GPS World

Tag: project management

  • Technology streamlines construction of tunnel project in Italian Alps

    Technology streamlines construction of tunnel project in Italian Alps

    The construction of the Perca Bypass, a critical infrastructure project underway in the Italian Alps, highlights the increasing role of advanced technology in managing complex builds. Located near the village and commune of Perca — a destination known for its tourism trade — the new 632 m tunnel and supporting road network are designed to improve regional connectivity and enhance commuter safety.

    The project, which began in 2023 and is expected to take three years to complete, is being delivered through a joint venture between European construction group Strabag and regional specialist Alpenbau. Once finished, the bypass is expected to relieve the flow of up to 26,000 vehicles that pass through Perca daily during peak periods, easing congestion and opening new routes for both tourism and local commerce.

    Given the large number of machines, teams, and partners involved, coordinating the work requires effective management and communication tools. Alpenbau, drawing on a long-standing collaboration with Topcon Positioning Systems, the team is now using Topcon’s Aptix Integration Platform, which enables site managers to monitor and oversee progress remotely, offering real-time insights into workflow and project status without leaving their offices.

    Acting with Aptix

    “Aptix is a very convenient solution for us to manage our construction sites,” said Benjamin Niederkofler, CEO of Alpenbau. “One of the advantages of Aptix is that you can directly load 3D models onto machines that are equipped with machine control systems. This means that you always have the possibility to monitor the site from the office. This is a very important and fundamental tool for us to remotely monitor a construction site.”

    Aptix consolidates data from different contractors and machinery, regardless of the manufacturer or operating system, and provides a comprehensive view of project performance. Senior leaders can access essential metrics in real time, such as work progress, fuel consumption, and carbon emissions, improving the ability to make informed decisions.

    Control, Collaboration, Clarity  

    Throughout every stage — from planning and design to actual construction — the platform supports automatic workflows that deliver designs to machines and collect telematics data without manual intervention. This automation reduces the risk of missing information and helps maintain clear communication among stakeholders.

    A joint effort of this scale requires constant collaboration among contractors, local authorities and other stakeholders. The Aptix platform helps facilitate transparency in workflows by allowing access to daily productivity reports and construction data, supporting open cooperation and oversight for both project managers and crew.

    “Recently it has become increasingly important that we create transparency and co-operation on this construction site and share productivity daily with construction management or even with our customers,” said Niederkofler. “Having this transparency across the entire construction site is a decisive advantage.”  

    Andrea Marzi, technical director at Strabag Italy, added, “This unique platform allows all parties involved in the project to access all relevant construction information and data.”  

    Once completed, the Perca Bypass is expected to generate new economic opportunities for the region. Project leaders say that by adopting innovative digital workflows and centralized data management, they are able to direct complex operations more effectively and deliver the project with increased speed and accuracy.

  • Trimble announces new construction management solution

    Trimble announces new construction management solution

    Logo: TrimbleTrimble has announced Project MEP, a construction management solution that provides visibility into mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) workflows including estimating, change management, project management, detailing and fabrication. Project MEP allows for greater efficiency, collaboration and visibility across projects in the electrical, mechanical, HVAC and plumbing contractors fields.

    Project MEP manages drawings, documents, budgets and field productivity while extending construction management workflows with a suite of capabilities including estimating, submittal management and fabrication collaboration. The solution also provides project managers with the tools to identify issues faster, reduce rework and deliver more profitable projects. Project MEP is available as part of Trimble’s cloud-based construction management platform, Trimble Construction One.

    “MEP project managers are closely involved with every detail of a project from bid to closeout, but in today’s construction environment the data they need isn’t always readily available,” said Lawrence Smith, vice president of Trimble Construction Management Solutions. “With Project MEP, Trimble is breaking down information silos … while also providing the tools project managers need to run a job more efficiently. Now MEP contractors have a construction management solution that gives them the big picture of project health and the ability to track details such as the status of a spool.”

