PB Network 76 Pathways To Innovation PDF

ISSUE NO.
76 AUGUST 2013
ingenuity
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A technical journal by Parsons Brinckerhoff employees and colleagues
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PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF
The Futureto ofInnovation Cities and Pathways Pathways Innovation Urban Infrastructure
Table Transport of Contents Sector
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Pathways to Innovation
INTRODUCTION
Thinking Differently About Innovation Steve Denton........................................................................ 1 What Is Innovation and Why Is It Important to Parsons Brinckerhoff and Balfour Beatty? Alasdair MacDonald............................................................ 4 Innovative Approaches to Structures on the Metrolink Phase 3 Extensions Mungo Stacy......................................................................41 Analyzing the Impacts of Explosions on Dams and Levees James Parkes.....................................................................45 The William Barclay Parsons Fellowship and Innovation: A Personal Perspective Henry Russell.....................................................................48
TRANSPORT SECTOR
Connected Vehicles: How Technology Will Transform Transportation Safety and Mobility (and sooner than you think) Scott Shogan........................................................................ 6 Innovative and Sustainable Ways of Managing Capacity on Our Urban Roadways Chuck Fuhs, Darren Henderson, David Ungemah ........... 9 Best Practice and New Directions in Building Information Modelling: Innovative Application of BIM for Rail Projects Andrew Powell....................................................................12 Exporting and Importing TOD Concepts: the Abu Dhabi Regional Rail Study Timothy Reynolds...............................................................17 Technology, Innovation, and Collaboration in Project Delivery Alan Hobson.......................................................................21 AUGUST 2013 http://www.pbworld.com/news/publications.aspx
WATER SECTOR
Network Intelligence Solutions Innovation to Meet the UK Water Supply Challenge Kathryn Vowles...................................................................50
ENVIRONMENTAL/CLIMATE CHANGE ANALYSIS AND SUSTAINABILITY

Advancing the Understanding of Former Gasworks Through the Application of Award-Winning Forensic Research Russell Thomas..................................................................53 Carbon Emissions Reduction Hierarchy Emioshor Itoya, Katrina Hazell.........................................57 An Innovative Decision Framework for Addressing Climate Change in Our Communities Christopher Dorney, Justin Lennon, Mike Flood, Chin Lien.............................................................................62 Innovative Methods of Reducing Waste in Infrastructure and Building Projects Tim Danson, Scarlett Franklin..........................................67
RENEWABLE ENERGY AND GREEN BUILDING DESIGN

Engineering Innovation in Building Projects - Fuel Cell Technology in Mission Critical Project, Hong Kong Michael Ming Fun Waye, Sally Man-Wai Yuen.................24 Solar Powered Absorption Air Conditioning Systems Chun-Fai Chan, Matthew Ngan.........................................26 Efficient Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Simulations of Natural Ventilation Across Wards in a Hospital Building George Xu, Zhengwei Ge, Tony Tay...................................30 Renewable Energy and Sustainability Solutions Toward Attaining Zero-Carbon Emissions Buildings Thomas K.C. Chan.............................................................34
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Planning in the Hands of the Community: A New Approach to 'Bottom-Up' Plan-Making Jon Herbert.........................................................................71 Social Media and NEPA Public Involvement: Opportunities to Innovate Stakeholder Engagement Eileen R. Barron, Shane Peck...........................................74 Using Innovation and Collaboration to Solve a DecadesOld Transportation Problem in Roswell, Georgia Jonathan Reid, Valerie Birch, Alice Wiggins......................76 Creating Connections With Mobile Applications Thomas L. Coleman...........................................................79
DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION, AND INSPECTION OF CIVIL STRUCTURES

Innovative Structures and the Need for Robustness Jon Shave...........................................................................38
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Thinking Differently About Innovation

by Steve Denton, Bristol, UK, +44(0)117-933-9129, dentons@pbworld.com
Innovation lies at the core of Parsons Brinckerhoffs heritage. Our ability to innovate successfully is an essential strength that has fuelled our reputation and growth from the early pioneering projects of the late 19th century through to our global business activities today. It is an essential part of successful everyday business, and a means through which we make beneficial change happen. Over recent years we have seen the pace of innovation increase, and we see that trend set to continue. Innovation matters to our clients and it matters deeply to us. As a company, we view innovation broadly, valuing incremental innovation and breakthroughs that create fundamental change for our clients and communities. We recognise innovation pioneered by individuals and innovation created across communities of collaborators. We value the inspiration of new ideas and the discipline required to realise their potential. When I reflect on my own career, innovation has been a common theme across many of my most exciting and fulfilling projects: from the development of new ways to analyse bridges that have saved clients many millions of pounds to pioneering applications of fibre reinforced polymer materials, and from the development and application of new design standards to early work on climate change adaptation. I look back on our achievements in these fields with pride.
We sought to better understand why we see hot spots of innovation, why innovation is more sustained in some sectors than others, and why some innovations flow naturally from an idea to widespread adoption, whereas others stall along the way. We examined these questions by exploring case studies where we have innovated successfully, seeking to understand what made it possible. To provide a framework for our investigation we developed a model the innovation pathway that draws inspiration from an analogy with a chemical reaction. This pathway follows fours stages, as illustrated in Figure 1 and described below: Need and Opportunity Investment Realisation Embedment (stability) To enable a chemical reaction to occur, a mixture of compounds must be present which have the potential to react with one another. When they react, they change to another state. For the reaction to be self-sustaining, the transition to this new state must release energy. Similarly, the first stage of our innovation pathway assumes that there must be a mixture of circumstances that can be changed through the innovation process to deliver benefit. It follows that successful innovations emerge from need. The recognition of this need and the potential to create a better solution generates an opportunity. To initiate a chemical reaction, there is a need for activation energy. Similarly, the second stage of our model assumes that innovation requires activation energy in the form of investment. The investment can come from different sources and be in different forms. It may come from individual members of staff or an internal funding programme, or via a project, a client, collaborators, or perhaps most likely, some combination of these. The investment may be financial, time, or reputational.
Exploring the Innovation Pathway

Yet, despite this proud heritage, it is vital that we consistently ask ourselves: Could we do even better? And it was this nagging question that led Parsons Brinckerhoff in UK to undertake an extensive study on successful innovation in 2012. We published our findings in a book, Exploring Innovation, which can be downloaded freely from the Parsons Brinckerhoff website: http://pbworld.com/exploringinnovation.
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Figure 1 Capturing the innovation pathway
The level of activation energy needed for a chemical reaction can be reduced by the introduction of a catalyst. Similarly, in our analogy, we assume that there are catalysts for innovation. These catalysts reduce the level of investment required while increasing the pace of innovation. Once the rate of return exceeds the rate of investment, the innovation progresses to the third stage of the pathway called realisation. Although this stage might be expected to be self-sustaining, it actually requires careful management to ensure all potential benefits are extracted in other words, using our analogy, so that the reaction continues to completion. AUGUST 2013 http://www.pbworld.com/news/publications.aspx A further issue about the realisation stage concerns scale. Whilst the activation energy for a chemical reaction may be independent of the quantity of reactants, the energy that can be extracted from a reaction is not the greater the scale, the more energy is released. Similarly, the benefit derived from an innovation must be dependent upon its scale of application. Once a chemical reaction is complete, a new stable state is reached. This is the point at which no further change takes place and no further energy is released. For successful innovations, this new stable state translates into business as usual. The idea that was once transformational or at the cutting-edge becomes the normal way of doing things, perhaps not just within one business but potentially across whole industries and geographies. In our original study we drew a series of conclusions about the common features that enable success at each
of these stages of the innovation pathway. Details of these findings are included in Exploring Innovation. Notably, we found that in Stage 1: Need and Opportunity, opportunity was recognised by someone with a deep understanding of a complex need and dissatisfaction with the way it was currently addressed. Thus, for a professional services company such as Parsons Brinckerhoff to recognise innovation opportunity, we must have an intimate understanding of our clients' businesses, to deeply understand their implicit and explicit needs. This conclusion contrasts with the image of the lone inventor working in isolation, that many perceive as a typical means for delivering innovations. None of our case studies fitted that model. In Stage 2: Investment, we identified that at each point along the innovation pathway those making an investment, of any type, needed a realistic prospect of a commensurate return for the innovation to progress. The return does not have to be financial. In fact, in many cases the primary benefit was reputational. However, it is clear that if the link between investor be they individual, team, company, or client and their potential for return was lost, the innovation often stalled. We also identified five key groups of catalysts. All catalysts need not be present for an innovation to proceed, but when they are, the prospects for success are improved. These catalysts are collaboration; capabilities; environment and culture; technology, tools, and facilities; and data. Finally, it was notable in Stage 3: Realisation that whilst
were excited about the important benefits that were delivered in all our case studies, only a proportion have progressed to the point where they have become widely adopted across the industry. Thus, although they have been highly successful, they could have been more so. Fully exploiting innovations requires different skills from creating them. Maximising the benefit that can be derived from an innovation required a clear exploitation strategy and disciplined management, frequently applied over an extended period of time.
Innovative Structures and the Need for Robustness; Efficient Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations of Natural Ventilation Across Wards in a Hospital Building; Advancing the Understanding of Former Gasworks through the Application of Award-Winning Forensic Research; Analyzing the Impacts of Explosions on Dams and Levees]. Embedment (stability). Some have reached a level of stability of application on several projects or have had widespread impact and have defined a new state-of-the-art [Innovative and Sustainable Ways of Managing Capacity on our Urban Roadways; Best Practice and New Directions in Building Information Modelling: Innovative Application of BIM for Rail Projects; The William Barclay Parsons Fellowship and Innovation: A Personal Perspective]. We hope you find these articles about projects at different stages along the innovation pathway interesting and useful.
Showcasing global innovations

In this edition of Network, we showcase projects or ideas at all stages along the innovation pathway, drawn from around the world. Need and Opportunity. Some projects are at the earliest stages an initial idea, responding to a specific need. [For example, see Network articles: Carbon Emissions Reduction Hierarchy; Exporting and Importing TOD Concepts: the Abu Dhabi Regional Rail Study] Investment . Some projects are at the stage where catalysts for innovation and some form of investment have provided impetus to success [ An Innovative Decision Framework for Addressing Climate Change in Our Communities; Engineering Innovation in Building Projects Fuel Cell Technology in Mission Critical Project, Hong Kong; Planning in the Hands of the Community: A New Approach to Bottom-Up Planning; Using Innovation and Collaboration to Solve a Decades-Old Transportation Problem in Roswell, Georgia]. Realisation. Others are further along the pathway and have achieved realisation with their application and value proven on specific projects [Connected Vehicles: How Technology Will Transform Transportation Safety and Mobility;
Investing in the future

Our findings from this study have helped influence our future strategy for innovation. In particular, Parsons Brinckerhoff has invested in developing a global programme, seeking to promote the value we deliver to our clients. Underpinning this initiative is a preparedness to assume a more direct commercial stake in the success of our projects and the value created by the services we deliver. One of the principal themes under this programme concerns how we address the challenge highlighted above during Stage 3: Realisation. Specifically, we are seeking to ensure that the fantastic innovations that are proven routinely on our projects are identified, supported, scaled, and deployed to the benefit of our clients, communities, and our staff around the world. In addition, we are working to capitalise on the unique potential for deploying innovations across the whole Balfour Beatty group.
Steve Denton Director of Engineering Parsons Brinckerhoff Ltd. Bristol, UK
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What Is Innovation and Why Is It Important to Parsons Brinckerhoff and Balfour Beatty?
by Alasdair MacDonald, Balfour Beatty, London, UK, +44(0)79 6666 8383, alasdair.macDonald@bblivingplaces.com
Recently, our firm has been focussing a large amount of attention on innovation, and this Network publication on innovation is part of a larger corporate outreach and communication about the importance of innovation in our work. The publication highlights how Parsons Brinckerhoff professionals are successfully innovating all around the world. Innovation means different things to different people. So we must be clear what it means for us. When talking about innovation we are not just talking about improvement (doing the same better), or invention (the process of creating the ideas), although these are important aspects. We are talking about converting ideas into actions that deliver value to the organisation and our clients innovating. There are a wealth of ideas and opportunities available to us. They come from individuals, our teams, and our competitors. They can be brought to us by our clients, our supply chain, and our partners. They can come from different industries, small start-up organisations, or can be transferred among different geographies. Sometimes the ideas come to us, sometimes we may need to look for them. The ideas that form the basis of our innovation could be new services, technologies, processes, methods, products, or business models. However, whatever the idea, only when it is put into action does it become innovation. So why should we innovate? If we look at key objectives of our business we see the answer: Client focus Pioneering solutions make us the best at meeting the needs of complex infrastructure owners. This allows us to become closer with and of more value to our clients. Growth Competitive advantage occurs where we are able to do things our competitors dont or cant do. This allows us to win more work and grow.
Efficiency Developing and sharing best practice by looking at how we can improve what we do, ensures continuous improvement. This allows us to increase our efficiency. In addition to meeting our internal objectives, it is not acceptable to stand still while the market changes around us. We must respond to international infrastructure trends: economic challenges, digital transformation, sustainability and climate change, population increase, and increasing calls for new business models to address these challenges. We must also react to competitive pressures, whether from newer well-funded infrastructure groups such as in India and China, or established organizations that are driving changes in the market. After all, as the former US Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki once said: If you dont like change, you will like irrelevance even less! So knowing what and why, how do we respond to the imperative for innovation?
Innovation making a difference to our clients and ourselves

As you will see throughout this publication, Parsons Brinckerhoff and Balfour Beatty continue to innovate every day. Areas of focus include: S-Innovation (Balfour Beattys sustainable innovation initiative) reflecting the increasing cost of energy and resources to identify efficiency and reuse measures with the aim of solving tomorrows sustainability challenges. [For examples, see Network articles: Renewable Energy and Sustainability Solutions Toward Attaining Zero-Carbon Emissions Buildings; Network Intelligence Solutions Innovation to Meet the UK Water Supply Challenge; Solar Powered Absorption Air Conditioning Systems; Innovative Methods of Reducing Waste in Infrastructure and Building Projects] Physical meets digital the use of digital technologies
to change the way we deliver, maintain, and operate infrastructure [see Network articles: Social Media and NEPA Public Involvement: Opportunities to Innovate Stakeholder Engagement; Creating Connections with Mobile Applications; Best Practice and New Directions in Building Information Modelling: Innovative Application of BIM for Rail Projects]. Delivering outcomes use of outcome-based contracting that incentivises innovation in infrastructure provision [see Network articles: Innovative Approaches to Structures on the Metrolink Phase 3 Extensions; Technology, Innovation, and Collaboration in Project Delivery]. On a personal note, I have worked for both Parsons Brinckerhoff and Balfour Beatty, and I have been lucky to have colleagues from both organisations across the globe, which has been both inspiring and energising (the latter being particularly important, as calls in the middle of the night have become the norm.) What has amazed me most is that despite constraints of structure and incentives, individuals are willing to reach across boundaries to help their colleagues innovate because it is the right thing to do! The fact that Parsons Brinckerhoff is part of Balfour Beatty gives both organisations new capabilities and new opportunities to think and work differently. Let me give you a couple of examples: In Australia, January 2013 has seen the launch of our Highways Maintenance business. This opportunity has been possible only because of the strength of the client relationships of Parsons Brinckerhoff in Australia and the proven maintenance capability of Balfour Beattys support services and construction
services divisions in the UK. Winning this work means that our highways clients benefit from the efficient UK approach that their diminishing budgets require, and Parsons Brinckerhoff and Balfour Beatty achieve growth through entry into a new market. In Texas, Balfour Beatty Construction Services US and Parsons Brinckerhoff have collaborated across divisions to put together a compelling offer which has won them the right to design and build the Horseshoe Project, a US$800m highway construction project in and near downtown Dallas. These stories, and many others, remind me why it is very fulfilling to work for an integrated company that is dedicated to designing, building, and maintaining the assets that improve the lives of millions. We are an organisation with an existing focus on local customers. As the examples I give here become commonplace, we will become a truly global company, able to share our asset knowledge across geographies and structures. This will benefit our clients, provide exciting opportunities for our people, and ensure the sustainability of our business. Innovation for us ultimately comes down to this: in order to be a leading global business, a partner of choice, and a pioneer in infrastructure, innovation must constantly be encouraged and cultivated, and investment must be effectively targeted. Creating and building the infrastructure of tomorrow requires our industry to tackle the challenges we currently face, and to foresee the potential needs for the future which cannot be done unless we challenge the status quo. It is for this reason we continue to foster a culture that supports fresh thinking that will embolden the innovation that is so much a part of our DNA.
Dr. Alasdair MacDonald Strategic Growth and Innovation Director Balfour Beatty Living Places London, UK
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Connected Vehicles: How Technology Will Transform Transportation Safety and Mobility (and sooner than you think)
by Scott Shogan, Detroit, MI, 1-313-963-2808, shogan@pbworld.com Although remarkable progress has been made to improve traffic safety in recent decades, making a significant change in crash and fatality reduction will require a new approach helping drivers to avoid hazards that they may not even see. The US Department of Transportation (USDOT), along with a consortium of auto manufacturers and industry partners, has embarked on the development of connected vehicle technologies to address this gap. In mid-2011, the USDOT awarded development of the model deployment of connected vehicle technologies to a team, led by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), which includes Parsons Brinckerhoff in a major subcontractor role as the infrastructure team leader. Put simply, these systems will allow for continuous exchange of critical data between vehicles and the roadside in order to identify and alert drivers of potential hazards. Much as our daily routine has been enhanced by connectivity, so too can our driving task. other regarding their position, direction, speed, acceleration, and other critical information. From this data, systems within a vehicle can help to identify potential hazardous conditions and alert a driver to take evasive action. Theoretically, someday, if all cars are communicating with each other they should never crash into each other. Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I): V2I communications refers to the exchange of data and information between vehicles and roadside devices, known as DSRC roadside equipment (RSE), enabling exchange of information such as signal timing, payment information for tolling, and local road conditions (see Figure 1 for example of RSE installation).
The Connected Vehicle Concept

