ACEC Engineering in B.C.

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ACEC-BC Fall 2018 Message from the President and CEO

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Engineering of smart cities

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Mass timber: changing the way we build with wood

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Wildlife detection system improves saftey through technology

4

Semi-automated roadway corridor asset inventory collection from mobile lidar

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Virtual reality in engineering design: here to stay

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The building industry’s answer to a new focus on carbon

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BIM to the digital twin

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Breaking the barrier for mobile integration in current processes

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Keeping runways operational

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Variable speed limit system

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message from the President and CEO

By Keith Sashaw, president and CEO, ACEC-BC

I

t is an exciting time to be an engineer! At one time, the popular misconception of an engineer was someone who toiled away on a slide rule working on obscure and complex formulas designing bricks-and-mortar structures. Often their work was underappreciated and taken for granted, unless something catastrophic happened.

Now, engineers, especially members of the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies of BC, play pivotal roles in all the important issues facing modern society, from addressing climate change, protecting our natural environment and dealing with game-changing technologies such as

autonomous vehicles to providing solutions to challenging and vexing problems.

In this issue of Business in Vancouver, we have gone out to the members of B.C.’s consulting engineering community and asked them to submit articles on “hot engineering technologies.” What technologies lie ahead that will transform our lives in unimaginable ways? What technologies are in use today that were thought to be impossible five years ago? In this edition we will focus on leading-edge technologies that engineers are using in a multitude of applications, from virtual reality to innovative equipment to new and exciting solutions to engineering problems.

We are pleased to present an array of articles on a wide range of topics. The message is that change is accelerating, and new technologies are being developed and implemented that will have a big impact on almost every aspect of our lives going forward.

Given that most Canadians now live in urban settings, there are tremendous opportunities to make our cities smarter, so that increasingly complex and interconnected infrastructure can operate more efficiently and cost-effectively.

Innovative building materials not only address the needs of the people who live in those buildings, but also play an important role in dealing with environmental issues and, in the case of wood-frame buildings, also help to promote B.C.’s major industry.

Can you imagine being responsible for tracking the signposts by the side of every highway in B.C.? What was once done by hand can now be done easily and effectively by driving down the road, assisted by sophisticated technology.

Most people, especially those with children, know there have been incredible advances in gaming, with the use of augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality. Our members are utilizing these

new tools in innovative and creative ways to improve engineering design, visualization and stakeholder engagement. The use of these technologies provides insights into the engineering and construction process that allow everyone involved in the chain to visualize projects in a way that can save both time and money.

Hot technology is changing the way in which consultants provide services to their clients as well. By integrating software and hardware, engineers can better address the needs of clients by utilizing building information modelling, whole-building life cycle assessment and other tools. Engineers and clients have more information than ever before to track performance issues.

There is no doubt we are facing many challenging issues. What is heartening is that solutions are being developed at an astonishing rate to help citizens, owners and policy-makers make better decisions and deal with issues in innovative ways. •

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ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES BRITISH COLUMBIA

ACEC Engineering in BC

Engineering of smart cities

By Homayoun Vahidi, P.Eng., IBI Group

Evolution of smart cities Despite its many different definitions, “smart cities” is one of the most popular terms used today. Most definitions tie data and technology to the well-being of citizens and their communities, but the reality is that a single definition is not needed or realistic because of the different needs and priorities of our cities, and the rapid evolution of technology. Smart cities have actually been around for a long time.

Through engineering innovation we have always strived as societies to make things better for our communities, and in doing so, we have made our cities progressively smarter. Everything from the first solid waste treatment plant through to the first traffic signal light represents steps taken by cities to be smarter and to better serve their residents.

We have a long way to go, but something profound has changed that is accelerating the rate at which we move towards becoming smarter and smarter cities. As technology gets embedded in the fabric of our lives, we are left with a residual that is the new gold: data. Vast sums of data are generated every second about the state of our cities and their residents. When combined with the predictive aspects of artificial intelligence (AI), our communities are empowered with a constant “feedback loop” of how we are doing and how we are

going to be doing. This will allow engineers to design solutions that are dynamic as opposed to static.

For example, advanced water management models leverage the use of sensors to monitor flow and the water cycle at a city network level. The emergence of the internet of things is enabling pipes and sensors to be connected through the cloud for rainwater collection and a proactive approach to flood control.

Similarly, researchers at the

Transformative leaders and bridges.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a system to collect and analyze biochemical data from sewage water, allowing scientists to analyze bacteria and viruses, monitor the impact of health policies and more quickly detect infectious outbreaks, helping prevent pandemics. The City of Toronto uses a large-scale intelligent water transmission control system to effectively minimize water-pumping energy costs while ensuring consistent service delivery standards – including pressure, flow and water quality. Over a period of six months, 16 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy was saved – at a projected cost savings of about $1.5 million per year based on kWh reduction alone.

