March 2024 Digital Delivery newsletter

TxDOT’s Digital Delivery Program is using pilot projects to enable a gradual approach to developing and deploying Digital Delivery practices. The San Antonio District is leading the charge by piloting TxDOT’s first Digital Delivery project, meaning that the design model created was delivered as a construction document, traditional plan sheets were replaced by project-wide “roll plots”, and bid item information has been attached to model elements for enhanced estimating in design and future use to support asset management collection and quicker inspections. All of this information will be readily available right at your fingertips.

The pilot project is located on FM 1977 at the border of the San Antonio and Austin districts. The approximately 0.30 mile stretch of road runs from FM 621 to the Guadalupe and Caldwell County line. The roadway will see a full depth reconstruction with added shoulders.

The FM 1977 pilot project will be testing and validating processes for design, letting, inspection, operations, and asset management. The following items are being piloted:

• Open Roads Designer (ORD) 10.12 - new workspace version, adding metadata in model elements, and Industry Foundation Class (IFC) export capabilities. 
  
• ProjectWise - reduced folder structure, new workflows, and file attributions. 
• Digital design review tools – Bentley Synchro, Bentley Design Review (PW Validate), GIS, and SiteVision. 
• Quadri – capabilities for the letting process such as 3D model sharing and scheduling software for infrastructure projects. 
• Trimble Business Connect (TBC) – constructability tools.  
• The delivery of 3D Model Breaklines for the use of Automated Machine Guidance (AMG) during construction. 
• Phased traffic control plan (TCP) modeling – create 3D models for construction phases of pavement and earthwork. 
• Signed and sealed roll plots, which is replacing some 11x17 plan sheets. 

The project began design in the Spring 2023 and letting is anticipated for Spring 2025.

In-person interaction with the Districts and Divisions is essential to the smooth rollout and implementation of Digital Delivery. Therefore, the project team is bringing the training to you!

Beginning Spring 2024, the Digital Delivery Roadshow will begin visiting all TxDOT Districts and will be grouped by geographical proximity. The goal of the Roadshows is to build valuable relationships with you so we can address comments and concerns that you may have about DDP.

Roadshows will meet you where you are and will help to facilitate locally relevant discussions and provide hands-on demonstrations of DDP. We want to make this beneficial for you and make it so you can ask questions, meet face-to-face with the project team and Workgroup leads, prior to full implementation. Some Roadshow exhibitions will include in-depth presentations, demonstration workshops, and graphic visuals/flow charts.

The initial Roadshows are designed to introduce TxDOT's DDP program and how TxDOT sees digital delivery supporting various disciplines and teams. Future Roadshows will be expanded and further refined as DDP progresses.

Please be on the lookout for a Roadshow schedule forthcoming in future newsletters and emails.

We continue to push ProjectWise forward, implementing new enhancements and working with Bentley to ensure that we have a stable and reliable ProjectWise environment. Over this latest period, we have been working on the following:

• ProjectWise User training is available monthly. Please contact Sandra.Sinton@txdot.gov, or visit PeopleSoft Training Search for more information.
• Pilot Projects in the Digital Delivery Program are testing the following ProjectWise enhancements in a “Future State” environment:
  • Reduced folder structure that utilizes filters and saved searches to easily group files by file name and attribute.
  • Document creation wizard for standard file naming convention and automatic file attribution.
  • Work flow functionality that has the ability to move files through the design process and notify users when a file is ready for review or archive.
• Bentley iCS training has been incorporated into the ProjectWise and ProjectWise Power Admin training.
• Plans Online Minimum Viable Product (MVP) has been deployed, which helps in the bid, letting, and contract process. It will start being available for internal use once the TxDOT Connect team is able to complete their development to process all letting documents.
• The TED Project for Division files has been completed.
• We also continue to build out automation for a variety of administration and reporting across all ProjectWise data sources.

Items we are working on:

• Enhance processes for the future use of ProjectWise.
• Working with the UAM Team to help them automate the processing of user administration.
• Updating ProjectWise to Bentley’s 2023 version.
• Working with Bentley to establish meaningful ways to administer Infrastructure Cloud and Synchro.

The Bridge Division is holding quarterly OpenBridge Modeler (OBM) webinars for TxDOT personnel and cover topics related primarily to OBM. The Webinars are posted on Crossroads with the OpenBridge Designer (OBD)/OBM Training: OBM Webinars (TxDOT access only).

Past Webinars

• January 2023 – Introduction of OBM
• April 2023 – PBLR Submittals and Parametric Cells
• July 2023 – Aesthetic Columns; October 2023 – OBM Complete Bridge Templates

Please send suggestions for future webinars to Bridge3DDesign@txdot.gov.

Discussions have started for the best way to present information about analysis programs such as RM Bridge and LEAP Concrete/Steel.

The Standard Bridge Model Templates have been posted to the Bridge Standard’s website since April 2023. Please send feedback on how they are working to BRG_ Bridge3DDesign Bridge3DDesign@txdot.gov.

The Bridge Division has been working on the 10.12 Workspace and an updated training manual to go along with the deployment. For TxDOT employees, OBM and OBD will be separate installations after the workspace update. OBM will be for those that only need to create Bridge Models. OBD will be for those that need to do analysis and design in addition to the creation of the models. The Upcoming versions of OBM/OBD will have the full version of ProStructures built into the OBM application. There will not be a need to install ProStructures as a separate application.

The latest version of OpenRoads Designer (ORD) software and workspace will be deployed state-wide by the end of February 2024. The new version, ORD 10.12, features 141 enhancements and 321 resolved issues. Software enhancements include improvements to geometry, terrain, modeling, drawing production, annotation, item types, drainage, and utilities. Workspace enhancements include several discipline-specific improvements, most notably for drainage. This is an exciting step towards enhancing TxDOT’s operational efficiency and the full implementation of Digital Delivery.

Staff and other users will be encouraged to migrate projects to the updated version, and all new projects will be created in ORD 10.12. Projects that have already kicked off prior to the release of the new version may be completed with the previous version. Additional testing is currently underway to determine how to strategically move the agency to a single version of ORD. Stay tuned for further instructions this month.

ORD walkthrough videos and training are available on the TxDOT Design Tools and Training webpage. The Bentley Communities webpage has an ever-expanding library of training content and active forums for Q&A and conversations. This is a great resource to discuss the newest features of ORD 10.12 or to learn new information.