AUGUST 2013 http://www.pbworld.com/news/publications.aspx The connected vehicle concept is centered on the use of relatively inexpensive wireless communications and global positioning systems (GPS) to address and expand the applicability of on-board vehicle systems that exist today. Through exchange of information between vehicles in the vicinity, applications on-board a vehicle can help to identify potential hazards and alert drivers. One important and relatively new communication technology is dedicated shortrange communications (DSRC), a set of wireless channels dedicated for automotive use, and optimized specifically for use in vehicle safety applications. Very similar to WiFi, DSRC offers relatively short-range wireless connectivity, but with an extremely fast connection that can enable communication between vehicles to occur in fractions of a second, a critical factor in safety applications. Connected vehicle communications are generally defined by the following categories: Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V): with V2V communications, two or more vehicles are sharing information with each
Figure 1 Example of DSRC roadside equipment (RSE) installation
Applications
The USDOT and the Crash Avoidance Metrics Partnership (CAMP), a consortium of automotive manufacturers and suppliers, have developed a range of safety applications leveraging V2V communications. Using connected vehicle data, it is possible to alert motorists of hazards when trying to pass in an opposing lane of travel or make a lane change, or of a vehicle in front making a sudden stop, and
to assist with movements at stop-controlled intersections where there is limited visibility of conflicting vehicles. While these applications effectively target open-road vehicle interactions, crashes at signalized intersections not only represent a significant proportion of all vehicle crashes, but historically result in a higher crash severity. Use of V2I communications has been identified as having the potential to greatly reduce the occurrence of intersection crashes. By providing approaching vehicles with current information related to signal phase and timing (SPaT), it is possible to alert a driver of the likelihood of violating a red signal indication, as well as the presence of other approaching vehicles in possible violation. In addition, SPaT data has the potential to be effectively used in mobility and environmental applications by providing drivers with target progression speeds along a corridor, thereby reducing emissions from vehicles idling while stopped or at start-up.
two SPaT-equipped corridors, including both actuated and adaptive signal control; nearly 3,000 equipped vehicles, including cars, trucks, and buses; and a blend of integrated vehicle systems and aftermarket on-board devices. In our capacity as the infrastructure team leader, Parsons Brinckerhoff effectively served as designer and general contractor, responsible for the design and deployment of all roadside infrastructure, including roadside equipment installations (RSEs), SPaT-enabled traffic signal control systems, and the required communications network infrastructure to allow connection between back-end servers and the field devices (see Figure 2). Our technical team, which included systems/network and traffic engineers, coordinated extensively with both the city of Ann Arbor and Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) staff to implement communications system upgrades, deploy devices in the field, and integrate and test the roadside systems. Safety Pilot represented the first real-world deployment of most connected vehicle infrastructure, which to date had only been tested in an isolated lab environment.
Safety Pilot Model Deployment

The Safety Pilot Model Deployment, a program jointly directed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the USDOTs Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Joint Program Office, was conceived as the first true model deployment of connected vehicle technologies using real-world driving conditions and real drivers recruited from the community. The principal goal of the program is to collect data on several thousand vehicles and evaluate the potential effectiveness of connected vehicle technologies (particularly V2V) to achieve the levels of safety improvement which would warrant deployment in the United States. In mid-2011, the USDOT awarded development of the model deployment to a team, led by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), which includes Parsons Brinckerhoff in a major subcontractor role as the infrastructure team leader. Officially launched in Ann Arbor, Michigan on August 21, 2012, the one-year deployment represents the largest field test of connected vehicle technologies undertaken in the world to date, and consists of: 73 miles of instrumented roadway, including 29 RSE installations;
Figure 2 The instrumented roadways of the Safety Pilot Model Deployment site in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Parsons Brinckerhoff was responsible for the design and deployment of all roadside infrastructure used for the pilot.
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Parsons Brinckerhoffs challenge was to deploy this precommercial equipment under an extremely aggressive timeframe to meet the test objectives. This required extensive coordination with equipment vendors to properly configure the units, supporting interoperability testing with invehicle devices, and trouble-shooting issues related to the relative immaturity of the equipment. Our technical team worked with USDOT to relax remote-access security on the units to allow for collaborative management and testing of the units from our Baltimore-based network engineering team, in addition to vendor development teams in India and California. Also, Parsons Brinckerhoff had to develop contingency plans for enabling security functions on dayone of the field test with a limited RSE infrastructure due to delays in testing and production schedules. The deployment task was made more complicated by the requirement by USDOT to utilize the next generation Internet Protocol (IPv6) for communications, which is not yet widely deployed. Early in the network engineering process, our team uncovered that even most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) had limited experience deploying IPv6 network connections. Parsons Brinckerhoff worked to identify a provider for an IPv6 Internet portal and, along with the city of Ann Arbor, delivered an IPv6 sub-network within the citys own fiber-optic communications network. For remote sites along freeways which are not connected to the citys network, Parsons Brinckerhoff is working closely with a major cable provider in what would be their first IPv6 installations of this kind in the nation. Deployment is scheduled to officially conclude on August 20, 2013. The data collected during this one-year period will be used by NHTSA to determine whether V2V technologies are effective and should be included in new production vehicles. If NHTSA elects to proceed, there are several possible avenues it could take, including issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR) or asking the industry to enforce its own mandate to begin the process of requiring DSRC systems in vehicles. A similar decision for heavy trucks will take place in 2014 as well. And while the full deployment process could take several years, the Safety Pilot program has reinforced that these technologies are quickly maturing and have great potential to make a near-term impact on transportation safety. Many vehicle manufacturers have expressed their intent to move forward with V2V communications regardless of NHTSAs decision, given the need to meet increased consumer focus on vehicle safety, as well as the potential use of DSRC and other mediums (such as cellular and satellite) for mobility, information, and entertainment applications (such as GMs recent announcement to include AT&T wireless connectivity in future vehicles). As you consider buying a new vehicle in the next few years, prepare to be connected.
Coming to a Vehicle Near You

AUGUST 2013 http://www.pbworld.com/news/publications.aspx Primary data collection for the Safety Pilot Model
Scott Shogan is a certified Senior Project Manager and manages the Traffic Engineering/ITS Technical Excellence Center for the Central US. His 13-year career at Parsons Brinckerhoff has included management and technical roles in traffic engineering, transportation planning, and intelligent transportation systems (ITS) projects.
Innovative and Sustainable Ways of Managing Capacity on Our Urban Roadways

by Chuck Fuhs, Houston, TX, +1-281-589-5854, fuhs@pbworld.com; Darren Henderson, Tempe, AZ, +1-480-449-4623, hendersond@pbworld.com; and David Ungemah, Denver, CO, +1-720-837-1522, ungemah@pbworld.com
This article is a reflection on innovation with respect to managed lanes and Parsons Brinckerhoffs role in this legacy over the years. The subject continues to require innovative approaches and technology. Following the announcement of Americas interstate system initiative in 1956, barely a decade had passed before the realization was made that demand for automobile mobility in our urban areas was outstripping available capacity being added to meet that demand. Traditional ways of building enough roadway capacity were already hitting bumps in the road due to substantial costs of adding demand to the system. This realization first happened in older, more established cities where interstate construction and expansion would prove to be the most disruptive to implement. Faced with this challenge, a need to dedicate lanes to preserve or promote mobility was born in 1969 on Route 495, a key bus transit artery feeding New York City from New Jersey. This innovative 4.5-mile project, constructed for little more than $150,000, continues to serve buses on a borrowed contraflow lane. Subsequent projects in Washington, DC and Los Angeles, opened first for transit and then for carpools and vanpools, expanded ways to implement and operate such lanes. Other restricted lane projects followed in Portland, Boston, Seattle, and Miami. High-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes were first demonstrated in an era when the interstate building program
was in full swing. Four deManaged lanes are cades later this strategy has evolved to incorpodedicated lanes rate an array of innovaproactively managed to tive techniques to get preserve freeway capacity more effective use out of by ensuring operational our freeway infrastructure (and many other strateperformance at 45 mph gies targeting improved or better during peak capacity management periods of demand. of freeways and expressways) making managed lanes a more sustainable way of moving people and vehicles. What began as a way of moving bus passengers more efficiently has mushroomed into a way of managing limited roadway capacity through various combinations of access, eligibility, pricing, and traf-
Managed lanes facilities vary in flexibility and complexity with different combinations of four primary management strategies
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fic management technology. About $20 billion has been invested in more than 3000 miles of managed lanes. More than $50 billion will likely be invested in the next decade, as these lanes are increasingly seen as a means of providing long-term sustainability and reliability.
Parsons Brinckerhoffs Role

Parsons Brinckerhoff has served many roles in this legacy. Our planners and engineers have been engaged in managed lanes of various forms since the early 1980s, representing a majority of projects in operation today. We are responsible for development, policy, and operational decisions behind HOV and express lane systems in Houston, Seattle, Denver, the San Francisco Bay Area, Southern California, and system and corridor level plans in a dozen other cities. Parsons Brinckerhoffs emphasis on applying innovative technologies through sustainable managed lane practices takes many forms: Sustainable design We are working with agencies to fit the best design within the least amount of space to achieve operational objectives. This is being done while fulfilling the need for a reliable and enforceable design. On I-10 in Los Angeles, we facilitated a design for two directional lanes in the space previously occupied by one HOV lane and a wide separation buffer, while on I-110, our design introducing weave lanes at ExpressLanes access locations improved overall traffic flows. In Houston, we recommended a design that can be restriped to accommodate changes in access or a potential additional lane without future widening. On Charlottes US 74 corridor, we examined ways to better convert an existing median bus lane to accommodate a lower cost pair of managed lanes. Sustainable operation We have evaluated the potential for improving access and accessibility between managed lanes and adjacent traffic for the Bay Area express lane system, including the potential for continuous access treatment employing more effectively placed tolling and signing infrastructure. The associated benefits include lower overall cost, greater flexibility to serve transit and general traffic demand, and higher customer satisfaction. Sustainable funding We are helping agencies explore ways to implement projects more quickly through the use of congestion pricing, which can greatly accelerate implementation and benefits to customers, while not adversely
impacting transit or rideshare markets. Recent projects include I-77 in Charlotte, I-35 in Austin, and many freeway corridors in the Bay Area. Emerging innovations A wide variety of innovative technologies and practices continue to emerge in projects being implemented. Some examples: Self-declaration transponders For projects promoting HOV incentives, customers can self-declare if they are a single occupant vehicle or carpool, allowing free use or differential pricing to be charged. We tested various emerging technologies and helped Los Angeles agencies implement this approach on the I-10 and I-110 projects. Mobile apps to inform motorists An increasing array of mobile applications allow customers to make more informed choices regarding route selection and managed lane pricing. Transit credits The ability to encourage transit use, and allow free managed lane use with accrued transit credits, is currently being applied on one of our managed lane projects. Improved maintenance practice Technologies in dynamic signing and tolling equipment provide greater opportunities to maintain this equipment more safely while minimizing lane closures. Improved enforcement The role of enforcement is changing on projects and often involves less field presence. Where such presence is needed, various technologies allow officers to observe the status of toll paying customers and carpool occupants from safer vantage points equipped with devices for easier monitoring.
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I-110 ExpressLanes, Los Angeles, California, November 2012. During the first week of operation, traffic enters the Metro ExpressLanes using weave lanes added to the existing HOV lanes based on operational recommendations and preliminary design by Parsons Brinckerhoff.
or lane widths. Funding increasingly requires creative and complex structures and delivery approaches to meet financing targets. Finally, an ongoing commitment to preserve reliability means much higher scrutiny on operations, maintenance, and incident response capability. These challenges may test the capabilities of sponsoring agencies, necessitating appropriate resources to maintain these capabilities over time, and requiring greater reliance on applying lessons learned and guidance from other projectsa key role Parsons Brinckerhoff must deliver.
Integrated traffic management Increasingly, the management of tolling systems and incident response are being coordinated through integrated facilities that promote greater efficiencies in system monitoring.
Challenges and Opportunities Looking Forward

Increasingly, managed lane strategies are part of broader capacity management applications that include: enhanced transit services; intelligent transportation systems (ITS) that improve overall highway performance; transportation demand management; parking pricing; and modernization treatments that address ramps, intersections, traffic operations, and incident management. Agency partnering is occurring at an unprecedented scale in which federal, state, regional, and local agencies are coming together to implement an integrated package of strategies and improvements, leveraging the authority, capabilities, and services for each entity as appropriate. Obtaining public and political acceptance, particularly for strategies involving tolling or pricing, remains a challenge and involves risks to gain support. Design trade-offs often mean a greater emphasis on operational monitoring and incident response to address less-than-desired shoulder
Chuck Fuhs published the countrys first HOV managed lane guidelines based on a 1989 William Barclay Parsons Fellowship. He founded the firms managed lane practice, was the firms recipient of the 2013 Technical Excellence Award, and is currently engaged in managed lane projects in Texas. Darren Henderson is a National Practice Leader for Parsons Brinckerhoffs managed lane program. Over the last 13 years he has specialized in managed lane projects with his recent accomplishments including a lead role on the successful opening of the I-10 and I-110 ExpressLanes projects in Los Angeles County. David Ungemah is a National Practice Leader for Parsons Brinckerhoffs managed lane program. He is currently leading or supporting corridor projects being developed in Denver, Minneapolis, Austin, Dallas, and Charlotte.
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Taken together, these experiences are allowing even more efficiencies to be gained in managed lane projects and systems. For example, congestion pricing is just one of a host of strategies changing how public transportation agencies are embracing: improved lane management, opportunities to provide more choices to motorists, more ways of building required infrastructure, and creative options for funding and operating a more sustainable urban highway system. Looking ahead, emerging technologies will likely offer even greater benefits. In Americas many congested cities, such strategies cannot be implemented quickly enough.
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Best Practice and New Directions in Building Information Modelling: Innovative Application of BIM for Rail Projects
by Andrew Powell, Bristol, UK, +44(0)117 933 9115, powella@pbworld.com
Introduction
Track possessions, the term used for closing a stretch of railway for rail improvement projects, are strictly timelimited to minimise passenger disruption. Unanticipated events can adversely affect the schedule, and penalties for failing to hand the track back on time can be very high. Traditionally, track possession planning has been carried out using a combination of a project schedule and staging diagrams. These diagrams are not to scale and do not accurately represent the physical constraints of the site. This article discusses the innovative application of four dimensional (4D) building information modelling (BIM) processes by Parsons Brinckerhoff and Balfour Beatty Rail to rail track possessions in the UK. BIM is traditionally associated with building design and construction, and the application of BIM for civil infrastructure is relatively new. The 4D models are used in several ways, firstly to verify the planned approach, next to ensure coordination among the activities taking place in parallel across the work area, and finally as a communication tool to effectively brief all of the personnel involved in the course of the work.
Figure 1 Staging Diagram
Existing Working Practices