Another example relates to intelligent street poles. Street lamps are everywhere as a necessity in our cities; the recent migration to next-generation LED street lamps is allowing cities to leverage their presence as a platform for various other sensing technologies for things such as weather, air and noise pollution and seismic activity, as well as security, traffic, bicycle and pedestrian activity. Networking such sensing technologies can provide a new window into the health of a city and its users.

What the future holds Smart-city initiatives are experiencing a sharp increase in many communities

Chris Newcomb, McElhanney

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across the globe. Cities that are transitioning from independent and ad hoc efforts to a more integrated approach, whereby various projects are linked for maximizing benefits and outreach, are on the path to the future “smart city.” In Metro Vancouver, the cities of Vancouver and Surrey have partnered to compete in the Government of Canada’s Smart Cities Challenge, which is intended to empower communities across the country to address local issues through new partnerships, big data and connected technology.

Artificial intelligence has the potential to profoundly transform our cities and the engineering of solutions that make them smart. The ability to process vast amounts of data, from the well-being of our citizens to that of our buildings, roads and cities as a whole in real time, and dynamically adjust and tweak how they function based on not only prevailing needs but also anticipated needs, will lead to truly smart cities in the very near future. For example, imagine a city that can detect the potential outbreak of a new virus (using health data and AI predictions) and increase the availability and accessibility of the applicable remedy.

As engineers, our search for, and the application of, innovations is a never-ending goal. As we work towards designs to make our cities smarter, it is important to look through a holistic and citizen-centric lens, as opposed to one that focuses on technology alone. •

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ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES BRITISH COLUMBIA

ACEC Engineering in BC

Mass timber: changing the way we build with wood

By Tanya Lüthi, P.E., M.Sc.Eng., senior associate, Fast + Epp

T

wenty years ago, few people could have imagined wooden skyscrapers.

Today, modern mass-timber technology allows us to harness wood’s high strengthto-weight ratio and workability to build entirely new kinds of wood structures that are not just engineering marvels, but beautiful and environmentally friendly.

Wood as a structural material has a history that dates back millennia. Over time, wooden structures evolved from simple shelters to tall pagodas, spacious churches, long railroad trestles and multi-storey warehouses, some of which are centuries old and still standing today. Beginning around the turn of the 20th century, however, wood began falling out of favour for large-scale urban buildings. Steel and concrete offered greater material strength, helping pave the way for the modern skyscraper, and building and fire codes began limiting the use of combustible materials like wood in certain building types. In later decades, the growing environmental movement also raised concerns about deforestation.

Modern technology has allowed build-

Today’s engineered wood products are made by combining small pieces of lumber with mechanical fasteners or adhesives, resulting in higher-strength elements

ing designers to reverse this trend. Today’s engineered wood products are made by combining small pieces of lumber with mechanical fasteners or adhesives, resulting in higher-strength elements. These techniques also mean the size of an element is no longer limited by the size of the tree we cut. In fact, products such as cross-laminated timber (CLT) have introduced panelized elements to the mix, allowing timber buildings to be highly prefabricated and quickly assembled.

On the fire side, the behaviour of masstimber structures is vastly different from that of their light-frame wood cousins due to the mass of their components: rather than igniting easily and being consumed quickly, mass-timber elements form a protective char layer on the exterior. Finally, forestry practices in North America and Europe have evolved to promote sustainable harvesting of wood, ensuring this carbon-sequestering resource can be renewed for future generations.

Mass timber has already ushered in the era of the tall wood building. Beginning

with the nine-storey Murray Grove in London and the 10-storey Forté in Melbourne, structures across the globe have pushed beyond prescriptive building code limits and demonstrated that these types of structures can be built quickly, safely and cost-effectively. At the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, the 18-storey Tallwood House at Brock Commons was completed in 2017. The mass-timber gravity system for this student residence building was erected at a rate of two floors a week, with a tight construction budget and a crew of fewer than 10 workers.

Although many engineers feel the sweet spot for a pure mass-timber building is in the six-to-12-storey range, the lure of competing for “world’s tallest” will continue propelling us to new heights.

Another 18-storey building is nearing completion in Norway, and a 24-storey tower is under construction in Austria.

Industry studies hint at the possibility of 80 storeys and beyond, often using hybrid techniques that combine timber with concrete or steel.

Ongoing research will continue to drive mass-timber technology forward, leading to new products and systems and deepening our understanding of how these structures behave. One exciting area of research is post-tensioned “rocking” timber walls and frames, which re-centre themselves after an earthquake. This type of low-damage design exceeds the minimum life-safety standards in our codes and could drastically reduce the negative economic impact of earthquakes in high seismic zones: instead of demolishing and rebuilding more traditional structures that sustain severe damage, seismically resilient buildings can be easily repaired. Other promising research has been done on CLT subjected to blast loads, and further studies of the fire performance of mass-timber elements and connections continue to demonstrate the safety of these structures when properly designed and detailed.

The challenges facing mass timber range from the design and construction worlds to the regulatory one. On the design side, achieving new building heights and longer floor spans in an economical way will push engineers’ creativity. Timber is strong but lightweight, which means that wood structures are susceptible to problems with deflections and vibrations.

