has different stories and approaches to manage their systems. This is a double-edged sword since it also means when developing their FM data dictionary, every person works in a silo. The DDMS believes in “you don’t know what you don’t know” and tries to capture and aggregate all the knowledge and wisdom from multiple users and analyze how industries are building their data requirements. The DDMS applies cloud-based ML utilizing backend labeling to tagged asset classifications and attributes from different entities. Through the learning and training of the aggregated information and wisdom, the DDMS establishes a powerful knowledge base for smart recommendations of which attributes should be considered for a spe- cific classification, as illustrated in Figure 5. When more users and clients involve and interact with the platform, it learns their prefer- ences and captures the importance of each attribute as it relates to its

• Grammar & Spelling Check

- As the name implies, this function is designed to ensure cor- rect spelling and meaningful input. For example, “Installation Data” should be “Installation Date.” While “Data” is a correctly spelled word, it is the wrong word to use in the context of the example. Therefore, the DDMS will provide the suggestion to correct this type of error.

• Completeness & Uniqueness Analysis

- Completeness and uniqueness sometimes need to be highlighted based on users’ requirements. A common example is an acronym could be very important when users or asset managers use the ag- gregation of a series of acronyms to form a unique code for each

Figure 4: DDMS provides an interactive option for decision-making

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classification, similar to how the social media and web browsers learn the user’s preference and behavior. The ranking of each recommended attribute evolves accordingly, and the recommendations get aligned to the users’ needs. Data Management Throughout the Project Lifecycle The DDMS establishes data connections to multiple platforms (i.e. Excel, Revit, SAP, and Maximo®) and acts as a central hub of all the data streams. This capability allows the DDMS to bridge the gaps in data management and benefit the entire building lifecycle. From the PIM to the AIM perspective, the DDMS serves as a synchronized plat- form that conveys all the owners/facility managers’ data requirements. As previously mentioned, one of the issues during the IPD process is that facility management’s requirements fail to be incorporated into the project delivery (see Figure 1). Here this FM-oriented DDMS could offer a nice remedy. The data dictionary of assets and attributes can be packaged into different Shared Parameter packages in PIM based on the project stage and discipline. Each stakeholder can incorporate the parameter groups that they are responsible for in their PIM and gather necessary information during the building design and construction process. In this fashion, each stakeholder won’t be overwhelmed by a full list of required inputs that are not relevant to them, and there is no ambiguous naming convention and missing information at the end of the project delivery (and no-one needs to care if COBie, or Uniforma are being followed). The DDMS also serves as the QA/QC during the handoff process. It can check the model information against the re- quired data information and attributes, and provide a completion score and data analysis breakdown as the reference for the next round of the model submission. From the CMMS (e.g., Maximo®, SAP) perspec- tive, the data dictionaries hosted on the DDMS can be fully exported into a CMMS compatible format for example, MxLoader for IBM Maximo®. This capability of the DDMS saves an incredible amount of time for the CMMS implementor. By default, the implemented data dictionary would have been through the purification and standardiza- tion process in the DDMS already, which makes the implementation process even more smooth. Lastly, from the onsite data collection perspective, the DDMS facilitates the onsite data collection process by providing an easy to use interactive web application on a phone or tablet with the most updated information without users wasting time on fishing through the legacy spreadsheets. Figure 6 illustrates how DDMS could help streamline the project lifecycle from delivery to the operational phase. Figure 5: The DDMS aggregates and ranks all the relevant attributes of classification as smart recommendations

Figure 6: Data Management throughout Project Lifecycle

A Sample Application of the DDMS Here is a case study of a large agency that uses this FM-oriented DDMS to help them build the Enterprise Level Asset Management Data Dictionary. This United States government agency has an exten- sive portfolio of facilities and departments, most of which have their own database, platform, and classification means and language. As part of their EAM (Enterprise Asset Management) program, they wanted to migrate their data from the legacy systems into the EAM system. In order to integrate all of those systems into one, they have to develop a well-rounded data dictionary that can encompass all facilities and departments. Their initial attempt was to develop systems via Excel spreadsheets. As a result, they ended up with numerous Excel spread- sheets that could hardly be managed and synchronized. They chose to utilize a DDMS for their roadmap. They first applied the DDMS to consolidate all the data dictionaries across different facilities into a synchronized one. After the establishment of their unique single data dictionary, applicable for every facility within the organization, they were able to shift from historically siloed asset management practices to a more integrated and collaborative approach. By capitalizing on all the previously introduced functionalities that the DDMS provides, it helped the agency substantially reduce its overall program imple- mentation time and significantly save agency costs. The DDMS will play an important role in conducting the data flow from delivery to operation phase for future projects even after the data dictionary has been completed. Summary The development of the custom FM-oriented DDMS and its func- tionalities originated from the need for a solution to bridge the gaps between PIM and AIM and solve the issues during the asset manage- ment practices. Based on experiences and feedback, the DDMS makes considerable improvements for the agency’s current practice in Asset Management. It is expected to change and improve the entire BIM driven lifecycle. As illustrated in Figure 7, the first level - Project Development Level generally breaks down the building develop- ment phases, includes plan design, construction commissioning, and operations and maintenance. These phases might be slightly different depending on the contractual styles, i.e. Design-Bid-Build or Design- Build, but they could be very similar.

