BE Magazine - Volume 6, Issue 1 - (Page 56)

The Last Word Physical + Digital Investments = Intelligent Infrastructure Greg Bentley Bentley CEO hen Bentley publishes the annual The Year in Infrastructure yearbook, it serves both to recognize your projects nominated for Be Awards of Excellence and increasingly to share with those outside the infrastructure professions the excitement and inspiration we get—along with better performing projects and infrastructure assets—from applying IT innovations in particular. An aspiration we have is to help recruit the next generation of infrastructure professionals among students who enjoy working creatively with computers and who want to be able to improve the world through their work. For this purpose, we widely distribute hundreds of thousands of infrastructure yearbooks and work hard to promote their circulation. I recently spent several days meeting with top business publications, for which infrastructure is suddenly the relevant focus. To dramatically make the point that infrastructure is even more so about economically—and environmentally—“sustaining” than merely economically “stimulating,” I used examples from among your inspiring projects in “The Year in Infrastructure 2008,” which we have just released. To browse the online yearbook, please go to www.bentley.com/ yearininfrastructure. You can now search all of the last ﬁve editions of this publication by project location, solution category, keywords, and nominee organization. Request a free printed copy by emailing beawards@bentley.com with your name, address, and quantity desired. As to the year 2008 in particular, it seems that we were presented, in turn, with two quite different challenges. Through most of the year, a growing backlog of AEC work was constrained by the bottleneck of resource capacity. We saw software and business-process innovations adopted with unprecedented enthusiasm—to get more of the work done by way of more collaborative strategies— by necessity. As we all know, the second challenge appeared when economies around the globe all got into trouble at the same time. Thankfully, the innovations that were embraced under the crush of overabundant work are still helping us. Now the imperative is to do more with less—but this time the “less” is less ﬁnancial investment for new projects. It is opportune that the boom cycle focused us on design and process improvements to consume lesser quantities of materials, labor, energy, and waste. More sustainable infrastructure capabilities can lead to more sustainable infrastructure work! We hear a great deal at present about infrastructure projects as attractive stimulus spending, but I think policymakers should be reminded that infrastructure is better characterized as a very attractive public and private investment allocation from a purely W ﬁnancial perspective. Compared to other investments (especially now), infrastructure is less speculative and more certain to provide a superior sustained return on investment (ROI). And even for public works, ample private investment is available and should be encouraged and incorporated. Public-private partnerships, and integrated project delivery at large, have led to a notable spur in improved technology deployment, especially for “information modeling,” to support better decisions and to advantageously reuse designs throughout the lifecycle of construction and operations. And there is much more to gain. With so much attention now paid to broad economic cycles, I ﬁnd it worthwhile to step back and consider what has made possible the great advances in global standards of living over the past century. Certainly the investment wave in physical infrastructure, beginning with rail and then roads, paved the way for broad productivity increases. But the last several decades have, instead, been dominated by an economic investment in digital infrastructure for computing and communicating. The fortuitous opportunity our societies have now, as we determinedly launch a new investment cycle, is to symbiotically combine physical and digital investments into intelligent infrastructure. By way of information modeling to leverage our extensive digital infrastructure capabilities to fuller advantage, I am conﬁdent that we can achieve higher ROI at lower risks than ever, enabling our projects and assets to “work smarter.” The resulting intelligent infrastructure will, in turn, sustain renewed growth in economic activity and productivity, more cleanly and safely than before. The Year in Infrastructure 2008 provides an inspiring indication of how extensive, diverse, and effective are the innovations you are already applying in information modeling for intelligent infrastructure. At this time within a difﬁcult economic cycle, we should be mindful that our work is a key to the solution. Indeed, a silver lining for our professions is the widespread public realization now that—in comparison to the short-term gloss of “ﬁnancial engineering”—our “real work” pays off sustainably. Thank you for your contributions to sustaining infrastructure throughout 2008 as we enter 2009 with the acknowledged capability—and, may we also add, conﬁdence— to lead a sustainable improvement cycle. 56 Be Magazine | Volume 6 Issue 1 http://www.nxtbook.com/fx/clients/bemagazine/awardsarchivesearch.php http://www.nxtbook.com/fx/clients/bemagazine/awardsarchivesearch.php

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of BE Magazine - Volume 6, Issue 1

BE Magazine - Volume 6, Issue 1 Contents Anticipation’s Name Is V8i Be Awards of Excellence Kicks Off Competition Bentley Launches the Most Comprehensive SoftwarePortfolio for Infrastructure Ever Assembled in a Single Release MicroStation V8i Up Close & Personal Is Water the New Oil? How Does Intent Become Reality? Does Performance Create Sustainability? Renewing Confidence in Public Highway Infrastructure Enterprisewide System Manages International Airport Standardized CAD/GIS Platform Streamlines Infrastructure Engineering 3D Modeling Refines Reusable Design for Plant Prototype Lean Teams Deliver Automotive Assembly Plants Through Innovative Use of BIM Integrated 3DModels Enable Compact and Safe Plant Design Sustainable Development Supports Thriving Community Terminal Pumps Natural Gas Through Longest Subsea Pipeline Large UtilityWorks To Reduce SO2 Emissions Aging Power Station Boosts Engineering Productivity Hydropower Dam To Fuel Growing Economy Collaboration Tools Accelerate Chinese Railway Electrification System Design Rapid Rail Link To Meet Socio-Economic Development Goals High-CapacityWastewater Treatment Facility ReclaimsWater Resources City ExpandsWater SupplyWithout Deploying AdditionalWater Resources Private Calling Meets Public Service Learning Paths Map Skill Development for Infrastructure Professionals A Contemporary Approach to Site Design The Art of Visualization Special Feature: Be Communities Physical + Digital Investments = Intelligent Infrastructure

BE Magazine - Volume 6, Issue 1

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