Increasing our capacity to produce and customize mass-timber products and to erect mass-timber buildings will also be a key factor for future success, particularly in North America, where timber fabrication and construction techniques have not kept pace with those in Europe. In the regulatory arena, engineers and code developers must make a concerted effort to update our building codes to accurately reflect the current mass-timber state of the art.

Mass timber is a technology that is transforming our built environment today and will continue to do so in the future, maybe in ways we have not yet imagined.

By embracing these transformations, we have the opportunity to build safer, faster and cheaper; reduce our carbon footprint; and create beautiful spaces that will last for generations. •

The Tallwood House at Brock Commons; Consultant: Fast + Epp; Owner/Client: UBC Properties Trust; Prime Consultant: Acton Ostry Architects; Photo by Brudder, courtesy of naturallywood.com

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ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES BRITISH COLUMBIA

ACEC Engineering in BC

Wildlife detection system improves safety through technology

By Cory Edgar, P.Eng. and Fred Vey, Senior Design Technologist (PBX)

E

ach year, thousands of collisions with wildlife are reported on B.C. highways.

Wildlife vehicle collisions (WVCs) often result in serious personal injuries, endanger various wildlife species and cost millions of dollars annually. Through an analysis of historical collision information, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure identified two corridors along Highway 3 in southeastern B.C. as having the highest densities of large WVCs in the province.

To protect the surrounding natural wildlife habitat and improve safety for travellers, the ministry sought to reduce the number of WVCs in the area through the application of an appropriate technology solution.

A number of potential mitigation options were examined, ranging from civil infrastructure improvements to fencing.

However, the most appropriate solution was determined to be the application of an effective technology to detect the presence of wildlife and advise motorists in a manner that appropriately informed their driving behaviour, encouraging them to slow down.

The solution consists of a suite of intelligent transportation system components integrated with high-performance security technologies. A series of volumetric

Wildlife warning sign activated on Highway 3 as a herd of bighorn sheep pose a collision risk for motorists radar-based presence detectors are located along the identified corridors. These detectors monitor the three-dimensional area of the roadway and the immediately adjacent shoulders to detect the presence of large animals on or in proximity to the roadway. Thermal and colour cameras record the presence of the animals and overall operation of the system to assist

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with calibration and verification.

The radar detectors are augmented with specialized video analytics in key areas to mitigate detection challenges introduced by terrain or other features. A field-located central control system analyzes the detection data from all sensors. When a large animal is detected, the control system activates a series of warning signs that advise motorists of the presence of animals to help ensure the safety of the animals and the travelling public.

PBX Engineering planned, designed and commissioned this unique system. Extensive testing and data validation were undertaken to verify the correct performance and accuracy of the system. Due to the remote nature of the sites, particular attention was paid to the reliability and resiliency of the system. Each corridor operates autonomously, with system notifications and performance monitored remotely from the ministry’s Regional Transportation Management Centre.

Accurately and reliably detecting wildlife on roadways and effectively actioning that data into useful notifications to drivers is a complex problem. Factors such as weather, terrain, the unpredictable nature of wildlife and the remoteness of these locations combine to make deploying an effective system a very challenging endeavour. This problem is not limited to B.C. As such, PBX conducted significant research on approaches taken by other jurisdictions in North America. Numerous possible technical solutions were identified and analyzed.

There were two principal keys to success on this project: 1. Understanding that complex problems cannot always be solved with simple solutions – sometimes a sophisticated solution is the right answer. Insufficiently capable technology was one of the leading lessons learned from poor outcomes experienced by other jurisdictions that attempted to implement systems with similar objectives.

2. Leveraging technologies from multiple fields of practice. PBX identified that commonly used transportation technologies did not have the breadth of capabilities required to fully address this

challenge.

PBX drew on its extensive experience in perimeter detection applications for critical infrastructure security systems to identify and apply leading-edge detection technologies. The engineered solution was a highly effective fusion of driver notification systems from the transportation field, combined with sophisticated detection and analysis technologies from the security field.

The wildlife detection system (WDS) provides the area’s wildlife with greater protection, and motorists within the corridor with a safer commute than ever before. Extensive field testing confirmed the very high degree of accuracy of the system, providing drivers with confidence that when the signs are activated, wildlife is nearby.

The wildlife detection system (WDS) provides the area’s wildlife with greater protection, and motorists within the corridor with a safer commute than ever before

The system has a demonstrated impact on driver behaviour, with vehicles travelling measurably slower through the corridor when the warning signs are activated, resulting in a reduction of WVCs by 79% and 23%, respectively, along the two corridors.

In overcoming the multitude of challenges inherent to developing and deploying this solution, the WDS is a remarkable achievement that holds potential for WVC-prone highways across Canada. The merits of this project were recognized by a number of awards, namely: the Award of Merit at the 2017 Association of Consulting Engineering Companies (ACEC) British Columbia Awards for Engineering Excellence, and the 2017 ACEC Canada Award of Excellence. •

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ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES BRITISH COLUMBIA

ACEC Engineering in BC

Semi-automated roadway corridor asset inventory collection from mobile LiDAR

By Christian Babuin, P.Eng., project director, pavement engineering and asset management, and Reza Malehmir, PhD, project scientist, Tetra Tech

I

magine having to track approximately 65,000 traffic signs, 2,000 kilometres of guardrails, 10,000 kilometres of rumble strips, and 20,000 of other corridor assets.