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management use at the end of construction. Throughout the operations and maintenance stage, refined, organized, and synchronized data are essential. Therefore, an FM-oriented DDMS with introduced function- alities can serve as the foundation to support all the data flow activities throughout the lifecycle, including collecting, refining, synchronizing, and managing. While the ISO 19650 series is still being finalized and its potential benefits to the asset management and BIM implementation lifecycle are still forthcoming, an FM-oriented DDMS would be the essential currently-available foundation to support the data flow and activities throughout the building’s lifecycle. GEORGE BROADBENT is Microdesk’s Vice President of Asset Management and has worked on a variety of projects including the rollout of Microdesk’s Maximo and Revit integration solution, ModelStream. George works closely with key stakeholders to identify strategies for asset management projects and manages the effort to build out new systems. DR. XIFAN JEFF CHEN is the EAM Assistant Director at Microdesk , and head of EAM Strategic Advisory Service. Jeff specializes in providing strategic consulting services for clients, conducting and implementing BIM, EAM and GIS integrated solutions, and developing digital twin methodologies for lifecycle BIM implementation. DR. EVE LIN is a EAM Strategy Consultant and Sustainability Lead at Microdesk , Dr. Eve Lin specializes in providing strategic and technical solutions for clients to facilitate sustainable practices throughout the project lifecycle. Her involvement includes building performance simulation, design automation, BIM and GIS integration and development of digital twin solutions.

Figure 7: The DDMS’s impact on the building lifecycle

Underneath that is the Model Development Level that illustrates the different models used for various development phases, including design model, construction model, as-built model, facility informa- tion model, and digital twin. A facility model is needed to gather the required information for asset management as mentioned previously with regards to the as-built model. The facility model can then trans- form into an operations maintenance digital twin. While digital twins are the current trend for operations and maintenance, they all require the upstream information to be effective. The first two levels are often discussed during the BIM implementation lifecycle, but they are only the shell. The backbone of the process resides in the data flow – the Data Development Level and Data Foundation. The s e are design and construction data created during the design delivery stage. These data need to be refined for the Facility Information Model for asset

2020 NPCA Specifier Webinars Webinars begin at Noon EDT Nov. 11 Rehabilitating and Rebuilding Infrastructure: Precast Concrete’s Key Role (1.5 PDHs) December 10 Addressing Microbial Induced Corrosion in Precast Concrete Structures (2 PDHs)

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october 2020

Innovative Design of Sludge Drying Beds Using 3D Cellular Confinement

Wastewater treatment facilities have long had to contend with the challenge of dewatering sludge to mini- mize waste and achieve overall cost efficiency for disposal. Large-scale facilities commonly use mechanical filter presses or centrifuges to dewater sludge. This equipment is often too cumbersome and expensive for many smaller facilities, so they rely on sand filter drying beds for sludge dewatering. Because small tractors or loaders cannot be operated on the loose sands of a conventional drying bed, a systemmust be implemented to stabilize the sand and improve load distribution for routine cleanout operations. Transforming Infill Material with the GE- OWEB® Geocells Through an interconnected honeycomb-like network, 3D geocells confine and stabilize soils that would otherwise be unstable under load- ing conditions. Geocells are efficient and eco- nomical for fast-built unpaved roadways and retaining walls, erosion control of slopes, and stormwater channel protection. The GEOWEB® 3D Stabilization System is the industry’s most complete geocell system, designed with fully engineered components to withstand the most challenging site problems. Made from robust high-density polyethylene (HDPE) since con- ception, GEOWEB geocells offer the highest, longest lasting and most proven performance of any geocell system in civil applications. The GEOWEB® System Improves Clean-Up System for SolidWaste Treatment Facility A solid waste treatment facility in Florida was using vacuum-assisted drying beds to dewater chemically oxidized sewage sludge, but they were experiencing costly maintenance issues. The material deteriorated under constant use, and replacement costs were high. The facility required a solution that would allow them to operate a small tractor over the sand filter bed to remove the sludge. They chose the GEOWEB® 3D Confinement System because of its ability to support vehicular traffic over poor soils. The GEOWEB system provides complete structural support by limiting lateral movement of the confined material—in this case, very loose sand. The GEOWEB system was installed in the top layer of the loose material in one of the two sand filter drying beds. The 10-inch-deep top layer was composed of uniformly graded filter sand, and below this was a graduated layer of river gravel. A geonet material was placed on top of the graded layer to ensure efficient sand place- ment. The complete cross-section consisted of a 2-inch sand layer placed over the 8-inch sand-filled cellular confinement system underlain by the geonet and gravel bed below. After installing the multi-layer system, cleanout operations significantly improved. With the new system, cleaning the sand drying bed requires moving only one to two inches of sand that contain the sludge and allows the crews to load and clean one 1,700-square-foot drying bed in 48 hours, unlike the original system which could take several days. The GEOWEB Cellular Confinement System also acts as a natural depth gauge for the front end loader, the blade of which can easily be used to backdrag the final few inches of material during cleanout to protect the system against damage and preserve operational integrity. Overall, the GE- OWEB system reduced maintenance costs for the facility by 50 percent.

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