We all know the nation’s infrastructure is desperately in need of investment and overhaul (our own Tiffany Diehl sheds light on some of the worrying facts in her article Are Bridges in the U.S. Making the Grade? State Rankings Reveal a Grim Reality.) But when the infrastructure in question resides on one of the most seismically active metropolitan areas in the country, state transportation departments have an imperative to up the ante. Such is the case with one of the biggest engineering projects in California history, the replacement of the current south access road to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Known as Doyle Drive or Route 101, the route is structurally and seismically deficient and, built in 1936, it’s also come to the end of its useful life.

Numerous government agencies are moving ahead by incorporating the Building Information Modeling (BIM) process into their workflow, but some are still yet to be convinced of the benefits that an intelligent model can provide. Recently, we assisted a public sector client faced with a unique challenge; they had to decide whether to retrofit two existing structures into one or demolish both and build a new structure. Using the BIM process, we were able to help them identify substantial cost and time savings by changing the direction of the project from demolition and rebuild, to a retrofit.

This article was guest-written by Nancy Mann Jackson City and county budgets have been slashed over the past few years, but residents still expect the same level of service they enjoyed during more prosperous times. Public works departments still must pick up garbage and recyclables, repair potholes, and maintain other services, but with less money. In some cities, public works departments are finding ways to go beyond the status quo, creatively using technology to improve services in an affordable way. For instance, a new city administration in Chicago recently initiated a 10 percent budget cut across all departments, but services continue to improve, thanks to creative solutions implemented by Thomas Byrne, commissioner of the Department of Streets and Sanitation. One ward supervisor oversees each of the city’s 50 wards, and those supervisors once spent many hours driving around their wards, keeping up with the sanitation trucks assigned to them and making sure they stayed on schedule. Byrne and his staff recently installed GPS devices in each sanitation truck, and connected those devices to Blackberry devices provided to the ward supervisors. “Now a ward supervisor can go to the [Chicago Mobile Asset Tracker] CMAT database with his Blackberry anytime and it shows him where each truck is that is assigned to him,” Byrne says. “They know exactly where all their trucks are all the time.”

This year has truly been the year of tornadoes. As of May 24, there have been 1,208 tornadoes reported in the U.S. in 2011 (about 875 were confirmed). Perhaps the most devastating of theses tornados struck the people of Joplin on Sunday May 22, 2011. The tornado left an estimated 123 people dead, 750 injured, and about 1,500 people missing. According to NOAA “The Joplin tornado is the deadliest since modern recordkeeping began in 1950 and is ranked 8th among the deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history.” Google has responded to the need to know more about this destructive tornado and visualize the before and after impact of this deadly and unprecedented event. Google Maps now includes a visualization (seen here) of the tornado’ path. The path of the storm can be followed by the fuchsia line. The starting point is marked with red, and the end point is marked with green. The light green area of the map represents the part of the city with scattered reports of damage. The damage is mostly from downbursts and falling debris. The dark green is the area that the tornado caused severe damage and the red area was totally destroyed.

Next Tuesday is a busy day for anyone in the AEC industry involved in sustainable design projects. Here are two upcoming webcasts that provide insight on how to accelerate sustainable design projects and comply with federal energy performance standards: BIM Webcast: Accelerating Sustainable Design with BIM Improving Federal Energy Performance, Part 2

By Lynn Allen, Autodesk Technical Evangelist Showing AutoCAD users the new features in AutoCAD 2012 has been an absolute dream for me. There’s something in it for everybody and it has been a real crowd pleaser! There are new 2D and 3D features – so regardless of how you use the software – you’re sure to find a new tool that will save you some valuable drawing time – let’s take a look! For those of you who key in commands (and you know who you are) you’ll find the new AutoComplete a welcome addition. You just start typing – and AutoCAD will present you with a myriad of commands and system variables that start with the same characters (a definite time saver). The in-canvas viewport controls allow you to quickly setup a viewport configuration, shift to a different viewing angle, or change your visual style.

The visual appeal of a well-designed map created in GIS can blind many to the treasure within. It can also lead people to believe all we are doing is making pretty maps. If you're working for an agency that still doesn't “get” GIS, how can you help open their eyes to the true value hidden within the map? Sometimes the best way is to determine a question your agency has always wondered about and use GIS to provide the answer. One question for our city was, does every building in the city have a water meter? To answer this, we simply plotted in GIS all the water meter accounts using addresses from a file given to us from water billing. Then we compared these account locations to the locations of existing buildings. We used the polygons from our building feature, but we could have also used an aerial. By doing this, we could tell right away where there was a building but no meter. And where we knew there was a building that had to be using water but was shown with no meter, we knew something was wrong. Because we also have water service lines and shut-off valves in GIS, we could also see if there was a service but no meter. But any utility could perform the same check even if they had no service or shut-off data.

The mobile market is expanding at the speed of light and Autodesk isn’t going to be left in the dark. They’ve recently expanded their mobile portfolio to include their software-as-a-service platform, Buzzsaw, making it available for your iPad or iPhone. By combining the power of AutoCAD WS (Autodesk’s mobile version of AutoCAD) with Buzzsaw mobile, AEC designers are now able to view their files from the field AND submit changes and alterations to the master file via a secure online collaborative website.

The fourth and final episode of Geospatial Revolution, a public service media initiative aimed at educating us about the world of digital mapping and how it is changing the way we think and use maps, premiered earlier this month. The episode, titled “Mapping Power to the People,” looks at the world around us and provides examples of how the global population and governments are use mapping and geospatial technology. Representatives from public sector organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are prominently featured and both offer testimonials to the necessity of mapping in global analysis of crop production, global disease prevention, etc.

For agencies seeking to comply with Executive Order 13514, recent budget cuts have slashed many opportunities to invest in newer, more efficient and sustainable facilities and buildings. So the issue shifts to one of energy management – and the question becomes - what is the best we can do with what’s already given, and reduce our usage to the most efficient level? One option comes in the form of Power Analytics (formerly EDSA), the San Diego-based power analytics company. Power Analytics has been in the business of energy management for over twenty years and counts a range of U.S. military branches and numerous civilian agencies such as NASA among their customer base.