The rail industry in the UK has a very traditional approach to design and construction. This is manifested through the simplistic methods that have been applied to planning rail possession work. Traditionally the work activities are planned and communicated using a series of staging diagrams (see Figure 1) that represent in a very diagrammatic manner what activities are taking place within the work site. These staging diagrams are supported by a simplistic project schedule, often in the form of a time chainage diagram (see Figure 2), which represents some but not necessarily all of the activities of the project, and a matrix of the works trains and equipment that will be required.
Figure 2 Time Chainage Diagram
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Trial application of BIM to rail possession planning

BIM is a relatively new but rapidly developing concept for the rail industry. Initially Parsons Brinckerhoff was asked to carry out a proof of concept trial on an upcoming section of track renewal for the Track Partnership, a Balfour Beatty Rail and London Underground joint venture. The Track Partnership was seeking to apply BIM techniques from elsewhere in the construction industry, to improve their own track possession and renewal processes, to reduce risk on their projects, and to minimise disruption to the network. Typically multiple renewals are carried out every weekend for short sections of track. These are done during a 52-hour long possession of the line, from late Friday evening until early Monday morning, at which time the track is closed to normal rail traffic. For this project, the process that was followed involved taking the staging diagrams for the renewal project and turning them into a 4D BIM model the 4th dimension being time, applied in a 3D environment. The first task was to create dimensionally accurate representations of the work area and equipment that would be used, including all of the trains and rolling stock (see Figure 3). Much of this exists in public domain models from websites such
as 3D Warehouse, others had to be created from scratch. These models were then assembled into the various works trains and equipment convoys to represent all of the equipment in a geometrically correct way (see Figure 4). These could then be overlaid on top of the design drawings and plans of the work site. From this it quickly becomes evident how different the staging diagram representations are to the actual geometrically accurate models. The project schedule (see Figure 5) was developed using Microsoft Project and includes all of the activities that have a time impact; also the links that these tasks have with subsequent activities were created. Typically the movement of the works trains and equipment were not included in the schedule even though this movement could take an appreciable amount of time in such a short schedule and have critical links to subsequent activities. Once the component parts of design, work area and equipment, and project schedule had been created, it was then possible to start combining these to form a 4D model. There are a number of software applications that can be used for this, but in this instance the schedule simulation functionality from within Bentley MicroStation was used. The main reasons for this were that rail clients in the UK require MicroStation files as part of their deliverables and so the design information was available in the native DGN file format and, the various animation movements had to follow the curving track alignment which isnt easy to achieve in some of the other applications. The animation producer tools in the application were used to create scripts for the works trains and equipment movements required (see Figure 6). The programme was then linked to the model file to trigger the movements of the works trains and equipment along the tracks in accordance with the schedule. This allowed a 4D simulation of all of the key activities to be run to simulate the whole of the track possession period.
Figure 3 Rolling stock models
Figure 4 Accurate geometric models
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Figure 5 Project Schedule
Figure 6 Animation scripts
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Issues identified through the process.

Comparing the coordinated 3D model, we were able to quickly identify several issues that were likely to lead to problems during the track possession period. Some examples are described below. The representations of the works trains (Figure 7) had a combined length approaching 1km and would need to be carefully stationed in order to allow the equipment convoy to be manoeuvred into the required location (Figure 8). The second example was that the equipment convoy itself had to be moved into the work area in order to allow one of the works trains to move over a set of adjacent points. From the model we were able to de-
termine that the space between the adjacent points and the work area was less than the overall length of the equipment convoy (see Figure 9). We were also able to carry out a geometric assessment of the manoeuvring of a crucial piece of lifting equipment that was restricted by loading constraints on an existing bridge (Figure 10). An additional outcome of the process was that a detailed 4D visualisation model was generated that shows the various staging diagrams in a visual format and this was used as a briefing tool for all the stakeholders, including the client and all personnel working on the site during the track possession (Figure 11).
Conclusion and future developments

Although the project team, during its own review process, was able to identify all of the issues that Parsons Brinckerhoff discovered in the proof of concept trial, the power of applying BIM techniques is clear from the evidence of being able to have a team unfamiliar with this type of project identify the critical issues quickly. Allowing the project team access to these techniques will significantly reduce risk for these projects in the future by making it far less likely for issues which might cause problems on site to be missed during the planning stages.
Figure 7 Staging diagram graphical representation of plant convoy movements
Turnham Green
Plant convoy
WTE needs to be clear for plant to move into work area
Figure 8 Model view
Figure 9 Model clearly shows that the equipment convoy clashes with work area
Parsons Brinckerhoff and the Track Partnership intend to use BIM in even more innovative ways in future rail projects. Two techniques currently being developed are the addition of key asset information to the models so this information can automatically be generated when required by the network operator and maintainer, and the use of laser scan surveys of sites and locations, which are often available, to allow the project teams to look in detail at the potential constraints in each individual site context.
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This was one of the first applications of BIM techniques for a track replacement project. However, these techniques have subsequently been applied to several other Balfour Beatty Rail and London Underground Track Partnership projects, including a 12-day blockade project where the track was closed for an extended period of time.
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At Parsons Brinckerhoff we are seeing BIM technology that is used in one part of the business being successfully transferred to other areas to the benefit of projects that would not normally be expected to use BIM. We are also identifying and developing new BIM techniques that can be applied across a variety of projects. At Parsons Brinckerhoff we have excellent experience of applying BIM to projects across the globe; sharing this experience is key to being able to promote our reputation in this area. [The author would like to acknowledge the advice and support of colleagues involved in the project and the review of this article, in particular: Steve Naybour Track Partnership Business Improvement Manager, Balfour Beatty Rail / Track Partnership; Franco Pittoni Technical Director Planning and Project Controls, Parsons Brinckerhoff Ltd; Richard Palczynski Head of BB Group Programme Management Office, Parsons Brinckerhoff Ltd; and Paul Brown Design Visualisation Manager, Parsons Brinckerhoff Ltd.]
Andrew Powell is Head of Building Information Modelling (BIM) for Parsons Brinckerhoff in the UK. He is a qualified architect and has worked on many multi disciplinaryBIM projects as part of the sustainable buildings solution team. He is now responsible for applying BIM across all of the UK business units in response to the UK governments requirement for BIM on all public sector projects by 2016.
Figure 10 Crane reach analysis using the model to determine sufficient reach across bridge
Figure 11 4D Visualisation used for stakeholder communication and site staff briefing
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Exporting and Importing TOD Concepts: the Abu Dhabi Regional Rail Study
by Timothy Reynolds, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1-513-639-2129, reynoldsti@pbworld.com
Transit Oriented Development (TOD) is a common practice among transit agencies and cities throughout the US. Parsons Brinckerhoff has been in the forefront of not only designing TODs throughout the US, but has introduced and explained the benefits of the concept in areas where there had been little attention to creating pedestrian-friendly, mixed use developments around transit stations. Despite its widespread applications in the US and other countries, TOD isnt a concept that immediately comes to mind in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where oil is abundant and gasoline is cheap. In just 40 years, its cities have sprouted from tiny villages to major urban centers. Their form is almost exclusively auto-centric and much closer to the North American model than the European. Its oil wealth allows the UAE to invest in public infrastructure at a massive scale and rapid pace, but as the nation looks ahead, it is planning ahead for the end of cheap oil in the future: public transport networks are being built and the concept of TOD is starting to take root. The UAE aspires to be a first world nation with many of the characteristics of the worlds most modern cities. But in terms of station area and transport oriented development, what should Abu Dhabi emulate? The Abu Dhabi Department of Transport (DoT) asked Parsons Brinckerhoff to find out. The Abu Dhabi Regional Rail Study (ADRRS) was conceived by the Abu Dhabi DoT to begin the implementation of a national passenger rail network. It contracted with Parsons Brinckerhoff in 2010 to conduct the study. Parsons Brinckerhoff provided a locally innovative and comprehensive vetting of alternatives and results through a rigorous, US-style alternatives analysis, ridership and cost modeling, and financial feasibility process. ADRRS concluded in 2012 with a recommended 154.1 km (95.8 mi.), 56.1 billion AED ($15.3 billion) line connecting the cities of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah (see Figure 1). Six of its stations would be located in suburban areas served by trains every 7.5 minutes.
Urban Design Principles

The neighboring emirate of Dubai recently opened a 46mile Metro line. For its first potential rail project, the Abu
Sharjah Festival City/ Airport Dubai Central Jumeirah Village 2
N1
Ghantoot
DWC/Jebel Ali 2
KIZAD 2 Abu Dhabi Central
Shahama Abu Dhabi Airport Capital District
Alignment Stations
Figure 1 Abu Dhabi Regional Rail Study Route
Five major principles were defined: 1. Connectivity and integration with other public transport modes should facilitate access for all persons. 2. The public realm should be designed to enhance the identity of station areas. 3. Station areas should be attractive, convenient, and safe. 4. Station design should be sustainable and sensitive to the environment.
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Dhabi DoT has stressed that major infrastructure projects be used to foster sustainable community development around stations and as part of ADRRS. This resulted in the report by Parsons Brinckerhoff, Urban Design Concepts and Public Transport Oriented Development, completed in February 2012. The report goes beyond stating a desire for pedestrian-oriented urban design and TOD by achieving consensus on a wide range of principles and actions that are not generic, but apply to a variety of urban conditions and environments.
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Cross-Trackway Vehicular Connection Secondary Intermodal Staging Area Cross-Trackway Pedestrian Connection Cross-Trackway Pedestrian Connection Cross-Trackway Vehicular Connection
5. Stations should be focal points for development, intensification, and mixed uses.
TOD: Commercial
Parking Facility
Achieving Principles with Guidelines

Parsons Brinckerhoffs urban and station design teams worked together, as the urban context and station design influenced one another. Parsons Brinckerhoff developed 63 individual guidelines, tailored to apply to different station area types: Established small city/neighborhood center; Currently minimally developed/community edge area; and Industrial/employment zone.
Bus Staging TOD: Retail/Commercial
Station
Taxi Zone TOD: Retail/Commercial
Plaza
Auto Pick-Up Drop-Off Zone TOD: Residential with Ground Floor Commercial TOD: Residential with Ground Floor Commercial
Using the example of a small city/neighborhood center station area type, Parsons Brinckerhoffs Figure 3 Spacial hierarchies first step was to develop a graphical hierarchy of station area design (see Figure 5). By showing the station connections, uses, and land use priorities (see Figure 2). design and applying local design themes and colors to the surrounding development, the provisions of convenient intermodal connections and neighborhood linkages were more fully depicted.
Parking Structured or shaded
Physical/Visual Connection to Exisiting Community and Development
Cross-Trackway Pedestrian/Vehicular Connection Staging area Bus stops and shelters
Seeing is Believing: Exporting US Best Practices

Each guideline was illustrated with examples of transport systems from around the world with an emphasis on areas with climate, topography, and urban conditions that relate to the UAE. The
Bus Station
Pedestrian
Pedestrian access to/from community Bicycle access to/from community/trail system
Cross-Trackway Pedestrian/Vehicular Connection
Auto/Taxi
Separate auto pick-up/ drop-off staging area Taxi queue and pick-up drop-off zone
Figure 2 Graphical hierarchy of connections, uses, and land use priorities
The second step was the design of spatial hierarchies and relationships between specific elements, such as the placement of streets and city blocks (see Figure 3). The relationship between elements is strongly influenced by the design of the regional rail network itself. The trackway, within even established neighborhoods, will be on a raised earthen berma necessary design feature to minimize sand accumulation. The third step was the development of a layout for a conceptual station and TOD that pinpoints where various urban design and TOD guidelines are applied (see Figure 4). The fourth step was the merging of the conceptual design of the stations with the conceptual
Figure 4 Conceptual design for established small city station
Figure 5 Conceptual station and station area design rendering
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illustrations helped inform each action or activity and served as a starting point for further development as the regional rail project progresses. Some examples (Figures 6 10): An airy, landscaped viaduct along the Los Angeles, California Metro light rail system, illustrating Principle 1 (connectivity) through the guideline: Where trackways are elevated at station areas, well-designed, open and airy viaducts should be used to allow for pedestrian and vehicular travel to both sides of the station, maintain civic connectivity, and foster Figure 6 Los Angeles Metro light rail system commerce. New bus shelters near Phoenix, Arizona illustrating Principle 2 (public realm) through the guideline: Street furniture should be coordinated with station and landscape design and be suitable for the climate. Downtown Charlotte, North Carolinas wayfinding system illustrating Principle 3 (station areas) with the guideline: Clear and attractive wayfinding elements should be provided to enhance connectivity and orientation, and direct visitors to local destinations. Indigenous shade trees at the Tempe Transportation Center in Arizona, illustrating Principle 4 (environment) through the guideline: Shading
should be provided, either naturally with trees (mindful of the need to minimize the use of water) or artificially with shade structures. The mixed use Lincoln Road parking garage in Miami Beach, Florida illustrating Principle 5 (mixed uses) through the guideline: Where pedestrian activity can Figure 10 Lincoln Road parking support it, parking garage in Miami Beach, Florida structures should be designed with ground floor, street-facing retail and other interactive uses.
Best Practices from the UAE

Station area and TOD concepts using elements from the UAEs history, culture, geography, and climate proved instructive, as with the conceptual station which is based on locally sustainable and appropriate techniques that help mitigate the effects of extreme heat and humidity. These concepts included (Figures 11 13): Abu Dhabis new Central Market which features a series of roof gardens with native plantings chosen to thrive in direct sunlight conditions while maintaining the Figure 11 Roof garden in Abu integrity of the buildDhabis new Central Market ings design Principle 2 (public realm) through the guideline: Landscaping should complement, not compete with, station architecture and system/station design themes; visual identity should be established through the consistent use of a few basic plant materials. Abu Dhabis Masdar City development which employs sustainable building techniques using modern design and building materials to interpret cultural references Principle 2 (public realm) through the guideline: Building
Figure 7 Bus shelters near Phoenix, Arizona
Figure 8 Wayfinding system in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina
Figure 9 Tempe Transportation Center in Arizona
Figure 12 Abu Dhabis Masdar City
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materials, styles and colors complementary to the surrounding community should be employed while avoiding the direct copying or creation of a pastiche of locallybased designs. Dubais network of sikkak, comprised of narrow lanes that keep pedestrians shaded and generate breezes Principle 3 (environment) through the guideline: Air Figure 13 Dubai sikkak circulation should be fostered using wind capture design techniques such as narrow pathways between buildings while minimizing the accumulation of windblown sand and dust. or no development. The study team was able to combine both US-style elements with locally-based techniques to devise station area guidelines that foster sustainable land and transport uses within the climate and cultural context of the UAE. In the process, the Parsons Brinckerhoff team discovered elements, such as sikkak, that are modest but successful techniques that have the potential for use and adaptation in the US and other nations, especially in cities with very hot summers or desert climates. Maximizing shade and funneling breezes to foster walkability even during the summer months, within a critical mix and mass of development, are simple to implement, are relatively low cost, require little energy consumption, and involve no carbon emissions. When it comes to station area development and TOD in the US, best practices can be found not just at home but in places like the United Arab Emirates. [The author would like to acknowledge and credit John Harding, Parsons Brinckerhoffs London office, for the architectural design and Adam Buckmaster, Parsons Brinckerhoffs Seattle office, for the renderings of the conceptual stations and station area.]
Timothy Reynolds, AICP, is a Senior Principal Technical Specialist with Parsons Brinckerhoff and he has over 33 years of experience as a transit planner at transit agencies and metropolitan planning agencies. His experience includes bus, BRT, streetcar, and light rail planning, specializing in alternatives analyses, comprehensive operational analyses, transit center development, and urban design.
Exchange of Ideas
The experience of the US and other nations around the world is valued by the UAE. TOD in the US can run the risk of using cookie-cutter approaches consisting of a checklist of basic ingredients: retail, residential, offices, open space, and parking that may not acknowledge local history, customs, and climate. Parsons Brinckerhoff combed through best practices from the US and other nations for not only their general applicability but for their realistic potential in an array of locally distinct station area conditions, from already developed areas to sites with little
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Technology, Innovation, and Collaboration in Project Delivery

by Alan Hobson, Brisbane, AUS, +61 7 38546585, ahobson@pb.com.au
Proving the value of technology en route: the Ipswich Motorway Upgrade The use of virtual design and construction / building information modelling (VDC/BIM) and geographic information systems (GIS) contributed to this A$1.95 billion project being delivered 10% under budget and six months ahead of schedule. For the Ipswich Motorway Upgrade Dinmore to Goodna (D2G) in Queensland, Australia, 400 people from many disciplines and six different organisations formed the Origin Alliance to carry out this highly complex brownfield road upgrade. As part of the alliance, Parsons Brinckerhoff was contracted for VDC/BIM and GIS services as well as the road design in partnership with another company in the alliance. The project involved widening an 8 km stretch of the motorway to a minimum of six lanes with room for eight in the future, demolition of 15 existing bridges, and construction of 26 new bridges. This required more than 40 major traffic switches, numerous re-routing of traffic and pedestrian routes and construction of 25 kilometres of shared pedestrian and bicycle ways. Construction took place under live traffic conditions of approximately 90,000 vehicles per day in an extremely constrained urban corridor, with a Queensland Rail corridor on the northern side and residential/commercial properties on the southern side of the motorway. Three abandoned coal mines dating back to the 1860s were located underneath the construction footprint, as well as unexploded ordnances from earlier military land use activities that needed to be remediated.
models; it is a framework for collaboration. This methodology involves a mindset and process of sharing and managing project information. The integrated 2D GIS and 3D VDC/BIM project delivery system allowed faster access to design and construction information to support project planning and reduce project risk.
GIS and VDC/BIM scope

