Designing safety with Bentley OpenRoads technology

Mead & Hunt used Bentley OpenRoads technology to assess alternative design options.

Bentley OpenRoads technology is being used on complex road networks to increase safety and reduce congestion.

Multiple rail crossings and high truck volumes near an intermodal facility in Marion, Ohio caused the area to become quickly congested and sometimes unsafe.

With the sector popular for baseball and softball tournaments the Ohio Department of Transportation awarded a contract to consulting firm Mead & Hunt to perform a feasibility study and solve the traffic problem.

Mead & Hunt devised numerous alternatives for the road network, in the end settling on a slight realignment of the main road in the area, the SR 309, to the north. This plan also involved the construction of an overpass over the rail spur and a new service road to the nearby park.

At first the firm estimated the cost for the project, at its preliminary design sate, to be $9.8 million US dollars. However, this cost was around one third over budget.

To evaluate the design in depth, visualise the project and assess alternative design options Mead & Hunt turned to Bentley Systems OpenRoads Technology.

OpenRoads is a civil design software aimed at road networks. It provides a comprehensive modelling environment to support design and analysis from concept through to construction.

While delivering an accurate product was paramount, maintaining the budget and schedule were also very important considerations for this project. Mead & Hunt accomplished all three of these, hitting all time and budget targets using the OpenRoads technology and design processes.

The 3D model developed using OpenRoads technology enabled the firm to eliminate 647 metres of road and over 1850 square metres of retaining walls from the preliminary design.

The model was then used for the detailed design of intersections, driveways, utilities, structures and detecting and resolving potential crashes.

OpenRoads allowed designers to discover an improved maintenance-of-traffic design that contributed to Mead & Hunt saving $3.2 million US dollars from the preliminary design.

Mead & Hunt had some prior experience using OpenRoads technology, but this project gave the organisation a great opportunity to use the application across all project team members.

Power GEOPAK, an infrastructure design technology by Bentley Systems, combined with Open Roads technology helped the entire design team to visualise the project.

Bentley’s OpenBridge Modeler then helped to model the structure over the rail spur and obtain accurate quantity information.

During construction, ContextCapture was used to create a reality mesh from aerial images taken using drone technology.

Together each Bentley technology helped Mead & Hunt to create an optimised design to improve congestion and create a safer environment for commuters and heavy vehicles.