This daunting challenge is what it takes to properly maintain B.C.’s highways.

In the past, updating the asset inventory was done entirely by people. This meant someone would go into the field or scroll through thousands of geo-referenced images and manually identify every asset.

Both of these methods are time-consuming and expensive. Not only that, relying on considerable manual input introduced the possibility of human error.

To improve the efficiency and accuracy of tracking roadway assets, Tetra Tech developed a robust, automated and semiautomated method that uses LiDAR (light detection and ranging, a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure distances to an object) and imagery data collected from a mobile vehicle platform.

Tetra Tech used this method to remotely inventory assets – in near real time with high precision – by incorporating it with its integrated Pavement Surface Profiler (PSP) data. The PSP is an instrumented vehicle that collects roadway corridor and pavement condition data at normal driving speeds. The PSP collects LiDAR and panoramic imagery to extract the assets and gathered pavement condition data on the province’s highway network. The LiDAR data coupled with the PSP’s global positioning system (GPS) referencing system is one of the most accurate methods for pinpointing highway assets – and it’s extremely efficient.

For the asset inventory, Tetra Tech collected more than 75 terabytes of data, for 9,000 kilometres of LiDAR point clouds and panoramic imagery from the British Columbia highway network (one terabyte can hold up to two million photos). Current technologies allow vehicle-based datacollection platforms to collect millions of data points per second from all directions at posted highway speeds. Using machinelearning algorithms, roadway corridor assets were extracted and assigned preliminary classifications. The semi-automated confirmation and identification of assets was completed with tools for viewing the initial automated classification results. Tetra Tech inventoried all traffic signs, guardrails, curbs, line paintings and markers, rumble strips, safety features and roadside facilities with a high level of accuracy.

The vehicle used for data collection carries Tetra Tech’s Trimble MX-8 and Reigl VUX LiDAR units – some of the most accurate survey-grade mobile LiDAR units available. They can collect more than one million GPS-referenced data points per second. The two 360-degree cross-planeoriented sensors minimize LiDAR shadow and provide a high-density point cloud with full coverage of the roadway corridor.

All of Tetra Tech’s data is geo-referenced with an Applanix POS LV system, which

One of Tetra Tech’s Pavement Surface Profilers (PSP) utilized in an asset extraction project uses inertially aided global navigation satellite system (GNSS) or GPS technology to maintain robust, continuous and accurate vehicle-chassis position and orientation information even through areas of poor GNSS coverage. These very precise systems are required so that the LiDAR data and spatially referenced imagery can accurately locate and identify roadway assets.

Once this data has been acquired, computers take over the initial process of locating and classifying the required inventory assets.

These processes successfully identified and classified assets from roads in every region of the province in both urban and remote areas. The strength of the algorithm was revealed when it was used to extract assets from dense urban areas in the Lower Mainland. Tetra Tech was able to precisely recognize over 13,000 traffic signs and nearly 1,000 other assets using automated and semi-automated methods followed by extensive quality assurance/quality control routines with over 98% accuracy.

Since this approach is accurate, efficient and robust, it can be implemented annually and could be used to monitor roadway assets using the geo-referenced images to identify changes in the roadway network.

Annual updates give those responsible current and accurate information, which allows them to make better-informed decisions for managing the networks.

This kind of work has been envisioned for decades, but the computing power for handling and processing such large data sets has been possible only in the past several years. As recently as five years ago, this project would have been virtually impossible to complete on a standard desktop computer. As portable computers and wireless network connections become more powerful and reliable, imagine where the asset management industry could be in another five years. •

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ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES BRITISH COLUMBIA

ACEC Engineering in BC

Virtual reality in engineering design: here to stay

VR allows users to interact with structures before they are built

W

e have all heard the buzzwords “VR” and “AR.” They promise wow-factor technology: imagine being able to take clients out to a job site and project a

By Brendan Walashek, GISP division manager, McElhanney Consulting Services Ltd.

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hologram of their new building, overpass or park right before their eyes. Well, that technology is here now, is here to stay and is highly effective.

With roots in the gaming industry, AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) have migrated over to other enterpriselevel industries such as health care, architecture and engineering. It is used to visualize and collaborate with 3D models in a way that just cannot be accomplished with a traditional desktop computer screen. The same technology that is being used to make computer-generated imagery, special effects, animated movies and the latest 3D game engines is now being used to build virtual worlds showcasing engineering designs.