Parsons Brinckerhoff provided the GIS and VDC/BIM services to all teams working at the Origin Alliance D2G site office, which was 400 staff at the height of the project. The alliance leadership team requested a staggered implementation, with GIS starting first and VDC/BIM second, which resulted in a reduced scope. The GIS service was provided by one team, and the VDC/BIM service was made up of two teams, model integration and visualisation. GIS service scope: improve data automation and interoperability; provide a single point where all D2G staff can obtain the latest information; improve communication among the discipline teams which included geotechnical, environmental, safety, quality control, mine rehabilitation, design, construction, community consultation, surveying, planning, and intelligent transportation systems (ITS), as well as public utilities such as telecoms, sewage, and water; and reduce the risk of capturing duplicate data. VDC/BIM service provided: multidisciplinary 3D model integration which will support decision-making in the design, review, and communication process (visualisation) using a composite digital mode; and support for construction stages.
Technology
During the project, the use of information technologies was advanced to improve the connection between GIS and VDC/BIM. VDC/BIM methodology makes the best use of digital tools to visualise, collaborate, simulate, optimise, and integrate project information through the whole asset lifecycle. It becomes more than just a set of computer
Innovation
Model Integration and Visualisation The model integration team was also a member of the road
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design team. Design work was done primarily in Bentleys Mx, 12d, and AutoCAD software (see Figure 1). The team created combined models and tested them for constructability, design clashes, and space proofing, in accordance with contract requirements and standards. In January 2011, a flood event inundated sections of the motorway under construction, including the Visitor Experience Centre which was based at the D2G site office. The integration team, using its existing 3D models, were quickly able to show a 3D virtual model of the status of the construction in relation to the inundated areas using Navisworks. This 3D virtual model was very useful after the event in helping decision-makers confirm remedial actions. Because the VDC/BIM service was in place, preparation of this information was achieved quickly and at small cost.
Figure 3 Screen shot of interactive touch screen dashboard
This helped the local community and other stakeholders to visualise the project. A key factor in helping bring the project to life was the production of a suite of high impact engagement material for use in their Visitor Experience Centre including: 3-D animation fly and drive through; computer generated images; photo-montage (photos combined with computer generated images); and a touchscreen dashboard (see Figure 3) created to gain quick and easy access to all of the visual/communication material created on the project.
Figure 1 Screen shot of 3D road design, input to an integrated model
From this platform, other components evolved during the course of the project. For example, the visualisation team developed graphic representations that accurately portrayed the project and how it affected the existing terrain as well as the surrounding infrastructure (see Figure 2).
GIS Parsons Brinckerhoff developed OriginMap, a platform for sharing spatial information and many other activities across all disciplines. This enterprise-wide, web-based mapping system enables the integration of all project information. In Australia, civil construction typically has not embraced the use or full potential of spatial technologies. Because of this, the team overcame major hurdles in implementing this mapping system which included: limited knowledge of spatial technology, fear of not meeting schedules due to increased workloads, and reduced control of information. Collaboration and knowledge sharing was at the heart of the success of OriginMap. This collaboration worked in two ways: The GIS team undertook a process to fully understand the workflows of project teams so that project data could be kept current, accurate, and available for all staff. OriginMap allowed users to easily collaborate, create, and share information with each other 24/7 and allowed for integration with non-spatial systems.
Figure 2 Screen shot of model visualisation
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Figure 4 OriginMap integrating document management system
Due to the short timeframes of the construction delivery program, groups needed to share information in an efficient and accurate way. OriginMap quickly grew from 4050 layers to more than 300 layers of information. Virtually every team on the project contributed to this information and, in turn, these teams used OriginMap as a means to publish and share their data with the wider project team (see Figure 4). Project managers often used OriginMap as a basis for decision-making. Staff valued having a common platform to store and hold information from multiple groups. OriginMap was also widely used for orientation and induction of new employees and sub-contractors. The community team used a simplified version of OriginMap to educate visitors to the Visitor Experience Centre. Overall, the tangible benefits of an integrated approach included cost savings, faster access to current information, more efficient and effective communication, less duplication of effort, and greater capacity for project teams. Its use on the project has promoted better understanding of this technology and paved the way for its increased use in the industry.
The client acknowledges that BIM benefitted all project employees, in particular the design, construction, and community teams. In June 2010, OriginMap was named one of the projects top three value for money (VFM) innovations. Over the full life of the project, OriginMap was used more than 72,000 times and produced 17,000 prints leading to significant time and cost savings. It was frequently used in technical planning meetings, as well as being the immediate source for the latest approved drawings. Today the way we design, build, deliver, and operate infrastructure requires much more than smart project management. The increasingly complex interplay of information, people, and processes behind infrastructure projects now demands a new wave of technology and a new approach to its use. Such technology must seamlessly integrate all project inputs and accurately assist the project team along every phase of the infrastructure project lifecycle. Building information modelling (BIM) continues to evolve to meet changing demands and technologies. In AustraliaPacific one of our key strategic initiatives is to utilise BIM technology to win and assist in delivering projects like D2G.
Conclusion
In May 2012, the motorway was fully opened to traffic, six months ahead of schedule and 10% under budget. The industry is beginning to move away from the term VDC and only refer to BIM. There is also a convergence of GIS towards BIM.
Alan Hobson is Parsons Brinckerhoffs Capability and Innovation Executive in Australia Pacific with 23 years of experience in infrastructure projects. He is the Australia Pacific leader of the building information modelling (BIM) initiative. He is a certified Project Manager and Senior Professional Associate.
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Engineering Innovation in Building Projects Fuel Cell Technology in Mission Critical Project, Hong Kong
by Michael Ming Fun Waye, Hong Kong, +852 2579 8672, waye.michael@pbworld.com; and Sally Man-Wai Yuen, Hong Kong, +852 2579 8693, yuen.sally@pbworld.com The building design and construction environment might be considered by most engineers to be a conventional and traditional atmosphere that would not attract innovation and new technology. This is partly due to the cost of innovation engineering and partly due to the risks associated with any innovative ideas. With the worldwide recognition of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) through the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), there is a platform to recognize the design of buildings that use environmentally friendly solutions. Innovative and environmentally friendly ideas are being recognised in the LEED credit rating system, and they are therefore more attractive to developers, in particular to those who seek LEED certification. As an engineering consultant helping our clients with the design of state-of-the-art technology buildings, Parsons Brinckerhoff always considers different opportunities to apply the most appropriate technology and innovations. The project manager needs to balance the possible risks associated with the innovation and the benefit of bringing new technology to the project. The act of promoting the right technology at the right time is a very crucial part of the entire exercise, and this article shows an example of innovation being implemented. Despite the fact that a fuel cell is a clean and efficient energy convertor, it has not been widely adopted, mainly due to the capital cost. Although a fuel cell can provide twice the amount of energy as that extracted from combustion of fuel, it is many times the cost of a regular combustion engine such as a diesel generator. With the use of hydrogen Figure 1 Fuel Cell for Apollo gas in the process, the installation of fuel cell facilities is sometimes considered to be complex and potentially hazardous. New York City installed the first pilot fuel cell project in Central Park in 1999, a police precinct building which generates all its power on-site. It provided many benefits to the park without requiring installation of new underground electrical cables. Since then, there have been many projects that considered adopting a fuel cell system. Because of the cost, it is not an easy solution to many projects unless there is good financial support. The World Trade Centre site in New York City captured the opportunity in 2008 and installed a 4.8 MW capacity fuel cell system as part of the redevelopment project. In Asia, fuel cell technology application is not as advanced as its use in the United States and Europe, although there has been much research conducted by the local institutions.
Fuel Cell Technology Development

The first crude fuel cell was invented and developed in 1839. It was further enhanced over the years and first used commercially by NASA in its space program. Fuel cells were used in the 1962 Apollo voyage (see Figure 1) and extensively for subsequent missions. Since then, the technology has been developed in conjunction with the space program. Commercial fuel cell products were only available through UTC Power (formerly part of United Technologies Corporation), the company that developed the technology and launched it in early 90s.
Fuel Cell Technology Basics

A fuel cell uses an electrochemical process to produce electricity when hydrogen and oxygen are processed through the cell. The end product of the chemical reaction in the fuel cell is water. Therefore it is a zero emissions generation technology. Heat energy is also generated in the process and can be used with an overall efficiency of 90% instead of the 4050% efficiency from a combustion cycle.
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A fuel cell Hydrogen Catalyst essentially Cathode (+) consists of an Anode (-) Water anode, a cathode electrolyte Membrane/ membrane, Electrolyte and a catalyst (see Figure 2). The hydrogen fuel is injected into the fuel cell from the Oxygen Electrons Protons anode side. The platinum Figure 2 Fuel Cell Module catalyst will facilitate the separation of hydrogen gas ions into electrons and protons. The hydrogen protons will then be brought through the electrolyte membrane and combined with the oxygen ion in the cathode side to form water. The electrons will not pass through the membrane but will flow from anode to cathode and provide the electricity needed. For each membrane, the voltage generation is very low, about 0.7 volts. Therefore a stack of membranes is required to generate enough voltage for general use.
their determination to use environmentally friendly systems for the project. Therefore many innovative and sustainable ideas were reviewed in the conceptual design stage, including fuel cell technology, bio-fuel generation, and other candidate solutions. As the client is very knowledgeable of state-of-the-art technologies, fuel cell technology is not something new to them, although they have not used it in Hong Kong before. This innovative technology attracted their project manager and it was agreed to implement it. In parallel with the development and promotion of various technology solutions, Parsons Brinckerhoff also studied the various constraints and considerations needed for fuel cell installation. In the end, it was decided that a modular type of fuel cell uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system was to be installed in the project to support the NTT Communications Network Operation Centre.
Conclusion
It is important to work closely with the client to understand and fulfill their expectation to promote innovative technology. After much engineering effort, the fuel cell system was tested and put into service in January 2013. The era of impossibility in the use of fuel cell technology in commercial building projects is ended. As the application of fuel cell technology is growing, it is anticipated that the application could be similar to the development of vacuum bottles in high voltage circuit breakers. This is the time to enjoy energy conversion with much better efficiency than the present technology provides. The client is pleased that this system is the first commercially launched system in Hong Kong and sets an example for others to follow in the use of cleaner energy. Parsons Brinckerhoff, in collaboration with the client, wrote a paper for this fuel cell technology project which was presented in Hong Kong at the 11th Annual Power Symposium organized by the Institution of Engineering and Technology and published in June 2012. References Los Alamos National Laboratory, Fuel Cell Green Power.
Michael Waye is Director and Vice President in Parsons Brinckerhoffs Hong Kong office. He is a Chartered Engineer in the UK, and a Professional Engineer in Toronto, California, and New York and has worked on engineering projects in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Philippines, Korea, China, and in Toronto and New York. Sally Yuen is Assistant Vice President in Parsons Brinckerhoffs Hong Kong office and a Chartered Engineer. She is the Project Manager for the Hong Kong Tseung Kwan O data centre for the telecommunications company NTT Communications.
Technology Standards
Due to the special technology, very few companies in the world have been involved in the development of fuel cells and there had not been many standards developed on the product until early 2000. In the US, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) established a committee in late 1990s and published their standard NFPA 853 Installation of Stationary Fuel Cell Power Systems in year 2000. Subsequently, the standard has been updated four times to 2010 edition. The National Electrical Code (NFPA 70) has also developed an article 692 to address the electrical safety for fuel cell installation. In Europe in year 2000, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) established Technical Committee (TC) 105 to focus on the standards related to fuel cells. A series of standards have been published, IEC 62282 Fuel Cell Technologies, which address both stationary and portable fuel cell technologies. These standards gave the end user a glance into the technology and the complexity of issues involved.
Fuel Cell Technology Application

Parsons Brinckerhoff was contracted to design the Hong Kong Tseung Kwan O data centre for the telecommunications company NTT Communications and saw a good match of ingredients for the application of this new technology. An issue of importance was that the client wanted to publicize
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Solar Powered Absorption Air Conditioning Systems