    Project MEP addresses MEP workflows including bid turnover, model collaboration, submittal management, design to fabrication, model-based estimating and field-to-office.

  • Topcon announces MC-Max machine control solution

    Topcon announces MC-Max machine control solution

    Topcon Positioning Group has announced its MC-Max machine control solution. Based on its MC-X machine control platform, and backed by Sitelink3D — the company’s real-time, cloud-based data management ecosystem — MC-Max is a scalable solution for mixed-fleet heavy equipment environments. It is designed to adapt to owners’ machine control and data integration needs as their fleets and workflows expand.

    MC-Max increases processing power, speed, accuracy, versatility and reliability, Topcon said. It can be installed on a full range of dozers and excavators, using the same basic modular components. Modern, redesigned user and product interfaces were developed based on real-world applications and customer feedback and provide a simplified and immersive user experience that allows operators to easily learn the system.

    Photo: Topcon
    Photo: Topcon

    “With MC-Max, we’ve created a solution that is flexible and can continue to grow as a contractor’s needs and capabilities expand,” said Jamie Williamson, executive vice president, Topcon Positioning Group. “This new solution provides improved scalability and precision in the field and offers business owners real-time data integration, connectivity and resource management capabilities across their entire workflow.”

    The MC-Max solution offers flexible mounting solutions, as well as optional automatic blade and bucket control for a variety of machines. The system also provides a full battery of positioning technologies ranging from slope control to laser, multi-constellation GNSS, robotic total station and millimeter GPS systems.

    MC-Max provides project managers a real-time view of machine positions, activities and onsite progress, and is compatible with a wide range of site communications systems.

    Topcon MC-X Platform. The Topcon MC-X Platform is designed to make machine control easy to use and affordable for contractors. The platform ties together mixed fleets by interacting with multiple versions of 3D-MC, providing connectivity to Sitelink3D and taking advantage of the multi-constellation capabilities of GNSS antennas.

  • Hexagon acquires Jovix material tracking company

    Hexagon acquires Jovix material tracking company

    Photo: Jovix
    Photo: Jovix

    Hexagon AB, a global leader in digital reality solutions, has acquired the Jovix software and services business from Atlas RFID Solutions LLC of Birmingham, Alabama.

    Jovix is a material tracking software developed specifically for the construction industry, providing project decision-makers with real-time, actionable data regarding material status and location.

    The cloud-based and mobile configurable workflow platform offers visibility and traceability into the status and location of materials throughout the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) lifecycle. This streamlined process, coined “material readiness” by Jovix, ensures construction crews have required materials without delay to complete their work according to plan. This is achieved by fully digitizing the supply chain to provide real-time, geo-contextual, and relational visibility from fabrication to installation.

    Jovix combines web-based server software with information from multiple types of sensor tags and readers to automate previously manual, paper-based data-collection workflows about the status and location of material as it moves throughout the construction supply chain.

    The software has been deployed in 25 countries on more than 650 job sites, including multibillion-dollar oil and gas and chemical construction projects. There are more than 7,500 Jovix users worldwide.

    “The acquisition supports our continued expansion into the procurement, fabrication, and construction market,” said Hexagon President and CEO Ola Rollén. “By removing impediments to productivity that result from material management issues intending to reduce material wait times to zero, Jovix provides value for owner-operators, EPC firms, contractors, fabricators, and suppliers.”

    Jovix will be fully consolidated as of Oct. 1, operating within Hexagon’s Project Portfolio Management division. The acquisition has no significant impact on Hexagon’s earnings.

  • Bentley Systems releases open-source library, iModel.js

    Open-source JavaScript library for creating immersive connections to infrastructure digital twins.