McElhanney Consulting Services Ltd. increasingly uses VR, AR and mixed reality (MR) in engineering design, visualization and stakeholder engagement. VR is immersive and can be used in an office, whereas AR and MR augments – or adds to – real-world viewing by overlaying 3D models or holograms on top of reality. Our in-house development team at McElhanney can take complex Autodesk Civil 3D designs and output them into interactive and immersive virtual worlds. The ability to tweak design and interact with the 3D model in a 1-to-1-scale environment is invaluable for engineers, clients and public stakeholders. Users put on a headset and run through what-if scenarios by changing objects in the model as they walk through it. Want to see a few different options for a bridge tower? Point and click the support tower to cycle through the options. Want to increase live traffic flow to see how traffic volumes impact a highway interchange?

Simply click away!

As an example, McElhanney created a VR model of the Sultanganj bridge, a cable-stayed bridge designed to cross the Ganges River in India, allowing designers to view various structure options before construction started. This added a new and interactive tool for client consultation, which can be used on any structure or

design. Changes can be made before going to construction by seeing a wide range of functional concerns, sightlines and even clash detection issues. VR users can tour, move underneath and interact with a bridge, change a pillar’s shape, play with railing options or widen a bike lane. VR is much more than a rendering, video flythrough or static 3D model on a computer screen. VR creates new opportunity.

A streamlined workflow from Civil 3D to VR allows us to change the way designs can be viewed by technical and nontechnical stakeholders. It’s an innovative way for designers, planners, clients and stakeholders to share and collaborate on design, bringing a Skype meeting or public engagement platform to a whole new level. Storyboards, 2D posters and design drawings frequently cannot convey the real-world presence of a final project. This technology invites stakeholders to “visit” the project – from the comfort of an office (VR) or from a site (AR/MR).

So which technology is going to be the winner? AR, VR or MR? The answer is all of them! Each visualization tool has its advantages and disadvantages. VR relies on you to be tethered to a powerful computer via a series of cables. The VR headsets are inexpensive, but the gaming-level laptop is not. AR and MR allow the user to walk around more freely without being hampered with a computer or cables. Then why use VR? To answer that, you need to know what your client needs to see. The complexity of the models and complete immersive environments in VR are much more detailed than you can produce in an AR/MR environment. In general terms, you get what you pay for. AR is inexpensive, can be consumed on a smartphone or tablet, but is the least powerful. VR and MR are more powerful, richly immersive, but can carry a heavy price tag.

With costs decreasing on headsets and the ongoing advances in holographic headsets (such as the Microsoft HoloLens), VR, AR and MR are no longer a technology of the future; it’s a promise of today. •

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ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES BRITISH COLUMBIA

ACEC Engineering in BC

The building industry’s answer to a new focus on carbon

By Chris Heysel, sustainability analyst, and Helen Brennek, project manager, WSP

Code

High-performance

Net-zero

F

or over a decade, sustainability in buildings has focused on energy efficiency, including reducing operational energy demand and careful equipment selection. Following the Paris Agreement, a shift from energy to carbon reductions occurred. As the building industry continues to lower energy use and carbon emissions in buildings, a new focus, the embodied carbon of buildings, has emerged.

There are two ways to categorize a building’s impacts on the environment: (1) those which result from operating a building; and (2) those which are emitted in the manufacturing and eventual disposal of building materials. These categories are referred to as operational and embodied impacts, respectively.

As our buildings continue to increase operational performance and move towards net-zero emissions during operations, the salient impacts of a building will become the embodied impacts as you effectively remove the operational impacts.

Governments and industry are now asking: What are our buildings made of?

What are the environmental impacts of these materials? And most importantly, how do we reduce them?

As our buildings continue to increase operational performance and move towards net-zero emissions during operations, the salient impacts of a building will become the embodied impacts as you effectively remove the operational impacts Enter whole building life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA is a modelling technique that quantifies the embodied environmental impacts in all life stages and reports them in standard indicators. Life stages include raw material extraction through to processing, manufacturing, distribution, use, maintenance and disposal. In regards to standard indicators, a familiar example is kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent as an indicator of global warming potential, but there are many other indicators that can be looked at, such as water consumption or smog formation potential.

LCA is a powerful decision-making and reporting tool for design teams and building owners alike, and will become a mandatory tool for projects in the future.

In fact, LCA is already required by the City of Vancouver’s Green Buildings Policy for Rezonings, with embodied carbon emissions reporting at three project permitting milestones. Sustainability rating systems for the built environment, such as LEED

Operational carbon Embodied carbon

Importance of embodied carbon

and Envision, have also begun rewarding projects that put in the effort to examine this broader view.

LCA can answer key questions to inform design decisions for projects wanting to take a more holistic approach. For example, can we find a balance between the embodied impacts of additional insulation and the energy consumption impacts of heat loss through the building envelope?

How much insulation is too much? Or, during procurement, is it better to source a material with higher recycled content from farther away or are the environmental impacts reduced for a local material with a lower recycled content? Does the reduction in manufacturing impacts due to recycling outweigh the transportation impacts for farther travel?

Only now is the building industry being encouraged to grapple with these questions.