by Chun-Fai Chan, Hong Kong, +852 2579 8740, chan.cf@pbworld.com; and Matthew Ngan, Singapore, +65 6290 1379, ngan.matthew@pbworld.com
Air conditioning systems are the major source of energy consumption for buildings, particularly in tropical climate areas. For this reason, it is essential to study and investigate an energy efficient system or use alternative power sources other than electricity for the air conditioning system. Green and sustainable solar energy for air conditioning systems was introduced in the past 10 years. Photovoltaic panels that convert solar energy to electricity for air conditioning systems and solar thermal collectors to heat the water for absorption chillers were the two common solar powered air conditioning systems. Using solar energy for air conditioning systems has an obvious advantage in that the peak cooling demand always coincides with the time during which the solar radiation is strongest.
Solar Plant Temperature ~120C
Cooling Tower
Heat Exchanger (Local) Control Unit
Hot Water Storage Tank Absorption Chiller BMS
Internet
Figure 1 - Illustration of a Solar Powered Cooling System
This paper introduces the design considerations and major components of a solar powered absorption air conditioning system (see Figure 1). Parsons Brinckerhoff is currently designing such a system for a client in Singapore. The innovative use of a hybrid system combined with solar power for the air conditioning system can significantly reduce the CO2 emissions, heat generation, electricity consumption and, hence, operation cost. An analysis of the system reliability, operation, and maintainability of the in-series and in-parallel connections of the solar powered absorption chiller, with the electricity driven vapour compression chillers, is also presented in this article.
transmission of the building envelope, using energy recovery systems, controlling on-demand outdoor air supply, and using high efficiency equipment and systems. In the past decades, the technology of solar thermal collection has been well-developed. Increase of thermal efficiency and lower cost of the solar thermal collectors are the major reasons that solar powered absorption air conditioning systems have become feasible and competitive. Combining a conventional vapour compression air conditioning system and a solar powered absorption air conditioning system will require less space for the solar thermal collectors as compared to a fully solar powered absorption air conditioning system. Solar thermal collectors can be installed on the building roof, and do not occupy plant room space. This hybrid system can also enhance the system availability and reliability, and reduce the overall energy consumption, operational cost, and maintenance cost.
Introduction
Air conditioning is almost an essential component in building system design, especially in tropical climate regions, in order to promote thermal comfort and to control the indoor air temperature. However, it consumes a significant amount of energy in the building system. Therefore, it is in the interest of developers, owners, engineers, architects, scholars, and operators to look at advanced technology for reducing the building cooling demand and energy consumption technologies such as controlling the heat
System Design
A conventional vapour compression cooling system uses
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electricity to drive the compressor of the chiller. The principle of solar powered absorption air conditioning is to use solar thermal collectors to absorb solar radiation and produce hot water to drive an absorption chiller. Solar energy is a green and clean energy with zero CO2 emissions and is a cost effective way for heating up water. The solar hot water can be used for both the cooling system and domestic hot water such as baths and showers. A solar powered absorption air conditioning system consists of: Solar thermal collectors; Absorption chiller; Cooling tower; Hot water storage tank; Heat exchanger; Hot water circulation pump; Chilled water pump; and Condensing water pump. Solar Thermal Collectors There are various factors which need to be considered
at the planning stage for the selection of the appropriate type of thermal collector. These include: the availability of solar radiation, availability of space, orientation, installation conditions, external shading, and the required hot water temperature. Flat-plate panel and evacuated tube collectors are the two common and well developed solar thermal collectors on the market (see Figures 2 and 3). The thermal efficiency of the solar thermal collector is dependent upon the solar intensity and hot water temperature that is required. In general, the thermal efficiency is inversely proportional to the required hot water temperature at constant solar intensity. Higher water temperature will lower the efficiency of the solar thermal collector. Recently a solar cell integrated in a thermal collector was developed to enhance the utilization of solar radiation and increase the efficiency of the solar collector. In these collectors, solar radiation will be used to produce electricity and hot water. Absorption Chiller Lithium bromide (LiBr) and water absorption chillers have been widely commercialized due to their moderate hot water inlet temperature operation with higher coefficient of performance. An absorption chiller uses an absorber (LiBr) and refrigerant (water) to create a chemical reaction which produces the cooling capacity for the building. The absorption chiller consists of a generator, condenser, absorber, and evaporator. With solar powered absorption air conditioning systems, the chillers are driven by solar energy, which reduces the carbon dioxide emissions of the chiller plant and eliminates the use of refrigerants that cause ozone depletion and global warming. An absorption chiller has less moving parts and thus has a lower maintenance cost and a longer life span. Cooling Tower Cooling towers are heat removal devices used to transfer the process waste heat to the atmosphere through the evaporation of water to near the wet-bulb air temperature. The cooling tower capacity for a solar absorption cooling system includes the heat ejected from the cooling and heating process. The heat rejection from an absorption chiller is the sum of the cooling capacity and heating water requirement. Hot Water Storage Tank Due to the intermittent source of solar energy, it is required
Heat Transfer
Selective Coating Outer Tube Inner Tube
Solar Energy Absorbed by Evacuated Tube
Co
om ott op to B T o s t urns t se Ri Re or uid p Va Liq d se en Copper Header nd
Heat Absorbed by Heat Pipe
Illustrations Courtesy of Apricus
Figure 2 Example of an evacuated tube collector
Inlet Connection
Cover: Protecting the Absorber Plate and Preventing Loss of Heat
Outlet Connection
Collector Housing: Made From Alumnium Alloy or Galvanized Steel - Fixes and Protects the Absorber Plate Absorber Plate: Usually Black Chrome Absorbing Coating to Maximise Heat Collecting Efciency
Flow Tubes Insulation: to the Bottom and Sides of the Collector to Reduce the Loss of Heat
Figure 3 Example of flat plate type solar thermal collector
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that a thermal storage tank be used to store up the heat. An adequately sized hot water tank provides reliable storage, particularly at fluctuated temperature conditions. Longer pipework increases the chilled water pumps pressure head and thus increases power consumption; More plant room space is required for additional return chilled water pumps and associated pipeworks; As the chilled water is pre-cooled (i.e., the return water to the chiller has a lower temperature) the efficiency and cooling capacity of the vapour compression chiller will be affected; A bypass will need to be provided in case the solar powered absorption chiller can meet the cooling load demand; and Higher initial cost, operational cost, and maintenance cost. In-Parallel Connection The absorption chiller and vapour compression chiller are connected in parallel (see Figure 5). The absorption chiller is designed to handle about 50% of the total cooling capacity of the building for better system balancing. Three vapour compression chillers, with a standby, are designed for 100% total cooling capacity of the building to increase the system reliability. The chiller system can be optimized by maintaining the maximum cooling for the absorption chiller.
System Arrangement
In-Series Connection The absorption chiller is connected to the return chilled water pipe and return chilled water pump. It pre-cools the return chilled water prior to its return to the vapour compression chiller, thus reducing the cooling capacity of the vapour compression chiller (see Figure 4).
Vapour Compression Chiller WCC-01 WCC-02 WCC-03 By-pass Absorption Chiller ABC-01 Main chilled water pumps Building Cooling Load CHWS
CHWR Chilled water pumps for absorption chiller

Figure 4 In-series connection for absorption chiller
Vapour Compression Chiller WCC-01 WCC-02 WCC-03 ABC-01 Main Chilled Water Pumps Absorption Chiller CHWR Building Cooling Load CHWS
Advantages: An absorption chiller can fully utilize the solar energy even under very low solar intensity. Return chilled water temperature to the vapour compression chiller is dependent on the cooling capacity of the absorption chiller; Simple control for the system individual chilled water pumps for the absorption chiller; Can be applied to any capacity absorption chiller, subject to the available space for solar panel installation, to generate sufficient hot water; Maintains a constant chilled water supply temperature, even the solar powered absorption chiller can only perform partially; and Can be integrated with the existing chilled water plant with less additional testing and commissioning. Disadvantages: Additional chilled water pumps for the absorption chiller circuit are required and hence consume more building energy;
Figure 5 In-parallel connection for absorption chiller
Advantages: Less initial and operational cost compared with in-series configuration; Less plant room space required; and Will not affect the efficiency and capacity of the vapour compression chillers.
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Disadvantages: Complicated control for the system when the cooling capacity of the absorption chiller is different from the vapour compression chiller. The chilled water flow rate of the absorption chiller is controlled by a motorized valve to ensure the maximum chilled water will flow to the absorption chiller; The absorption chiller performance cannot be optimized during limited solar intensity or low hot water supply temperature; and Difficult to maintain a constant chilled water supply temperature. Chilled water from the vapour compression chillers mixes with the chilled water supply from absorption chiller which is dependent on the varied solar intensity, thus the water supply temperature cannot be maintained constantly.
A solar powered absorption air conditioning system is particularly feasible and competitive for developments, such as hotel or service apartments, with both cooling and heating requirements so that the solar thermal collectors can be used for both cooling and domestic hot water.
References Li ZF & Sumanthy K. 2000, Technology development in the solar absorption air conditioning systems, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Vol. (4) pp. 26793. Mittal, V., Kasana, KS., Thakur, NS. 2005. The study of solar absorption air conditioning systems, Journal of Energy in Southern Africa, Vol 16 No 4, pp 5966. He Z.N. (1997) Development and Application of Heat Pipe Evacuted Tubular Solar Collectors in China, Proceeding of ISES Solar World Congress 2, Taejon, Korea. ASHRAE 2008. ASHRAE Handbook, System and Equipment Handbook.
Conclusion
The technology of solar thermal collectors has gone through a holistic development in the past 10 years. The improved thermal efficiency in small capacity collectors, which resulted in higher system flexibility and lower equipment cost, is the major reason that combining a conventional chiller and advanced solar powered absorption chiller is feasible and competitive. It is obvious that using a free, available, and clean energy, such as solar energy, for the cooling system is beneficial to the owner, as it will significantly reduce the CO2 emissions, heat generation, electricity consumption, and hence reduces operation cost. An absorption chiller is a green technology; its refrigerant has zero global warming effects and ozone depletion. However, a vapour compression chiller is required to supplement the solar powered absorption chiller during overcast or rainy days, and also to maintain the availability and increase the reliability of the system.
Chun Fai Chan is a Senior Associate of Parsons Brinckerhoff (Asia) Ltd. with 18 years of experience in building services engineering. He has worked on commercial, recreational, and railway projects in Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore. Matthew Ngan is the Deputy General Manager of Parsons Brinckerhoff Pte Ltd. and a Principal Professional Associate with more than 25 years of experience in building services system design. His expertise is in heating, ventilating, and air conditioning design and he has worked on projects in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Macau, and Hong Kong. He is a Chartered Engineer of UK, Professional Engineer of Singapore, and Certified Project Management Professional.
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Efficient Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Simulations of Natural Ventilation Across Wards in a Hospital Building
by George Xu, Singapore, 65 6290 1321, xu.george@pbworld.com; Zhengwei Ge, Singapore, 65 6290 5638, ge.zhengwei@pbworld.com; and Tony Tay, Singapore, 65 6290 1383, tay.tony@pbworld.com An innovative and efficient computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methodology has been formulated in Parsons Brinckerhoffs Singapore office to simulate natural winddriven ventilation across the wards of a large-scale hospital building. The methodology utilises building information modelling, cutcell elements, an efficient working procedure which allows for design changes, and a load management system to control batch runs. The proposed methodology preserves the accuracy of the building design features, dramatically reduces computational demands, and substantially shortens the delivery duration of CFD results. As a result, it is possible to effectively optimise building designs for anticipated ventilation conditions, using this streamlined CFD approach. A natural ventilation scheme is often adopted in new hospital building designs. For example, in an 8-storey hospital building, the majority of the wards between levels 4 and 7 are designed to be naturally ventilated. Due to advantages in cost effectiveness, accuracy, rapid turnaround time, and flexibility, CFD is exclusively the best tool to assess natural ventilation conditions. To comply with the GM codes in regard to CFD, two large-scale computational domains, composed of the hospital development and the buildings immediately surrounding it, are created to cater to the prevailing wind conditions in Singapore. Tens of millions of elements are generated to discretize (decompose) the large domains. This imposes remarkably high demands on computational hardware and software, as well as requiring an efficient CFD methodology suitable for this kind of application.
Introduction
To make Singapore a liveable and lively city-state, the Buildings & Construction Authority (BCA) has implemented different Green Mark (GM) codes to encourage environmentally sustainable building designs for different building types. Energy savings, efficient water usage, and green features to promote sustainability are major concerns in rating green buildings. To reduce energy consumption, passive design features are highly promoted. For example, natural ventilation is encouraged when necessary. Thermal comfort conditions in human occupancy areas are essential for the designs. ASHRAE Standard 552004 is usually referred to for thermal comfort designs. However, thermal comfort related to natural ventilation, in particular in tropical regions like Singapore, has not been well addressed. Studies about thermal comfort in tropical climates have been conducted by regional researchers. Their findings form the foundation of the assessment criteria in the BCA GM codes. For a Platinum rating, at least 70% of the naturally ventilated occupied spaces need to achieve a good ventilation of 0.6 metres per second (m/s), subject to four prevailing wind conditions applicable in Singapore.
Parsons Brinckerhoffs Efficient CFD Methodology

In Parsons Brinckerhoffs Singapore office, the worldwide recognized ANSYS CFD 14.0 software packages have been employed. In GM natural ventilation simulations, an efficient CFD methodology, consisting of the following key innovative components, has been formulated and adopted in our study: BIM-based modelling The use of building information modelling (BIM) can accurately preserve the design features and substantially reduce the efforts in model perception. Figure 1 shows the CFD geometrical model converted from 3D BIM. Hexahedra-dominated cutcell meshing In CFD applications, it is necessary to decompose the complicated computational domain into a number of finite elements with simpler shapes during the meshing process. Tetrahedra and hexahedra are two typical 3D simple shapes. In general, the hexahedral elements are superior to tetrahedral elements in terms of computation-
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The development
sources monitored in PBS. With PBS, off-work time can be more effectively utilized for rigorous CFD simulations. The use of PBS can greatly reduce the demand for human intervention, effectively shorten the computational time, and magnificently improve productivity.
Results and Discussion

To comply with the GM code for the 8-storey hospital building, the natural ventilation across the 5th-storey has been simulated, while the other storeys are assumed as solid. The plan view of the design layout and space allocation on the 5th-storey in baseline design is illustrated in Figure 3. A total of twelve 5-bedded wards on the 5th-storey, corresponding to 6 ward clusters with the same design intentions, are designed to be naturally ventilated. The
Figure 1 CFD geometrical model converted from 3D Revit model
Figure 2 Distribution of surface and volume mesh generated with the cutcell meshing approach in TGrid
al accuracy and efficiency. The cutcell meshing approach in TGrid1 offers attractive features like ease of dealing with complex geometry, the handiness of mesh control, and the output of hexahedra-dominated elements. Figure 2 shows the distribution of resultant surface and volume mesh across the domain. Combination of Gambit and TGrid in mesh generation In the streamlined workflow, Gambit is used for geometry creation/updating and surface triangulation, and TGrid is subsequently used for mesh generation with the cutcell meshing approach. When changes occur in design, only affected areas need to be updated in both types of software. This combination has proven to be very efficient and errorfree, especially for improved designs. Adoption of Torque a load management software for batch runs All FLUENT2 jobs are submitted into a portable batch system (PBS), a load management system under the framework of Torque3. Batch jobs can be automatically scheduled for execution subject to the availability of computational re1 2
Figure 3 Plan view of the 5th-storey layout in the baseline design
Figure 4 Typical large-scale computational domain for the northern wind condition
ANSYS TGrid User Manual, Ansys Inc., 2011. ANSYS FLUENT User Guide, ANSYS Inc., 2011. 3 Torque Admin Manual version 3.0, Adaptive Computing Enterprises, Inc., 2010.
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(a) Northern wind condition
(b) Northeast wind condition
(c) Southern wind condition
(d) Southeast wind condition
Figure 5 (ad) Air movement on the horizontal cutting plane at 1.2m above the floor of the 5th storey in baseline design subjected to four prevailing wind conditions
large-scale computational domain for the northern wind condition is illustrated in Figure 4, which is spatially discretized by over 23-million hexahedra-dominated elements. The predicted overall percentage of good ventilation across the wards is only 39%. This is far below the 70% required to attain GM Platinum. As shown in Figure 5, the wards exhibit noticeable differences in ventilation conditions for every prevailing wind condition, mainly because of the difference in orientation, the blockage of surrounding buildings, and the obstructions from interior designs. On the average, the best ventilation conditions across the wards occur under the southern wind condition, while the worst conditions happen under both the northeast and southeast wind conditions. The difference can be attributed primarily to the blockage of surrounding buildings. Recommendations, including larger louver windows, perforated panels, rearrangement of rooms in the central core
nursing stations, relocation of wards and respective rooms, and the adoption of wing walls, are proposed to improve natural ventilation across the wards. Each change has been proven favorable by a series of CFD simulations of improved designs. For example, wing walls, as illustrated in Figure 6, have been verified to effectively divert the airflow parallel to the building surface towards the respective wards, as shown in Figure 7. The integration of all the recommended changes forms the final design, reflected in Figure 8, yielding a good ventilation of 72.8%. The final design successfully satisfies the requirement for good ventilation in GM Platinum rating. Throughout the project, one baseline design and four improvement designs have been rigorously simulated before reaching the final design. Thanks to the efficient CFD methodology, the delivery duration for each revised design has been remarkably reduced.
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Figure 6 Wing walls proposed for the final design
Figure 8 Geometrical model of the development in the final design
Figure 7 Streamline plots of airflow effectively diverted towards the ward by wing walls
Figure 9 Air movement captured in 2D CFD model under southern wind condition
Conclusion
An innovative CFD methodology, formulated by Parsons Brinckerhoff and used in the design of a natural ventilation scheme for a hospital building in Singapore under the BCA GM framework, has been demonstrated in this paper. The proposed CFD methodology has also been applied to other projects, such as two new school projects with classrooms naturally ventilated. The outstanding efficiency of the proposed CFD methodology has been proven repeatedly in such applications. In the future, 2D CFD simulations of natural ventilation will be strongly proposed in preliminary designs, since the quick solutions from 2D modelling can capture the essential information needed for design improvement as shown in Figure 9. Such efforts will effectively minimize the rigorous demands to achieve 3D design with anticipated good ventilation. References A lively and liveable Singapore: Strategies for sustainable growth, Singapore, 2009.
BCA Green Mark Certification Standard for New Build-
ings (GM Version 4.0), Singapore, 2010.

Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occu-
pancy, ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 552004, 2004.

Wang L.P . and Wong N. H., Applying natural ventilation
for thermal comfort in residential buildings in Singapore, Architectural Science Review, Vol. 50.3, pp. 224233, 2007.
ANSYS TGrid User Manual, Ansys Inc., 2011. ANSYS FLUENT User Guide, Ansys Inc., 2011. Torque Admin Manual version 3.0, Adaptive Comput-
ing Enterprises, Inc., 2010.

