Dive Brief:
- The Federal Transit Administration has awarded the University of Cincinnati approximately $5.1 million to promote the adoption of digital platforms that improve delivery and reduce costs of transit construction, according to an Oct. 28 news release.
- The program, which is funded by the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, will test digital systems that manage the entire construction life cycle of transit infrastructure projects, which the FTA claims will lead to increased efficiency and improved project outcomes.
- Funding from the FTA’s Accelerating Advanced Digital Construction Management Systems program will allow transit agencies to test digital construction technologies and capabilities in real-world construction project settings, determine their feasibility, understand the impacts and determine the usefulness of the results, according to the release.
Dive Insight:
The FTA selected the University of Cincinnati after a competitive process, per the release. The institution has an extensive background in research and technical expertise. The research team will feature university faculty alongside personnel from the Southwest Ohio Regional Transportation Authority, the Butler County Regional Transit Authority and Akron Metro.
Many transit agencies have implemented elements of construction management, such as program, online document and asset management systems, but few have adopted a solution that integrates all functions and processes for an infrastructure program, according to the FTA.
Examples of ADCMS tech include cloud computing, artificial intelligence, data integration, modeling and simulation and real-time data processing to streamline and coordinate work processes across an organization throughout the project.
“Our goal is to help transit agencies deliver projects on time, on task, and on budget,” said Veronica Vanterpool, FTA deputy administrator, in the release. “Today’s selection will help us do that by improving efficiency and providing tools that reduce construction delays and costs and enable workers to perform tasks faster, more safely, smarter, and more accurately.”
The FTA’s program is not the only one that incentivizes stakeholders to test and adopt contech on transportation and infrastructure projects. Another Department of Transportation agency, the Federal Highway Administration, doled out $17 million to projects in eight states through its own ADCMS program.
Officials will use the results of the demonstration to produce a guide for other transit agencies with best practices in planning and deploying advanced digital construction management solutions.