With the growth of LCA, a variety of software platforms have been developed to serve a market that is still finding its footing. Software such as Athena, Tally and GaBi can be used to create a building LCA model that considers where materials come from, how they are manufactured, where and how they are transported and how the building is constructed on site. The model then sums the impacts of these steps in each material’s life cycle to calculate its life cycle impacts. Design decisions can be informed by looking at a whole building model or by examining relative impacts for specific materials. For example, our team recently provided a model comparing wood and concrete options for a building structure, and were able to show definitively the significant environmental advantages of pursuing a wood highrise option.

LCA is a team sport, and projects should approach it as such. To effectively conduct an LCA, early consideration and buy-in from the design team is necessary, especially from the architect, envelope and structural consultants. Because of their complexity, LCAs are typically provided by a specialized LCA consultant included on the design team, though these specialists often also wear the hat of energy modeller or sustainability consultant. A well-working team that commits to LCA early in the design process can realize significant savings in terms of

greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts.

As we see rating systems and regulating bodies asking for embodied carbon disclosure, it begs the question: what comes next? With the City of Vancouver building its data set of embodied carbon emissions for rezoning projects, it seems more than likely that the data set will be used in the future to inform further policy – specifically, mandated reductions in

embodied carbon intensity. When asked about this, the City of Vancouver has publicly stated that following disclosure, reductions to embodied carbon may become a requirement, though it has also indicated that this would initially be a voluntary requirement, possibly with incentives. Regardless, it appears that LCA is here to stay, and, as with energy modelling, the building industry will eventually see its widespread adoption. •

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ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES BRITISH COLUMBIA

ACEC Engineering in BC

BIM to the digital twin

By Aubrey Tucker, associate, innovative technology developer, Stantec

R

aw ideas will always be born out of the needs of those commissioning new buildings. When we extract data from these ideas we form the constraints and foundation for a computational or BIM (building information modelling) approach. This allows us to identify the key decision factors and visualize them as both mathematical data and geometry within real-time render engines. This future of real-time decisionmaking is the product of technological innovation and the bones of a “digital twin.”

Data-driven design is different from designing to have an efficient plan or to meet Building Owners and Managers Association goals, because in the latter case, the geometry is attempting to meet a criterion through an iterative process of trial and error. Data-driven design will have geometry react to data and be inherently confined to it. This is like seeing a dashboard of data visualization – the graphic story can be expressed in many creative ways, but the graphics themselves are confined to represent the data. As we continue to mature, data visualization will become a paramount skill.

Projects inherently generate truckloads of information during design development – the resolutions found in design co-ordination, the reasoning behind certain designs that are client driven and the world of things that happen on site during construction.

The industry has only just begun visualizing this information. By simply categorizing types of requests for information on a project, a heat map can be generated that helps the team better understand site priorities and which disciplines need to focus on their construction administration.

Platforms like Revizto enable yet another opportunity for data collection with design collaboration. With a large hospital authority, the many stakeholders appreciated being able to comment on a design review collectively. Thousands of comments were distributed back to the design team, often with hundreds of duplicates. Within Revizto, they were able to view and expand comments through additional chats on each comment. Once the review was completed, the Stantec design team could interrogate the comments and address priority for a much more realistic project management perspective.

“Reality capture” is critical for renovation projects, and the close-out process of new projects can greatly benefit from using this technology. Having an as-built scan that is conducted sequentially throughout construction can revolutionize the ability to manage a portfolio of sites, and enables designers tasked with future renovations. The big problem with the as-built process today is the gap from intent to actual. A LiDAR scan converted into geometry does it flawlessly, quickly and economically.

These are the technologies needed for digital twins, which are essentially

interactive data visualizations of a physical building, facility or object. The United Kingdom has just started issuing requests for proposals for critical infrastructure to have a common data environment for the very purpose of running and learning from a digital twin. This isn’t new technology; Boeing has been using digital twins for decades to evaluate and simulate airplane components and entire aircraft themselves.

Data visualization comes back into the picture to visualize all the data points collected through the physical (real) building systems and internet of things (IoT) devices. Creating the digital twin environment is a new digital design business that was previously in the realm of master planning for a client.

It is an intimate relationship that educates a designer on what aspects of a building

product matter to clients’ businesses.

Understanding their businesses and how they manage their data will create lasting relationships with clients since the team will understand what data matters and how the building fits into the master plan physically and digitally.

All of the approaches for computational design, BIM and any advanced technological approach for design, construction and management are leveraged in the digital twin. Harvesting operational and design data is only going to grow the potential to learn from the past and present. Connecting IoT sensors to interactive web-based dashboards within a common data environment can be the medium to compare the future’s design, operations and research, making society an ever-improving place. •

Leading with Science® Tetra Tech’s scientists and engineers are developing sustainable solutions for the world’s most complex projects. With more than 3,500 employees in Canada and 17,000 associates worldwide, we have grown to become one of North America’s largest engineering firms.