Dr. George Xu is a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Specialist in Parsons Brinckerhoffs Singapore office. Dr. Zhengwei Ge is a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Specialist in Parsons Brinckerhoffs Singapore office. Tony Tay is General Manager of the mechanical, electrical, plumbing (MEP) department in Parsons Brinckerhoffs Singapore office.
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Building planning and massing, BCA, Singapore, 2010.
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Renewable Energy and Sustainability Solutions Toward Attaining Zero-Carbon Emissions Buildings
by Thomas K. C. Chan, Hong Kong, +852 2579 8659, chan.thomas@pbworld.com The materials we use to create our buildings and the energy we consume to keep us comfortable take a tremendous toll on our environment. Energy is vital to life in modern cities and the way we use it may affect our environment. Sustainable design can help to reduce cities' contributions to global climate change, tackle the problem of fuel poverty, and at the same time promote cities economic development. With more dense urban cities emerging, implementing sustainability and renewable ideas into buildings is becoming a focus for governments and enterprises, and a need for creating a sustainable society. This article discusses the current and future challenges and opportunities for building services engineers in designing and maintaining sustainability in the building environment. It also investigates renewable energy and sustainability solutions for the built environment and discusses some of the innovative engineering design aspects of Hysan Place, a 38-story development in Hong Kong, for which Parsons Brinckerhoff was the mechanical and electrical (M&E) consultant. Reducing construction and demolition waste. A regions unique environmental, ecological, social, cultural, economical, and technological conditions are pertinent to its sustainable development. Microclimatic Analysis of Building Interface with the Environment Is microclimatic analysis an essential component of good architectural design? After all, building design responds to the environment, whether it is as simple as taking advantage of views, or as complex as looking at solar angles for the placement of windows and the length of overhangs. Building microclimatic analysis is used to find the building interface solution to the environment through solar access analysis, prevailing wind analysis, thermal environment analysis, outdoor air quality analysis, topography, etc. Microclimatic analysis can help to achieve a sustainable architectural design, improve indoor environmental quality, and reduce energy use of a building through better building design. In addition, microclimatic analysis allows the designers to better understand the feasibility of renewable energy applications (such as solar and wind). Unfortunately, many people do not realize that the microclimate affects the design of building mechanical and electrical (M&E) systems in addition to architecture. Integration Solution between Microclimatic Analysis and Building Energy Use The following should be taken into account: Site planning and massing considerations to lower overall energy use via solar access, wind analysis, etc.; Building envelope to harness natural energy via passive solar (whole building) design strategies, natural ventilation, envelope detailing, etc. Passive solar building strategies refer to the modification of the form, fabric, and internal layout of buildings so that natural light and solar heat gains are controlled, reducing the need for electric lighting, space heating, and mechanical ventilation and cooling; Daylighting/sun control (integrated with M&E design)
Sustainable Concepts for Building Design

Sustainability concepts involve a balance amongst the economy, the environment, and society. Sustainable development of a building calls for energy efficient technologies and sustainable technologies to minimize the impact of global climate change and the potential lack of fuel resources. Solutions for Building Sustainability How to design sustainable buildings? We need to consider the following principles: Adopting a life cycle approach to planning, design, construction, and maintenance; Maximizing the use of natural renewable energy resources (such as solar, wind, geothermal) and recycled/green building materials; Minimizing the consumption of energy, especially nonrenewable types, and the reuse of waste heat to lessen the impact on a buildings outdoor environment; and
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to maximize use of daylight to minimize running costs. Daylight factor analysis and photo-realistic renderings shown on Figures 1 and 2 respectively are tools to determine the best locations and control strategy of daylight sensors; and Interface between the environment and the building M&E system to reduce energy use via optimum locations for outdoor intakes and exhaust plumes, reduction of heating/cooling loads by components of the environment, and integration of the M&E system with site available renewables.
while filtering comfortably diffused, indirect light into the interior. An opaque PV module used as an awning can shade the interior from harsh direct sunlight and reduce cooling expenses. PV roof monitors can eliminate the need for daytime electricity. Transparent thin-film modules can create energy-efficient PV modules with lighting by providing both electricity and indirect daylight. Building-Integrated Wind Power The urban wind field is very complicated, and its hard to predict the wind speed in the built environment. To develop wind power in urban areas effectively, the wind aerodynamics around the building in the urban areas must be investigated. For wind application, key objectives are to analyze the fluid field of buildings for feasible locations by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis, and to address removal of barriers (e.g., reduced wind speeds in urban areas, the size of turbines relative to buildings, noise problems, safety fears, planning restrictions) by developing innovative technological solutions and producing design guidance for the integration of wind turbines in, on, and around buildings.
A Green Building Design Toward Zero-Carbon Emissions

Figure 1 Daylight factor analysis
Figure 2 Photo-realistic renderings
Examples of Renewable Energy for Building Design An appropriate total building design should include a balanced consideration of various available options for renewable energy. Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) and building-integrated wind power utilization are examples of renewable energy options for building design: Building-Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) Roof integration is the most popular application with the greatest solar exposure and highest power output. Vertical curtain walls and awnings are also practical as these can replace traditional cladding materials. A PV light shelf can shield direct sun
Building massing and envelope There are several large openings at lower levels of the building, acting as urban windows to enhance natural air ventilation and improve the microclimate in the neighborhood. They also lessen the wall effect and help retain good visual permeability. The orientation of the tower was carefully considered to
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Hong Kongs highly built-up environment is convenient and efficient, but also presents environmental concerns. It is particularly challenging to find a genuine environmental solution for a high-rise building in a high density location. Hysan Place, a new Grade A retail/office building completed in 2012, is located in the heart of the Eastern District of Hong Kong Island, an area with an extremely high pedestrian flow. The development is the first Hong Kong building that has achieved pre-certification of the highest Platinum level under Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) of the US Green Building Council (USGBC). Parsons Brinckerhoff was the mechanical and electrical (M&E) consultant for the full M&E services of the entire development. The new building (see Figure 3) uses less energy and provides a healthy and productive indoor environment that emphasizes the use of natural light and fresh air, as well as enhances ventilation in the district. The green design features of the building are as follows:
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The light shelf at the building facade introduces daylight deep into the inner zones of the office floors. Vents integrated into the curtain wall design allow natural ventilation at the perimeter zones of the office floors and save air-conditioning energy when the right outdoor environment conditions permit. Such vents also provide a healthier environment for staff working after hours or when natural ventilation is desired. Energy efficiency Total enthalpy recovery wheels are installed at the primary air units. The energy hidden in the exhaust air can be recovered to pre-cool the incoming fresh air, so as to reduce the building cooling load. The elevators incorporate regenerative drive, which cycles energy usually lost during elevator braking back to the buildings power grid for reuse. A passenger sensing control system changes the escalators to an energy saving mode by using variable frequency drive during times of low usage. Evaporative cooling towers instead of air-cooled chillers were adopted for the building. Free cooling, such as using outside air for direct-cooling of office floors, is also available when the right climate conditions exist. Demand-controlled ventilation using CO2 sensors provides energy savings and better indoor air quality. Premises with populations that vary greatly can benefit from the use of this sensor technology because it provides the exact amount of ventilation air needed, and not the large quantity that would otherwise be used without this detection system. Advanced building commissioning verifies and ensures that the building is designed, constructed, and calibrated to operate as intended. Energy simulations for different HVAC designs have been carried out to ensure that the systems adopted are highly energy efficient. Greenery Green roofs are provided at different levels of the building. They help to mitigate the heat island effect, as well as retain rainwater for plant irrigation. Green roof design is also a practical way to provide greenery in a high density
Figure 3 Hysan Place in Hong Kong has many green attributes.
reduce heat gain and undesirable glares in a passive and cost effective way. The longitudinal sides of the rectangular tower face north and south, while the shorter transverse sides face east and west to minimize the effect of low-angle sun glare. The northern sea view was captured without much heat gain from the north. The tower core is located at the south to minimize heat gain from that direction. The high performance curtain wall system with sunshades and low-emissivity double-glazing allows sufficient visible light to enter the building while it reduces unwanted solar heat gain and exterior noise at the same time. Careful consideration was made to obtain a balance between optimal views and best use of natural light on the one hand, and keeping energy consumption low on the other.
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urban context. An innovative element is the design of an artificial wetland on the podium roof. Through the artificial planting at the podium garden, part of the gray water from the office tower can be filtrated and re-used. Water efficiency The rainwater harvesting system allows the use of rainwater for landscaping and other uses. Potable water use reduction is available through water saving devices and rainwater reclamation. Other notable green innovations Sustainable construction practices were adopted which included the recycling of construction waste and extensive use of environmental material, system formworks, and prefabrication. Recycling and sorting facilities are to be installed for building users.
solution for creating a sustainable community. A sustainable and green building design considers: renewable integration and less building energy use through solar access analysis, prevailing wind analysis, thermal environment analysis, daylight and outdoor air quality analysis, building envelope and massing, energy efficient building services systems, green roof design, and water efficiency leading towards zero-carbon emissions. In Hong Kong, the application of sustainability concepts proved to be an effective means to achieve the goal of carbon emissions reduction in building design.
Conclusion
Implementing sustainability, renewable energy, and microclimatic analysis (related to building interface to the environment) into building design is a comprehensive
Thomas K.C. Chan is Director of Buildings for the China region and a Principal Professional Associate. He has been with Parsons Brinckerhoff for 25 years and has served as Project Director for various green and intelligent award-winning building projects in Hong Kong which include: Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, Phase 1; Hong Kong Design Institute; Tseung Kwan O Hospital, Ambulatory Care Block; Lo Wu Correctional Institutional Complex; and Hong Kong Polytechnic University Community College, West Kowloon and Hunghom Bay Campuses.
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Design, Construction, and Inspection ofTransport Civil Structures Sector
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Innovative Structures and the Need for Robustness

by Jon Shave, Bristol, UK, +44(0)117 933 9112, shavej@pbworld.com
There are many aspects of civil and structural engineering where innovation can bring benefits, including: new materials and technology, analytical methods, efficient structural forms, or new construction methods. The use of innovation can make it possible to improve durability, reduce maintenance costs, reduce disruption during construction, improve sustainability, reduce health and safety risks, improve aesthetics and, in some cases, reduce construction cost. So the potential benefits of innovation can be significant if used correctly. But there are usually some risks associated with using innovative methods or products that may not have a proven track record, and these need to be managed.
So how can we prudently manage the risk of failure in innovative structures? Designing for robustness is a powerful way of managing risk, and a means of justifying the use of innovation. The concept of robustness is about designing structural forms that are capable of dealing with unexpected or extreme events. Suppose that something unforeseen does go wrong, whether that be a local overstress or damage to the structure. What would happen next? Robustness is not an issue solely for innovative structures; even for conventional materials and structural forms it is quite possible for events to occur that were unforeseen by the designers and that could result in failure. Two fairly recent examples of bridge collapses are enlightening in this respect. The first example is the De la Concorde overpass in Montreal, a concrete bridge structure that collapsed in 2006 after shear cracks were found in the deck. Another example is the I-35W Highway Bridge in Minnesota, which was a steel truss structure that suddenly collapsed in 2007 after the failure of a gusset plate (see Figure 1).
Managing Risk
The consequences of failure for a structure such as a bridge are potentially catastrophic. As designers, we have to be sure that we are being responsible and eliminating risk wherever possible. Designs must be demonstrably conservative to assure safety. Does this mean that using innovation to drive efficiency and thereby reduce conservatism is irresponsible or negligent? Not necessarily, but there are potential legal issues to consider. In 1980, there was a case in the UK regarding the innovative design of a television aerial mast that collapsed due to ice loading on the cable stays. The court found the designers negligent in not adequately considering the potential risks to quantify the venture into the unknown, and stated that the law requires even pioneers to be prudent1.
Figure 1 Bridge collapses in Minnesota in 2007 (left) and Montreal in 2006 (right)
New Civil Engineer Consultants File March 2007 (2007)
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Following both these events, inquiries recommended improvements to the requirements for robustness in design.
Fibre Reinforced Polymers (FRP) in Bridge Structures

An example of structural innovation, pioneered by Parsons Brinckerhoff, is the use of fibre reinforced polymers (FRP) in bridge structures. In the UK, we were the first to design a fully FRP structure on the rail network. Our design philosophy for these innovative structures has been driven by the need for robustness. While robustness should be a key part of design for all structures, it is particularly important for it to be fully considered in the design of FRP structures, because they can fail in a brittle (or non-ductile) way. When a brittle material fails, the stress in the material can suddenly no longer be sustained (failing with a bang), whereas in a ductile material (like steel) the material will yield plastically and maintain a reasonably constant stress level as it yields and extends. Ductility is a useful property as it can allow stresses to be redistributed around the structure whilst it carries load. In the design of FRP structures, it is normally assumed that there is no ductility whatsoever, because the FRP material can exhibit failure mechanisms that would be brittle in nature with almost no forewarning. Despite often being misleadingly called plastic, FRP structures do not generally behave plastically and it is not appropriate to rely
compared with steel they have a very high strength-to-stiffness ratio. This property means that, in general, the size or thickness of the structural members determined in the design calculations usually need to be greater than needed for strength and safety purposes, in order to satisfy limits on deflections and vibrations. This feature of FRP structures helps us to provide robustness in design, because the structures are generally stronger than they need to be, and are able to respond to unexpectedly high loads with noticeably large elastic deflections without collapse. In contrast, a simply supported steel structure with a design governed by strength would not have this robust property since an overload could, in some cases, cause collapse without any serviceability-related warning signs.
Figure 3 Dawlish FRP Station Footbridge
FRP bridges often have substantial reserves of strength, and may well be able to withstand some local damage without collapse, even without relying on ductile material properties. The challenge is to safely demonstrate this robustness in design.
Design Guidance for FRP Structures

There is limited guidance available on the treatment of these issues for the design of FRP bridges. This gap in the standards has been identified as a possible barrier to the more widespread use of FRP in construction by the Network Group for Composites in Construction (NGCC), an industry body based in the UK promoting the use of FRP materials in construction, bringing together the interests of suppliers, designers, contractors, and clients. The NGCC has therefore set up an FRP bridge design steering group to develop design recommendations for FRP bridges, with Parsons Brinckerhoff playing a leading role in developing the design guidance. The approach that Parsons Brinckerhoff has recommended for robustness, developed and used on projects that include the St. Austell Footbridge (see Figure 2) and the Dawlish Railway Station Footbridge (see Figure 3), may
Figure 2 St. Austell FRP Footbridge
on any plastic redistribution in design, whether explicitly or implicitly. A designers awareness of these issues helps to ensure robustness in the design of FRP structures. FRP materials are very strong but are not particularly stiff;
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be summarised as follows: It may be demonstrated that a structure is not dependent on a particular detail by considering an accidental design situation with the critical joint or sub-element removed from the model. The ultimate limit state design resistance for short-term effects should then exceed the design effect in this damaged configuration. The design effect may be based on the combination of actions used for an accidental design situation (but with no accidental action). An accidental design situation relates to an extreme event (in this case, the loss or damage of a structural detail), and the methods used in design to deal with these events are different from those used to ensure safety for the more normal situations typically encountered in the life of a bridge. For example, in the Eurocode method as implemented in the UK for verifying accidental design situations, there are no load factors, and the variable loads (e.g., pedestrian loading) are applied at a moderate level of loading corresponding to routine usage rather than the maximum crowd loading. These levels of loading and the corresponding load factors are defined in the Eurocodes as the combination of actions to be used for the accidental design situation. The ultimate limit state design resistance is the strength of the structure, and this needs to be sufficient to show that collapse would not be expected to occur under routine loading in the damaged state. The recommended design process is: 1. The structure is designed for serviceability and ultimate limit states. 2. Vulnerable parts of the structure are identified, those which are most heavily utilised or which would have highest consequence of failure. 3. A vulnerable part is chosen for further investigation. 4. The structure is modelled with this vulnerable part removed, with a moderate level of loading applied. 5. The effects from this analysis are compared with the ultimate limit state design resistance for short-term effects, to check that collapse will not occur in the damaged state under moderate loading. 6. If the damaged structure has insufficient strength to prevent collapse, the design is revised to improve robustness. 7. Process is repeated for all vulnerable details. Parsons Brinckerhoff has particularly used this approach to demonstrate that the safety of an FRP bridge is not disproportionately reliant on any one bonded joint, but the process could be applied to a range of structure types and details. Further details of the approach may be found in a paper presented at FRP Bridges 2012: Shave, Bennetts, Some Principles for Designing Safe and Robust FRP Structures, FRP Bridges 2012, NGCC, London, (2012). Engineer and professor Henry Petroski once said, "Successful engineering is all about understanding how things break or fail." By ensuring bridge designs are robust we can avoid catastrophic collapses and this approach allows us to confidently use innovation in structural design.
References
New Civil Engineer Consultants File March 2007 (2007) Commission of Inquiry into the collapse of a portion of the de la Concorde Overpass, Report, (2007), www.cevc.gouv.qc.ca/ userfiles/file/rapport/report_eng.pdf Investigative Report to Joint Committee to investigate the I-35W Bridge Collapse, (2008), www.commissions.leg.state.mn.us/ jbc/gpm.htm Shave, Denton, Frostick, Design of the St Austell FibreReinforced Polymer Footbridge, UK, Structural Engineering International Vol. 20, No. 4 (2010) BS EN 1990, Eurocode Basis of structural design, BSi, (2002) BS EN 199117, Eurocode 1 Actions on structures Part 17: General actions Accidental actions, BSi, (2006) Shave, Bennetts, Some Principles for Designing Safe and Robust FRP Structures, FRP Bridges 2012, NGCC, London,
Jon Shave is Head of Special Consultancy Services within Parsons Brinckerhoffs civils and structures group in the UK. He is based in Bristol, UK and his areas of expertise include fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) structures, development of standards, structural assessment, and Eurocode implementation.
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Innovative Approaches to Structures on the Metrolink Phase 3 Extensions

