Infrakit OFFICE™ – Version 3.6.1

Highlights
SokoPro–Infrakit integration

We are pleased to announce the integration between Infrakit and Sokopro. The wish of the integration came originally from customers in order to improve information flow between the two software companies.

The integration has been successful and is now available to all of our customers. According to Fernando Korpi, Development Manager from SokoPro: “the biggest benefits of the integration are increased efficiency and transparency in data management and to make our customers’ day-to-day work easier.”

“As a result of the integration, we hope for a long and fruitful cooperation with Infrakit in the future”, tells Fernando Korpi.

SokoPro is a cloud service for data management, sharing and archiving. All the prestigious construction companies and real estate developers are using SokoPro for data management in Finland.

Faster cross-sections

On big sites, where Infrakit is used also as project data hub, the users have experienced system being slow. Actionsare now taken as new cross section tool optimizes the amount of data it uses for calculation of cross-sections. Nowthe speed of the view is not depending on project size, rather the amount of models user have selected to view.

Watch a video here.

User configurable as-built table

User can now change the order of as–built table columns like explained on video below.

Watch a video here.

Model elevation

Activate the terrain models on map and right click on top of the model. The elevation of the active models on that spot is displayed on pop-up menu. Note that it might take couple of seconds.

Watch a video here.

Strabag visit in Finland

Infrakit Group Oy welcomed a delegation From Strabag AG in our office and for a site visit to Destia on the Vt12 project near Lahti.

After the experience of working on two pilot projects with Infrakit, Strabag AG expressed the need for a visit in Finland, which took place on 11th and 12th November. We started with a great dinner on Sunday evening and had a great exchange of information on Monday at our office in Espoo. Strabag explained the systems they have created for the bidding phase of big projects. Furthermore, we showed them more what improvement can be done in design phase and on site.

On Tuesday it was time to visit the worksite of Destia to hear from Harri Taina how he is using Infrakit on his sites and why. Strabag considered this as very useful information and we will take this into the next project together.

What is meant by digital infrastructure construction?

Infrastructure construction has been considered a low-tech field, but significant changes have taken place in recent years. Due to the development of work machine automation technology in the 2000s, traditional land building production method shifted from digital 3D models into implementation before anybody even talked about digitalization. The leap in the 2010s is largely based on the development of consumer and cloud service technologies, as well as on infra construction applications capitalizing on the aforementioned. We now process infrastructure information models on mobile devices and monitor production in real time. During the past five years Destia has had approximately 50 construction projects annually that are being carried out utilizing information model designs and 3D machine control systems. We are on the forefront of digitalization in our industry.

Destia is a pioneer in model-based production, where digital road models and designs of earth
structures drawn up by designers are being transferred into production with construction machine control systems. The machines have an enhanced satellite positioning and 3D-contolling system, which the machine operator can use for high-accuracy constructing using 3D models. This method increases performance, improves quality and reduces material wastage. The designs, in other words, information models are being managed and shared by the machines through a cloud service, where the management and clients can examine the models and stay up to date on the progress of the projects.

A couple of years ago Destia started to develop and pilot a method of producing digital handover material during construction to replace the traditional quality documentation method done at the end of a project and to enable utilizing the materials in model-based systems in the future. Since then this method has rapidly gained a foothold in our projects. It was described in the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency’s infra model guidelines in 2017 and as a part of the Common InfraBIM Requirements of 2019, where the method has been refined and also included in earlier stages of infra projects requiring information exchange.

In Destia’s large-scale projects the model-based method is always implemented as thoroughly as possible and its features are continuously being developed. For example in the Vt 4 Kirri-Tikkakoski project the designs for dozens of bridges will go through the inspection and approval process of designers, construction management and the client entirely in a model-based method. This is being carried out for the first time in a project of this magnitude in Finland. Diverse utilization of drones as part of the model-based process has quickly become a part of the everyday procedure in all of our large-scale projects. Collecting and refining production data from separate sources has reached a new level, as comprehensive information about production is available via automatized analytics on project level as well as on company level.

The infra construction industry is, in fact very keen to benefit from new possibilities offered by digitalization, and individual leaps in development can be implemented in an agile fashion. For example VR headsets that we know from the gaming world have given a completely new dimension to understanding construction sites with an information model. In the future VR and AR headsets might very well become standard equipment on construction sites – the same way mobile devices are now used in examining information models and in documentation, utilizing positioning accuracy to centimeter level if necessary. At the moment it seems, however, that of all new construction site technologies the use of drones is growing most rapidly.

The notion of infra construction as an industry that is rigid and slow to develop can surely be discarded. The foundations for a new kind of digital infra field have now been created – the future will show where this development will take us.

Pasi Nurminen is the R&D Director of Destia Ltd. This blog is updated, and it was published earlier on destia.fi (in Finnish).