    Bentley Systems has released its iModel.js library, an open-source initiative designed to improve the accessibility, for both visualization and analytical visibility, of infrastructure digital twins.

    iModel.js can be used by developers and IT professionals to quickly and easily create immersive applications that connect their infrastructure digital twins with the rest of their digital world, the company said.

    iModel.js is the cornerstone of Bentley’s new iTwin Services that combine iModelHub, reality modeling and web-enabling software technologies within a Connected Data Environment for infrastructure engineering.

    iModelHub manages an iModel as a distributed database with an intrinsic ledger of changes — enabling alignment, accountability and accessibility of its digital components — to form the backbone of an infrastructure digital twin.

    The iModel.js library is a comprehensive collection of JavaScript packages that build on the most open, popular and flexible standards for modern cloud and web development. It is written in TypeScript and leverages open technologies including SQLite, Node.js, NPM, WebGL, Electron, Docker, Kubernetes, and HTML5 and CSS. The same codebase can produce cloud services and web, mobile and desktop applications. The source code is hosted on GitHub and is distributed under the MIT license.

    With iModel.js, it is simple to create a web-based experience that shows interactive “nD” views (1D, 2D, 3D, 4D, etc.) of iModels that are assembled and synchronized from BIM files and other digital engineering models, as well as from data created directly with iModel.js.

    Those same views can also include digital (reality) context, real-time sensor data, and other data from enterprise sources and analytics. Since the iModel is synchronized by iModelHub, it always reflects the most recent updates from all project participants, who are thus able to visualize and analyze changes between points in time or between versions. Importantly, only users and applications authorized by the iModel owner, through iModelHub, are granted access through iModel.js.

    “iModel.js gives Hatch the ability to implement a stakeholder engagement technology that extends the iModelHub visionary technology,” said Johan Palm, program manager of digital project delivery at Hatch. “We can expose complex project information to a level that is accessible, consumable and extendable via the cloud and in context to the 3D model. Most importantly we can do so in a manner that embraces change as the project progresses. iModel.js aligns with Hatch’s internal development strategies as it is built on modern, highly portable web technology. Bentley is a key software technology partner on Hatch projects globally where our main objective is to provide a positive impact to our client’s assets and operations.”

    “The digital twin powered by iModelHub is efficiently improving project management, substantially reducing the waste of resources caused by site problems and will achieve digital handover after completion of the project for visual operations and maintenance,” said Cai Chengguo, chair and general manager at Shenzhen Expressway Consulting Group.

    “We firmly believe that iModel.js, and of course the foundation upon which it is built, is the most open, productive, intuitive and powerful development environment for capital projects and infrastructure assets, ever,” said Keith Bentley, Bentley Systems’ founder and CTO. “We’re excited to work with user organizations, strategic partners and third-party developers to build an open ecosystem around iModels to tap the vast potential of infrastructure digital twins. With iModel.js, the well-refined techniques of mainstream cloud and web development can leverage the physical and virtual reality in digital twins with near-zero impedance. By open-sourcing the libraries we use to create our iTwin cloud services, we expect to foster a substantial and vibrant ecosystem of innovation.”

  • Topcon announces connectivity enhancements with Bentley Systems

    Topcon Positioning Group announces advances in its direct communication between the Bentley Systems design applications and the Topcon suite of software solutions with the release of MAGNET 4.3.1.

    The MAGNET Enterprise Data Manager is designed to allow operators to directly access Bentley ProjectWise data with MAGNET Field, MAGNET Office or MAGNET Enterprise applications.

    “The updates are part of our commitment to working with third-party software applications, such as the Bentley offering, to provide efficient data exchange and a seamless workflow environment,” said Jason Hallett, Topcon vice president of global product management. “When connected to MAGNET Enterprise from MAGNET Field, you can directly upload and download data from ProjectWise, allowing surveyors or machine control model-builders upload or download iModels or other project file types.”

    The integration is designed to simplify data transfer from design to field, with the unique ability to read and import only the data users need for their projects.

    “It builds upon our industry-first ability to offer ‘round trip’ iModels — sending them directly to field operators who can use and update them directly on the jobs site, and then send the updated iModels from the field back to Bentley ProjectWise,” Hallett said.