CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

14 January 2009

Implementation Investments

CDM Meets Aggressive Schedule, Reduces Man-Hours in Arbennie Pritchett Water Reclamation Facility Design

CDM, a global environmental consulting, engineering, construction, and operations firm, won a 2008 Be Award of Excellence in the “Innovation in Water Resources” and in the “Attaining Return on Innovation” categories for its Arbennie Pritchett Water Reclamation Facility in Florida. The project is featured in the new publication “The Year in Infrastructure 2008,” available online from Bentley Systems at http://www.bentley.com/YearInInfrastructure2008 The CDM project called for the design and construction of a state-of-the-art, 10 million-gallon-a-day facility to increase the wastewater treatment capacity of growing Okaloosa County in the coastal Florida panhandle. Because the CDM team had to complete the final design in less than six months, rather than the eight- to nine-month average for a project of this size, the project team needed to visualize the client’s facility and agree on the form of the elements early in the design process. To meet this schedule, CDM employed a design-build delivery method using Bentley’s 2D to 3D AutoPLANT integration capabilities and ProjectWise collaboration software. Through the use of Bentley’s intelligent 3D modeling software across all design disciplines, CDM produced 300 drawings for more than 20 buildings and structures using 17 percent fewer man-hours.

Commenting on the project, William Nelson, CDM vice president, said, “The need for a collaborative work environment was critical given that the engineering team was dispersed geographically. Using Bentley’s innovative software the team could agree on the form and function of the elements early in the process, design for sustainability, deliver the final design, and begin construction on time.”

Nelson continued, “By using a collaborative rather than an iterative approach, we compressed the design schedule by 30 percent, minimized construction conflicts, reduced engineering and redesign, and produced more effective team and client reviews. Bentley products helped us to manage more than 5,000 engineering documents and to provide the latest information available to team members, which led to better decisions and less rework.”

For additional information about Bentley’s AutoPLANT software, visit http://www.bentley.com/plantdesign. For additional information about Bentley’s ProjectWise collaboration system, visit http://www.bentley.com/projectwise.

For information about how to enter projects for consideration in the 2009 Be Awards of Excellence competition, visit http://www.bentley.com/BeAwards.

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