The Year in Infrastructure 2008 - (Page 8) CommuniCating through Visualization – WinnEr Lochner, Inc. Fort Drum Connector (I-81 to US 11) Pamelia and Le Ray, New York, United States the new york State Department of transportation (nySDOt) is planning a new four-lane connector between I-81 and US Route 11 in northern New York to improve access to the Fort Drum U.S. Army Base. Designed to serve as an interstate facility with fully controlled access, this project is designated as a federal high-priority SAFETEA-LU project of strategic importance on a statewide and national level. The high-profile project will alleviate traffic congestion affecting the towns of Pamelia and Le Ray in Jefferson County as well as provide a redundant military route to Fort Drum. NYSDOT made an early commitment to make public involvement a priority. The project team needed to communicate three design options and their impact on the surrounding areas to all stakeholders. Selection of the preferred alternative had to take place in a timely fashion as part of the alternative selection process so this significant project could progress. At the production level, constantly changing roadway alignments and digital terrain models presented a challenge while visualizations of possible alignments were being prepared. Views of the three feasible proposed alternatives were depicted, as well as a visualization of the single-point urban interchange at the west end of the project. MicroStation, InRoads, and ProjectWise allowed Lochner to work with NYSDOT virtually. Visualizations were employed to show how the project would look post-construction, and 3D MicroStation design files were created that contained a gridded representation of both the existing and proposed digital terrain models of the roadways. Aerial photos were then photomatched with these design files as the basis for photorealistic visualization. Being able to show how the new connector would look in an area where no roadway currently exists saved time in the alternative selection process. Also, being able to describe the single-point urban interchange in a way that the traveling public can envision was a tangible benefit. bE AwARd wINNER ALSO NOMINATED IN INDuSTry CATEgOry: INNOvATION IN rOAD AND BrIDgE I uSTry CATE ST ATEg I v BrID WinnEr 8
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