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ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES BRITISH COLUMBIA

ACEC Engineering in BC

Breaking the barrier for mobile integration in current processes

Real-time field data collection, analytics, and visualization, for insights and decision making

By Atif Khan, P.Eng., director of research, development and implementation, Great Northern Engineering Consultants

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here are lots of opportunities in our day-to-day business operations to add value by integrating mobile devices into these processes. Even with the widespread adoption of mobile devices, many processes still use paper and do not take full advantage of what smartphones and tablets can offer, such as an ability to automatically capture time, accurate location, images and bar codes that can enrich your data. Implementing features like multiple choices or note dictation can offer huge time savings. Mobile integration can improve data quality by eliminating illegible handwritten notes. Portability is another great benefit of this technology.

Despite all of the advantages and tools available, the adoption of mobile applications has been slow because custom mobile applications are difficult, timeconsuming and expensive to develop and implement. Off-the-shelf apps that claim to answer everyone’s needs don’t provide enough flexibility to address individual, unique business needs. Most off-the-shelf apps offer predefined widgets that can be configured to a limited extent but are designed as a “one size fits all” solution.

This results in poor user engagement and retention. Information collection is only one part of the challenge. Even if we manage to collect the data digitally, often we are left to wrestle with making sense of it all. Poorly designed apps can affect data quantity and quality, which invalidates the purpose and can have drastic long-term effects.

At Great Northern Engineering Consultants, we started to incorporate mobile and software automation to improve our internal business processes with a strong focus on user engagement. Simplicity and the intuitive interface of our applications are the core of our design philosophy. We are utilizing these technologies to help our clients and partners to improve their processes as well.

Some examples of how we are leveraging mobile technologies are: Data collection tool – Assetdc.com Upgrading street lights to LED on a large scale requires a lot of planning. Most of the data available to design our strategies is usually incomplete, old and inaccurate.

To tackle the daunting task of collecting a large set of data, we utilized the iOS mobile platform to design a custom data collection application that can be used to collect any desired data set.

What makes this application unique is the full control of the flow of data and ability to modify the user interface, allowing us to incorporate tweaks that not only improve the data quality but also speed up the collection process. By closely monitoring the collection process, we are able to address users’ needs, such as making mobile devices easier to use in winter by increasing the size of buttons, switching colours on the screen to high contrast on a sunny day, auto predict data field values, or turning off auto correct for text fields and adding dictation entry mode, to name a few.

What makes this application unique is the full control of the flow of data and ability to modify the user interface, allowing us to incorporate tweaks that not only improve the data quality but also speed up the collection process

The ability to engage with field users at this level improves the data quality tremendously, and the ability to incorporate real-time updates and visualization of data through a web portal allows us to share the data live with designers and other stakeholders.

Document distribution systems Often in large projects there are many stakeholders involved, working in parallel to complete the project. We designed an application that incorporates the use of QR codes in all our engineering drawings. This allows us to keep all stakeholders involved in the project updates with the latest changes in the design. With just one scan, anyone can be connected to the latest version of the drawings. This not only improves co-ordination among all involved but also assists in avoiding expensive mistakes that could arise when working with outdated versions of drawings.

Technology is improving by leaps and bounds, and we are using these technologies as they are meant to be used, with the control of every action and pixel to enrich our data and improve our processes. We are constantly working with our clients, vendors and partners to incorporate these technologies and software automation, so they too can improve their processes. •

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ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES BRITISH COLUMBIA

ACEC Engineering in BC

Keeping runways operational

By David Kelly, P.Eng., electrical engineer and project manager, Opus International Consultants (now part of WSP)

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eeping runways operational during all conditions is essential to the safety and operation of international airports, such as the Vancouver International Airport (YVR), and sophisticated lighting and safety systems are key elements in allowing airplanes to take off and land in all weather conditions. Low-visibility conditions, which occur during nighttime, rain, snow, sleet and fog events, cause significant risk to airports during takeoffs and landings, since pilots and airport control tower operators cannot visually see the runways or nearby air traffic. The lighting and safety systems play a critical role in successfully mitigating low-visibility conditions.

The innovative solution of using a flywheel UPS system to provide large-scale uninterrupted power during a power outage while the backup generators started up was key, as it allows significant flexibility in how the generators are operated.

The electrical system operating the airfield lighting and safety systems is therefore paramount to the safety and success of YVR as a global airport leader. No interruption can be tolerated, and a reliable backup power system that provides a continuous supply during power outages is essential.

While YVR’s airfield lighting system has been updated to new energy-efficient LEDstyle lights, the existing electrical backup power system was nearing its end of life.

A new, modern solution was required to replace it.

Keeping the airfield lights operating and online can be challenging. When airfield lighting systems are required during lowvisibility conditions, such as storms and extreme weather conditions, the BC Hydro

utility supply could be disrupted by adverse weather events. When a utility power outage occurs with conventional backup power systems, the airfield lighting power source automatically switches to standby diesel generators, but this could take a number of seconds to switch over.

During this “blackout period” the airfield lights are off – which could occur during a critical takeoff or landing stage. The solution to this problem at many airports is to pre-emptively turn on the generators and use them as the primary source of power to run the airfield lighting systems for the complete duration of any low-visibility event, regardless of whether the utility power was available or not. While this solution effectively eliminated the blackout period, it is highly inefficient and expensive, as the diesel generators were constantly running and operated for extended periods of time regardless of whether they were needed or not.

