BE Magazine - Volume 4, Issue 4 - (Page 27)

CIVIL through, the county airport. The airport already experienced signiﬁcant drainage problems during wet weather, so the subdivision had to be developed without worsening the existing problems or impacting the environment in the natural habitat. The development also included ﬁve miles of roadways, with three 206-foot diameter trafﬁc circles. More than onehalf acre of landscaping and plantings in each circle would make these trafﬁc circles the focal points of the community. Through an iterative design process, the team evaluated various grading scenarios and selected the plan that would have the least environmental impact while still remaining with just one pumping station. The resulting design called for mass grading—moving more than 1.1 million v InSite Engineering submitted a detailed design plan just 90 days after it began working cubic yards of earth—so that the site on the 664-lot subdivision project would drain by gravity. The designers were able to quickly compare and evaluate alterna“Without Bentley PowerCivil, the time required for comparison tives for addressing design challenges related to grading and drainage, and evaluation of alternatives would have prevented the designwater and sewage infrastructure, and roadways and trafﬁc circles. ers from meeting this goal. That would have resulted in the city of InSite Engineering’s goal in designing the development’s $12 million Alabaster owning, operating, and maintaining several additional infrastructure was to minimize the cost of ownership to the city pumping stations and incurring the costs that go along with them,” without adding to the cost of development for the client. Pate said. “The unique ability of Bentley PowerCivil to produce For example, Alabaster’s Environmental Services Department results during the design process allowed the team to signiﬁcantly already operated more than 50 sanitary sewage pumping stations to increase productivity while still maintaining the highest levels of serve its 25,000 residents. InSite Engineering was determined to quality control possible.” design the Blackhawk Estates development in such a way that only one additional pumping station would be required. To accomplish PROJECT OVERVIEW this, the team had to come up with a well-conceived grading plan for the 488-acre development, which had a 150-foot elevation Blackhawk Estates of Alabaster change across the site. The location of the natural habitat complicated the situation, because it would be adjacent to, and drain Organization project. “This is the largest residential project ever designed by InSite Engineering and our ﬁrst project utilizing Bentley PowerCivil software,” said Bryan Pate, managing member of the two-year-old ﬁrm. InSite Engineering, LLC BE Awards Category Civil Site Design Project Objective Design a 488-acre residential subdivision incorporating a 220-acre natural habitat adjacent to an airport Savings all around The municipality overcame initial opposition by setting aside a 220-acre natural habitat as a buffer zone The managing members of InSite Engineering had committed to implementing Bentley software when they established the ﬁrm in 2005, so the design team was very accustomed to using these solutions. When it came time to deploy Bentley PowerCivil, the team quickly learned how to use it for design and production. Noted Pate, “During this project alone, the software and training costs that we have incurred since our inception were more than recovered.” Bentley solutions impacted productivity at every phase of the design process, from overall site grading and individual lot draining v Volume 4, Issue 4 | BE MAGAZINE 27

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of BE Magazine - Volume 4, Issue 4

BE Magazine - Volume 4, issue 4 Contents The Drive To Innovate News BE Newsletter Highlights Converging on the Market Bytes and Bricks Generative Components Building Courting Success Remodeling an Icon Structural Integration Building News From Bentley Civil Greenfield Airport Takes Flight Good Neighbors Collaborative Innovation Civil News From Bentley Advertisers Index Geospatial Ring of Fiber Revolutionizing Integrity Management Port City Transformation In Conversation With Greg Bentley Geospatial News From Bentley Plant Single-Source Service Committed to Cleaner Air Expediting Expansion Plant News From Bentley Strength in Numbers The Art of Visualization A Winning Legacy Zero Change Culture: Further Definition A Remarkable Collaboration With a Forward-Thinking Community

BE Magazine - Volume 4, Issue 4

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