by Mungo Stacy, Manchester, UK, +44 (0)161 200 9845, stacym@pbworld.com
The Metrolink tram network in Greater Manchester, UK is one of the most successful light rail systems in the UK, carrying approximately 22 million passengers every year. The routes are shown in Figure 1. The Metrolink Phase 3 project (construction in sub-phases from 2008 to 2016) will create approximately 60 km (37 miles) of new tram lines. These improved transport links will reduce congestion and improve access to employment opportunities within the region. In July 2007, Parsons Brinckerhoff was appointed Delivery Partner for the client, and undertook programme management for this and associated projects as part of an integrated delivery team working alongside client staff. The client for the 1.5 billion (approximately $2.3 billion) Metrolink Phase 3 project was Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM). This major expansion of the Metrolink tram system included over 380 structures. Various innovative contractual and technical approaches were devised in order to address the challenges of limited condition knowledge, site constraints, and operational infrastructure. Parsons Brinckerhoff was instrumental in defining this contractual framework and influencing, reviewing, and approving the structural proposals to address these challenges.
Contract Mechanisms
Parsons Brinckerhoff, acting as Delivery Part- Figure 1 Metrolink routes ner for the client, was responsible for specifybe incorporated into the project. These included around ing and procuring the infrastructure contract which was let 80 bridges and five tunnels, many dating from the original as a fixed-price design-construct-maintain contract. Approxconstruction of the respective railway lines in the 1870s. imately 275 existing structures, predominantly associated It was not possible to define the structure condition and, with the extensions using former rail corridors, needed to hence, scope of work prior to contract award due to rela-
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Figure 3 Replacement of structure, where presence of a canal increased the cost and schedule risks of undertaking refurbishment
to carry out limited refurbishment of all of the existing structures. However, as the project progressed, problems were found with the condition and strength of a number of these structures. The demanding contract timescales placed a limit on the time available for second-stage assessments. Parsons Brinckerhoff needed to make a decision on the strategy and scope of work required for each structure and, in particular, whether to undertake refurbishment, strengthening, or replacement. A number of critical structures were replaced rather than refurbished in order to limit the prolongation risk to the contract (see Figure 3). The higher initial construction cost was offset by greater schedule and cost certainty. A wholelife cost comparison of the 120-year design life of a new structure compared with the 50-year design life of a refurbishment was also used to justify the additional construction cost.
Figure 2 Inspection and refurbishment of existing infrastructure
tively short tender timescales, the number of structures involved, and limited access to the structures. In order to reduce the contract cost, the client chose to accept some risk of the existing structure condition through a contractual risk-share mechanism. The choice of a suitable balance of risk incentivised both client and contractor to find appropriate engineering solutions for the structures. The contractor was required to carry out inspections and assessments of all the structures within six months of the contract award (see Figure 2). A revised scope and budget for the structures works was then agreed with the client, represented by Parsons Brinckerhoff. Close collaboration at the inspections and during the subsequent discussions allowed agreement to be reached readily during this phased scope determination.
Existing Structures
Adapting existing infrastructure to suit modern needs can be a sustainable and economic way to promote growth in our communities. However, the re-use of infrastructure constructed for other purposes can demand ingenious solutions. The intended strategy at contract award was
Figure 4 New light rail system including overhead electrification installed within existing infrastructure
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Figure 5 Strengthening girder bridges without disturbing services, using corrugated metal arches backfilled with concrete
Strengthening The selection of a light transit system with a relatively small vehicle size permitted the overhead electrification to be installed within the existing structure headroom, thus minimising costs of the scheme (see Figure 4). In contrast, heavy rail electrification in the UK frequently requires extensive reconstruction to provide electrification clearances. However, unexpectedly severe and extensive corrosion was found on some metal structures. The corrosion posed scheduling challenges since it placed the detailing and fabrication of metal repairs into the construction stage, which reduced the ability to plan the work in advance. Innovative strengthening methods were used to reduce disruption and offer schedule savings compared with reconstruction. A number of structures were strengthened using corrugated metal arch shells (see Figure 5). These arches were fitted below the bridge girders and backfilled with lightweight foamed concrete to encase and support the original beams. This restored full strength without affecting the utilities carried by the bridge while maintaining construction access along the track formation.
Offsite manufacture Infrastructure owners are increasingly requiring that their assets remain operational with minimal closure periods. This trend is driving innovative solutions which can be installed in short blockades. Two new motorway crossings on the project were each installed during a single 18-hour motorway closure using techniques of offsite manufacture and heavy-lift transportation. In both cases, the bridge girders and composite concrete deck were assembled in compounds alongside the motorway. The completed assemblies, weighing 580 tonnes (639 tons), were transported into place using selfpropelled modular transporter units (see Figure 6). These platform vehicles were configured with an array of 64 wheels to distribute the load on the motorway surface to an acceptably low level. The transporter units were originally developed for moving large rigs for the oil industry, but are finding increasing use in civil engineering. They offer the advantage of rapid installation and are less sensitive to high winds than large cranes, hence reducing installation risks.
New Structures
The risks associated with constructing the new structures, over 80 in number, were not considered unusual; therefore, the proposed new structures were included in the contractors fixed price. Parsons Brinckerhoff was responsible for review and technical approval of the contractors proposals. Parsons Brinckerhoff also led discussions with the external highway and railway authorities to obtain approval for the design and installation of the structures. The two examples below indicate how innovative approaches were adopted to address external constraints.
Figure 6 New motorway crossing for tram line installed using selfpropelled modular transporter units
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Figure 7 An unusual structure shape at Rochdale East viaduct addressed the challenge of constrained space
Single span crossings of 52m (170) were provided to carry the tram lines over dual 4-lane motorways. The design without intermediate piers avoided lengthy and extensive traffic management which would have been needed to construct foundations and piers within the centre reserve. Structure configuration A new viaduct at Rochdale East was installed to create grade-separation of the tram from the heavy rail lines. However, the alignment was severely constrained to lie within the footprint of the railway land and this led to an oblique crossing at an angle of 70 degrees. The high skew created structural challenges. A governing criterion was limiting the track twist which could arise due to the long span and the offset positions of the supports. An unusual pentagonal shape for the bridge was chosen to address these challenges (see Figure 7). An additional centre pier on one side was used to support the point of the pentagon and limit deflections. Thus, one side of the bridge consists of a single span of 52m (170) whereas the other has two spans of 33m (108). An alternative portal-type structure was considered but would have created a tunnel effect with large unused areas. The characteristics of the light transit system were key to fitting the alignment within the available space. In particular, the ability of the tram vehicles to climb steep gradients up to 6% and negotiate tight corners enabled the length of the approach ramps to be minimised. The bridge was installed during a 72-hour blockade of the operational railway below.
Conclusion
This major expansion of the Metrolink tram system incorporated a combination of new structures and adaptation of existing infrastructure, to the agreed schedule, and within the available budget. A sustainable approach was used to create some of the new tram lines by adapting former railway corridors. Various approaches were taken to address the risk of poor structure conditions. The remainder of the new tram lines have been constructed on new alignments. The new structures have brought other challenges such as space constraints and interfaces with operational infrastructure. Innovative approaches used to address these have included unusual structure configurations and offsite prefabrication to minimise service closure periods. Underpinning and enabling this innovation, the procurement, contract, and project team arrangements have been based on an appropriate allocation of risk, encouraging close collaboration between the client, contractor, and designer. The project has successfully delivered a modern transport system which will enhance the community it serves.
Mungo Stacy is a Senior Professional Associate and the Technical Representative for the civil, structures, ground, and mining engineering sector on the technical leadership team (TLT) and is currently based in Manchester. He has 12 years of experience in the design, construction, and refurbishment of bridges and structures and has worked on projects in London, Hong Kong, and Edinburgh.
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Analyzing the Impacts of Explosions on Dams and Levees

by James Parkes, Baltimore, Maryland, 1-410-454-9763, parkes@pbworld.com
Introduction
Infrastructure security is a growing area of engineering analyses with focus on high risk structures such as buildings, bridges, and tunnels. Dams and levees also need to be considered as part of these critical infrastructure assessments. In the United States alone, there are over 84,000 dams (USACE, 2010) and 100,000 miles of levees (ASCE, 2009).
Elevation
1.50 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 - 150 80 70 60 50 Drain 40 30 20 10 0 150
Embankment (Drained) Foundation -100 -50 0 Distance 50 100
Figure 1 Cross Section of Homogenous Trial Embankment Dam Section
Many dams contain public roadways along the crest. The consequences of a dam or levee failure may include not only the direct loss of a roadway and the loss of a reservoir for water supply or power generation, but also the potentially devastating effect of the sudden uncontrolled release of the reservoir. Over 26,000 dams in the US are classified as either high hazard or significant hazard, meaning failure would result in likely or possible loss of human life (USACE, 2010). Hazard classification is a function of the consequences of failure, not the size, length, or design of the dam. Parsons Brinckerhoff has established itself as a leader in the field of analyzing the impact of explosions on infrastructure (blast impact assessment). The 2003 William Barclay Parsons Fellowship (WBPF) was awarded to this research and subsequent monograph entitled Tunnel Stability Under Explosion (Choi, 2009). Parsons Brinckerhoff is using an innovative approach, also funded through the WBPF program, to extend the field of blast security analysis to embankment dams and levees.
A trial dam section was developed based on widely used geometric configurations for homogeneous embankment dams, published guidelines (USBR, 1973), and engineering judgment. The dam has a 2.5H:1V upstream slope, a crest width of 25 feet, and a 2H:1V downstream slope (see Figure 1). A public roadway is assumed on the crest with an explosive event occurring on either the upstream or downstream side of the road. A failure mode analysis was performed to determine possible failure mechanisms that could result from this type of load (explosive impact). These include: A. Global stability failure due to the dynamic impact of the explosion (failure during the explosion); B. Global stability failure due to the post-blast geometry altered by cratering and/or cracking; and C. Localized failure due to an erosive breach following the blast, resulting from water inflow into a crater or cracked section (localized erosion and/or piping leading to catastrophic breach). These failure modes are illustrated in Figure 2.
Trial Embankment Section and Failure Modes

Earth embankment dams were selected for analysis because the vast majority of dams in the US, over 87%, are this type of structure (USACE, 2010). Assessing embankment dams requires a unique understanding of explosive loading, soil modeling under high energy dynamic loading, embankment dam failure modes, and conventional geotechnical stability evaluations.
Developing the Blast Impact Model

Most conventional geotechnical modeling involves relatively static loads of small to moderate intensity applied over a long time period. Blast impact loading, however, involves very high energy, large magnitude loads applied for very short periods of time. Conventional geotechnical modeling software and conventional understanding of soil mechanics do not apply to blast impact loading. An innovative ap-
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Assessing the Results of the Blast Impact Model
The results of the blast model were evaluated in terms of the failure modes indicated in Figure 2. Clay and soils containing clay have a cohesive strength component that allows the soil to form cracks. Cracks may extend many feet below the surface, and may form due to desiccation or due to deformations (settlements, lateral spreading). Cracked sections are often included in conventional slope stability analyses, and cracking is a concern for internal seepage controls in embankment dam design. The explosion results in large deformations in the area of the blast. It is considered possible that such deformations could lead to crack formation which can contribute to failure (Figure 2B and 2C). Therefore, it is necessary to estimate the depth of potential cracking below the explosion. An innovative approach to this is to consider the strains that propagate into the embankment below the crater. Strain indicates an amount of movement; limiting strain criteria is often used to define failure or unacceptable performance geotechnical engineering. Beyond a certain degree of movement, soils may lose strength or structures built of soil may be damaged to the point of no longer being serviceable without excessive repairs.
A. Global Stability Failure During the Explosion
B. Post-Blast Global Stability Failure Due to Crater/Cracked Section
C. Post-Blast Breach Failure Due to Uncontrolled Seepage Through Cratered/Cracked Zone
Figure 2 Illustration of Possible Failure Modes due to Explosion on Dam Crest
proach was developed to assess how embankment soils would behave under such loading conditions. Analysis of explosions and blast impacts is typically performed with explicit dynamics software, which enables modeling of very rapid high intensity loads on structures. One such software package is AUTODYN by ANSYS, Inc. This is a complex numerical modeling software that can be used to analyze high intensity rapid loading conditions using different solvers for fluids and solids coupled together. In most blast analyses, soils are a secondary concern and are analyzed in terms of how much energy is transferred to an adjacent or buried structure. However, for this analysis, the structure itself is made of soil, and so a reasonable soil model had to be developed, and the results of the model had to be evaluated in terms of geotechnical stability and failure mechanisms. Soil models for blast impact loads have been developed for analyzing the impacts of buried explosives, such as landmines, for military applications. Models have been developed and validated through instrumented field experiments for a variety of soil types (Grujicic et al., April 2007, May 2007). Soil models for saturated sand-clay mixtures were used to best match the types of soil most likely to be used in an embankment dam. The soil models were validated by re-creating the published landmine analyses as indicated in Figure 3. An embankment dam could now be analyzed using soil models that have been specifically developed for blast impact analyses.
Figure 3 Published Soil Model (Left, Grujicic et. al. May 2007) and Re-created Soil Model (Right) for a Buried Landmine Explosion
This research extends this practice to assessing the potential crack formation due to the explosive load. Although some deformation is immediately obvious, such as the crater formation, the blast analysis shows that deformations, indicated by strains, extend significantly deeper than the crater. As shown in Figure 4, strains extend to depths several times the depth of the crater. The strain contours can be used to estimate the depth of particular levels of deformation, which is assumed to be indicative of crack potential. Engineering judgment is used to define a limiting strain value, such as 5% or 10%, that corresponds to the formation of cracks. The depth of potential cracking can be determined based on that limiting strain value from
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the blast analysis results. The depths of the crater and potential cracking are used to assess post-blast stability and local breach potential (Figures 2B and 2C). Research is currently under way to evaluate how to assess the stability during the blast event (Figure 2A).
provide an initial indication of risk potential and possible failure modes. As part of a comprehensive security and risk assessment program, this simplified assessment can be used in preliminary evaluations to assess the need to perform more time-intensive modeling or evaluate the need for mitigation measures.
Crater formed by blast
Conclusion
Parsons Brinckerhoff is using an innovative approach to extend the field of blast security analysis to embankment dams and levees. The work is a result of combining research from military applications with infrastructure security assessments and conventional geotechnical engineering evaluations. The result is a rational procedure for assessing the impacts of explosions on the stability of embankment dams, including the development of simplified charts to assess the potential for cracking and the formation of an erosive breach. References
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Report Card for Americas Infrastructure, website URL http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/fact-sheet/dams, website accessed January 2013. Choi, Sunghoon (2009), Tunnel Stability Under Explosion, PB 2003 William Barclay Parsons Fellowship, Monograph 19, Parsons Brinckerhoff, NY. Grujicic, M., B. Pandurangan, N. Coutris, B.A. Cheeseman, W. N. Roy, R.R. Skaggs (April 2007), "Derivation and Validation of a Material Model for Clayey Sand for Use In Landmine Detonation Computational Analyses", Multidiscipline Modeling in Materials and Structures, Vol. 5 Iss: 4 pp. 311 344.
Deformations extending below crater, as indicated by strain contours Figure 4 Model Showing Crater and Strain Contours from Explosion over Upstream Half of Crest
Development of Simplified Charts