YVR desired a highly efficient backup power system for its airfield lighting based around flywheel energy storage technology. Opus International Consultants (now part of WSP) worked with YVR to select and design a flywheel energy storage and power generation system to solve these problems. This system consists of redundant high-efficiency diesel generators, an intelligent power distribution system and a high-capacity flywheel uninterruptable power supply (UPS) system. This configuration was challenging, as the original area was not designed to house more than the generators and simple electrical switches, but the team developed creative designs that were successfully implemented.

The innovative solution of using a flywheel UPS system to provide large-scale uninterrupted power during a power outage while the backup generators started up was key, as it allows significant flexibility in how the generators are operated.

The flywheel UPS system stores energy in the form of rotating mechanical energy through a spinning flywheel. The flywheel itself is magnetically levitated and housed in a vacuum environment to eliminate losses due to mechanical and air friction. When the source power is disrupted, be it utility source or the generator source, the flywheel UPS system seamlessly and instantly converts this stored mechanical energy into electrical energy, providing ridethrough power while another power source

YVR’s highly efficient backup power system for its airfield lighting is based around flywheel energy storage technology. Redundant high efficiency generators (above) and the flywheel energy storage enclosure (below). is brought online. The flywheel UPS system ensures that the airfield lighting systems do not see any power disturbance whenever there is a utility power failure. Significant research and design development was invested to ensure the solution would be not only economically and technically viable,

but also robust, safe and reliable from an operation and maintenance perspective.

The result is a highly efficient and reliable system that intelligently reacts to a utility power failure, running the generators only when required during a utility power outage. •

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ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES BRITISH COLUMBIA

ACEC Engineering in BC

Variable speed limit system

By Ian Steele, P.Eng., PBX

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osted speed limits are the maximum legal limits under ideal conditions.

However, fixed speed limits may not be a reliable indication of safe speeds as roadways are subjected to adverse weather and poor traffic conditions.

Driving the highways of British Columbia can be challenging; often it can require negotiating mountainous terrain with varying topography. B.C. highways pass through multiple climatic zones where significant changes in elevation often result in rapidly changing weather conditions along a single trip.

The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure commissioned the Rural Highway Safety and Speed Review in July 2014.

This study identified three B.C. highway corridors that are particularly affected by changing and adverse weather conditions: • Sea to Sky Highway 99, Squamish to Whistler (30 kilometres); • Coquihalla Highway 5, Portia interchange to former Toll Plaza (40 kilometres); and rans-Canada Highway 1, Sicamous to •T Revelstoke (30 kilometres).

The study recommended that these corridors would benefit from a variable speed limit system (VSLS) to inform motorists of adverse weather conditions and automatically alter speed limits, in real time, at any point along a corridor.

PBX Engineering and IBI Group were

involved in all aspects of the design and deployment of a VSLS along the three corridors.

The VSLS is a large, complex system with multiple hardware and software subsystems. It measures road-weather and traffic conditions and transmits that data to the ministry’s advanced transportation management system (ATMS) at the Regional Transportation Management Centre (RTMC).

The ATMS then displays the updated speed limits on electronic signs along the same corridors. Speed limit reductions normally occur due to adverse weather conditions or traffic incidents. These systems use a variety of technologies to measure weather, road conditions and traffic. Technologies utilized for the B.C. VSLS include: • dynamic message signs; • variable speed limit signs; • pavement condition, temperature and visibility sensors; • traffic detection radar; • PTZ web cameras; and • data loggers.

Intelligent transportation system components are located at 53 VSLS sites along a total of 100 kilometres of highway.

The ATMS then collects this real-time data from each site, analyzes the data and recommends a speed limit. The system presents the recommended speeds for each highway segment, for acceptance by an operator, based on the lowest speed

recommended by the two subsystems.

The VSLS has been designed to support future full automation without the requirement for RTMC-official acceptance of changes to the variable speed limit signs.

Benefits of the VSLS are felt by both the travelling public and a variety of other stakeholders. The primary benefit of this system is to the travelling public where varying regulatory speeds help to reduce speed-related traffic incidents during inclement weather. Real-time road condition information has been made available across each corridor. Using the same infrastructure, similar information is disseminated to the travelling public using the ministry’s driver-information systems, including DriveBC, and dynamic message signs. The result is enhanced road safety for commercial vehicles and local regular

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road users alike. Out-of-town drivers not familiar with problem areas for adverse weather also benefit from reduced speeds along with advanced notification of road conditions.

The additional real-time and archival data gathered by the VSLS not only helps ministry staff make informed operational decisions but also maintenance contractors who benefit from the increased density of pavement temperature and condition data as well as webcam images to aid in their decision-making process.

In addition to improving safety, the VSLS provides enhanced information for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, enabling them to provide more targeted and effective enforcement, as well as providing evidentiary information as and when required for legal challenges. •