As indicated above, two of the failure modes can be assessed based on the depths of potential cracking. Since the blast modeling is a time intensive analysis, the industry would benefit from a simplified approach that can facilitate these assessments. The blast model has been run with the explosive on different locations across the crest roadway. The results of these runs are overlaid to develop an estimate of the crater depths and the maximum depths of strains for an explosion of a given size on the dam crest. A simplified chart is being developed with zones for crater formation and potential cracking for a particular size explosion on the dam crest. A conceptual chart is shown in Figure 5. The chart can be used to assess these failure modes (Figures 2B and 2C) for dams of similar dimensions and composition as the trial dam. This simplified approach can
zone of crater formation x y z zone of potential crack formation
United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE, 2010), National Inventory of Dams, website URL http://nid.usace.army. mil, NID 2010 database, website accessed January 2013. United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) (1973), Design of Small Dams, United States Department of the Interior, US Government Printing Office, Washington DC, Second Edition. James Parkes is a Supervising Geotechnical Engineer in Parsons Brinckerhoffs geotechnical and tunneling practice and he was a finalist for the 2009 William Barclay Parsons Fellowship. He has worked on a variety of infrastructure projects including dams, tunnels, bridges, and buildings.
5% strain envelope
Figure 5 Conceptual Example of Simplified Chart for Assessing Crater and Crack Formation Depths for an Explosion on the Crest of the Trial Dam
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Grujicic, M., Pandurangan, B., Qiao, R., Cheeseman, B.A., Roy, W.N., and Skaggs, R.R., Gupta, R. (May, 2007), Parameterization of the porous-material model for sand with different levels of water saturation, Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 28 (2008) 2035, Elsevier Journal.
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The William Barclay Parsons Fellowship and Innovation: A Personal Perspective

by Henry Russell, Boston, Massachusetts, 1-617-426-7330, russell@pbworld.com In 1985 (the centennial of the firm), Parsons Brinckerhoff initiated the William Barclay Parsons Fellowship, a program to encourage the inquisitive minds in the firm to develop innovative new technologies or improve on existing ones. The fellowship would provide up to eight weeks of labor and two thousand dollars for expenses to develop the fellows research. As a geotechnical engineer at Parsons Brinckerhoff, the author was fortunate to have worked under two of Parsons Brinckerhoffs technical leaders who encouraged me to write technical papers, and so I submitted a proposal for a procedure to limit the tail shield collapse in bored tunnels. This tail shield area is between the top of the tunnel boring machine (TBM) and the interior lining of the tunnel. My proposal was to develop a procedure for modifications to the tunnel segments to allow for grouting of this area during the forward movement of the shield. Although a finalist, I unfortunately was not chosen as fellow for 1985. However, the CEO at the time was impressed by the innovative ideas of all of the finalists and consequently each of the finalists was funded for their research. The encouragement of freedom of thought and creativity at Parsons Brinckerhoff, as exemplified by the William Barclay Parsons Fellowship program, has spurred innovation throughout my career, as illustrated below. the identification of all the tunnel defects expected to be encountered, which allowed us to move away from the time consuming graphical mapping of the tunnel surfaces. For each defect found, the system assigned single-letter codes to identify the type of defect, the location of the defect by wall surface and track station, and the length or depth and area. There was not any such system in use at the time. This system was approved by the client, and Parsons Brinckerhoff was able to reduce costs by doing the work safely and rapidly in the operating tunnel environment.
Inspection Procedures for Transit Tunnels

The authors proposal to develop a manual entitled The Inspection and Rehabilitation of Transit Tunnels was selected for the William Barclay Parsons Fellowship of 1987. With encouragement from my mentors at Parsons Brinckerhoff, I completed the draft manual and by the end of 1992 the manual had three printings and was widely circulated to transit tunnel operators in North America. This led to an invitation to write a chapter on tunnel inspection for the second edition of The Tunnel Engineering Manual in 1996 and to author the first Federal Transit Administration (FTA) synthesis on state-of-the-art tunnel inspection, The Inspection Policy and Procedures for Rail Transit Tunnels and Underground Structures TCRP Synthesis 29, which was published in 1997 (see Figure 1). My association with Parsons Brinckerhoffs technical leaders, and their encouragement, provided me with the opportunity to meet potential clients and become part of the inner circle of tunnel designers.
Classification System for Tunnel Defects

In 1984 Parsons Brinckerhoff was contracted by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) to develop repairs for the MBTA Green Line. The project involved the identification of tunnel defects, including spalls, delaminations, cracks, etc. The MBTA had previously spent over one million dollars to have the same type of work done. Unfortunately, the computer codes that the previous consultant used to identify tunnel defects were sevendigit alphanumerical notations. The MBTA never used the system due to its complexity. A site visit to the tunnel led to a simple innovation. The identification of defects and their quantities was similar to geologic mapping and a systematic method for the notation of the defects could be performed very easily. The author developed a tabular classification system for
Tunnel Maintenance and Repair Documents for the International Tunneling Association (ITA)
The International Tunneling Association (ITA), a United Nations advisory organization with 64 member nations, promotes advances in planning, design, construction, maintenance, and safety of tunnels and underground space. Since 1998, the author has served as representative, vice-chairman, and chairman of Working Group
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No. 6, Maintenance and Repair. During my tenure as chairman, the working group wrote two significant documents: Study of Methods for Repair of Tunnel Linings, which discusses methods utilized around the world for repair of tunnel linings and the control of groundwater intrusion; and Guidelines for Structural Fire Resistance for Road Tunnels, written in collaboration with the International Road Federation (PIARC). This document was the first definitive study by ITA into the reaction of tunnel liners to high heat release rates from a fire, and provides guidelines for protection of the structural liner. The recommendations from this document on structural fire protection have been adopted by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) for highway tunnels and the European Union for rail tunnels. Numerous tunnel inspection and rehabilitation projects around the world were also undertaken, including the development of inspection manuals for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), Bostons Central Artery/Tunnel Project (CA/T), and emergency response projects for flooded tunnels in Chicago, Boston, and Taipei.
Figure 1 Transit tunnel inspection manuals
The National Highway Institute, the technical training arm of the US Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), commissioned Parsons Brinckerhoff in 2009 to write the Technical Manual for Design and Construction of Road Tunnels Civil Elements, a cradle to grave document, which includes the latest version of Parsons Brinckerhoffs methods for tunnel inspection and rehabilitation and has become the standard for road tunnel inspection for FHWA. In the last year, Parsons Brinckerhoff has advanced the collection of raw data using a data tablet which has greatly enhanced the speed of data collection in the field.
Innovation, development, and new markets are continuing. I strongly encourage participation in the fellowship program; it allows for the development of critical thinking and professional growth. The William Barclay Parsons Fellowship is an excellent vehicle to advance innovation and carry on William Barclay Parsons legacy as a Renaissance Man.
Henry Russell is Senior Vice President and Principal Professional Associate based in Parsons Brinckerhoffs Boston office. His areas of expertise include waterproofing, fireproofing, and groundwater control for tunnels, and he is a recognized expert in the field of tunnel inspection and rehabilitation. He is a registered civil engineer and an engineering geologist.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the William Barclay Parsons Fellowship provides engineers at Parsons Brinckerhoff with the opportunity to research and advance innovative ideas. The lessons learned from my research have greatly enhanced my work on new tunnels and design-build tunnel projects, particularly in the
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Design and Construction of Road Tunnels Civil Elements
areas of concrete repair, fireproofing, and leak mitigation. The William Barclay Parsons Fellowship enabled me to develop a tunnel inspection procedure manual which provided the opportunity for over 30 million dollars worth of work, which is a great return on the original investment.
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Network Intelligence Solutions Innovation to Meet the UK Water Supply Challenge

by Kathryn Vowles, Bristol, UK, +44 (0)7876 791151, Kathryn.Vowles@balfourbeatty.com
Challenges for the water supply sector in the UK were thrown into sharp focus during 2012. The first three months of the year were very dry. March was the third warmest on record. In April it started to rain, and by the end of the year the UK had seen 115% of average rainfall, with some locations receiving over 135%1. From water conservation and control, and even considering infrastructure investment to facilitate transfer of water from one region to another, the water companies had to change their focus to mitigating flood impact. Extreme weather events are likely to be an ongoing challenge for the UK water companies, established through the privatisation of the water industry in 1989. The UK Climate Impacts Projection Model suggests that extreme weather events will become more common. This uncertainty is not the only challenge. Water demand could increase 35% by 2050 due to population growth2, with some of the fastest growing communities situated in some of the driest parts of the UK. The Environment Agency reports that there are areas already under water stress, and throughout the UK new reliable water supplies are not available. Environmental legislation from both the UK and Europe is tightening, in terms of water quality and source protection, but also in relation to carbon emissions. Water companies spend a significant amount on energy, particularly to pump water around the network, and this cost is only going to increase. The UK also has a legacy of aging infrastructure dating back to the Romans. Water loss through leakage is estimated by Ofwat (the Water Services Regulation Authority) to be 3.36bn litres of water per day. Even meeting the target of reducing loss to 3.24bn by 201415, that still represents approximately 25% of the water provided by companies. Reducing leakage, therefore, represents a significant opportunity to meet future needs and minimise the investment required for new infrastructure. This will help the industry maintain supply, address concern about keep1 2
ing water affordable during challenging economic times, and help the industry meet carbon reduction targets. Reducing leaks is no simple challenge. Water companies plan renewal works using records established post privatisation. Many employed in-house mapping teams or agencies to update their records, using existing maps and sending out surveying teams. Equipment, including correlators and pipe locators, was used, but human error was inevitable. In some cases the wrong mains were followed, or guess work was used where the main could not be traced. Further updates and new maps often compounded errors. Finding the pipes themselves can be a challenge, let alone the leaks! Water companies consider the age and construction of their infrastructure, as well as known failure rates, and make upgrade decisions on that basis. Theyre also reactive to reports of leaks, but both approaches are imprecise and inefficient, and when a leak has occurred the water supply has already been affected, impacting the level of customer service provided. This combination of social, environmental, and economic challenges, and aging infrastructure, is an issue for the water companies, and one that requires innovative solutions.
The Opportunity
How can we meet future needs, not through significant new infrastructure, but through supporting efficient water use within communities and industry, plus more effective management of existing infrastructure? Its clear that the water companies have a challenge promoting water efficiency when they themselves are allowing so much water to leak away. In the face of the requirement for significant infrastructure investment, technology is part of the solution, in terms of better understanding supply and demand, and through providing information and tools for better asset lifecycle management. A recent McKinsey report, discussing the
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/2012/annual.html Water for Life, Defra, December 2011
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need for infrastructure productivity, noted that: Reducing transmission and distribution losses in water and power ..often costs less than 3% of adding the equivalent in new production capacity and can be accomplished significantly faster.3
access, is significantly reduced. From a long-term asset management perspective, a better understanding of what is under the ground means that focused and proactive replacement programmes can address the real weaknesses of the network, rather than the predicted ones. Sending cameras and other monitoring equipment down pipes is, however, only one part of the story. Even greater efficiencies can be gained by changing, and speeding up, the whole decision-making process within water companies, and by bringing all network intelligence data into single geographic view. SCISYS is now developing the software to facilitate real time review of survey data via a map-based dashboard. Project managers at any water company HQ will be able to quickly identify potential failure points out across their network from the dashboard, then drill-down to view detailed information concerning pipe condition and life expectancy at a selected location at a sub-metre resolution. They will also be able to review photographic evidence and scans of pipe thickness and anomalies. Replacement and repair decisions can be made immediately. With a Balfour Beatty team on site with the camera equipment, they may be able to repair the pipe then and there (Figure 1). At this point the information technology will have jumped ahead of the organisational process and permitting and approval regimes. Water companies are not currently organised for real time decision-making. Local authorities also run a permitting regime to control disruption to public highways through excavation works. This creates delays and additional costs for those Figure 1 Accessing the pipe network planning and carrying out repair or replacement works. Again, the software solution can help companies by incorporating permitting information and workflows, effectively automating the process. The dashboard will also be able to capture and highlight sensitive receptors such as schools, hospitals, households with people on dialysis, for example. With this information at hand,
The Innovation Smart Solution

Sensors have been used in water infrastructure for some time. They can assess water pressure and plant performance to provide data which can be analysed to identify problems, including leaks. Better analysis of that data has led to a more proactive approach to asset management. By understanding the demand requirements around a network, water pressures can be moderated to drive efficiency and ensure leaks are not caused by excessive pressure. This whole system approach continues to develop, and is an important aspect of intelligent network management. The next step is development and deployment of technologies to look inside pipes and to map asset condition, facilitating proactive planning of capital investments. To that end, Balfour Beatty Water and Gas has partnered its asset knowledge and on-site experience with technology companies JD7 (hardware for in-pipe deployment) and SCISYS (remote and autonomous device software and data management). This partnership has worked together for some time on research projects for devices mounted with cameras that can travel down pipes to assess their condition. This has culminated in considerable investment and establishment of a full-time team to operate the technology as a commercial service, Balfour Beatty Network Intelligence Solutions. The team uses live cameras, hydrophone systems, and ultrasound probes to investigate live mains up to 16 bar pressure through fire hydrants, air valves, or quadrinas. They are capable of assessing pipes from 3 up to large diameter trunk mains and for distances up to 1,000m. The service can help water companies with: leak detection, low pressure assessments, asset location, inspection and testing, network mapping, structural assessments, pre-site planning inspections, and post-work verification surveys. Quick and targeted leak detection limits excavation and replacement and delivers significant benefits for time and cost efficiency, materials efficiency, and importantly, health and safety. From a customer point of view, supply issues are resolved more quickly, and the nuisance caused by street excavations creating noise and dust, and limiting
3
Infrastructure productivity: How to save $1 trillion a year, McKinsey Global Institute, January 2013
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careful planning can take place to ensure continuity of supply for high risk users.
SCISYS is no ordinary technology company. Formed over 30 years ago, the company initially focussed on the development and delivery of both the ground control and on-board flight software for satellites and inter-planetary spacecraft. Indeed, no European Space Agency (ESA) exploration platform has been launched without some SCISYS software on board. The company is now working on the development of an autonomous control system for a future Mars rover. Whilst perhaps not obvious, this work lends itself well for use in water pipes. Mars is a hostile, inaccessible environment where mapping and navigation systems such as GPS do not exist. The rover needs to be able to localise, navigate and detect features of interest, all with minimal human interaction and with a tiny power budget. It is these characteristics that we are looking to exploit for autonomous pipe operations. JD7 is a specialist technology provider that has introduced a full range of new generation inspection, measurement, mapping, and leak detection systems to Balfour Beatty. JD7 has been working very closely with Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions (BBUS) for several years where the two way relationship has allowed new technologies to be developed whilst keeping focus on the clients requirements. BBUS has invested in the full range of JD7 technologies and formed a specialist division called Intelligence Network Solutions. This is the first unit of its kind to support new generation technology to allow utilities to move into the modern world. Both JD7 and BBUS are introducing the technology range into the gas sector where the Network Intelligence Solutions will make Balfour Beatty the first company in the UK to offer a full live insertion condition assessment and leak detection capability across both water and gas networks.
The near future.

With such smart innovations being prepared for deployment, what is the next innovation opportunity to further develop smart water infrastructure? Balfour Beatty is about to start a research project enhancing the existing technology to the autonomous repair of pipes in a targeted, safe, and effective manner. No-dig options for pipe repair have been an aspiration for some time. Some UK water companies have conducted trials of platelet systems which, when released into pipes, seal the nearest leak. The challenge has been that the platelets block any holes, not just the leak. Also, the seal drops out if the water pressure drops. The next stage is using autonomous devices (or robots) to target coatings and affect a repair. Balfour Beatty is working with water companies, SCISYS, JD7, and academia to access technology and know-how developed for space exploration to take this from concept to reality. The assessment work so far has highlighted the need for better mapping of our underground infrastructure. Technologies based on ground-penetrating radar are also being developed to map from above ground, such as work by the Mapping the Underground project which brings together UK universities and industry to develop a full map of the UKs complex underground assets. This map will also drive infrastructure efficiency through better integration of works on different systems: electricity, water, gas, and communications. An accurate and comprehensive map of what is underground will also have significant efficiency benefits for the UK construction industry as understanding where utilities are can help with efficient design and construction planning, and reduce health and safety risk and time delays during construction.
and beyond
We are not alone in looking at autonomous systems to assess and repair water leaks, but our goal is a fully integrated approach. We can see a future where there are autonomous monitoring and repair devices working their way around a fully mapped and understood network. Consider the human body analogy. Imagine a water infrastructure system like a human blood system. Its self-monitoring and self-regulating. Autonomous devices run around the system, monitoring conditions and undertaking small repairs as necessary. Early diagnosis of warning signs can mean that more significant issues with the system can be dealt
with via key-hole rather than open heart surgery. The devices learn about their network and predict failures rather than reacting to them. Operators will sit in offices, rather than on the side of a busy road, looking down a deep hole. [The author would like to thank SCISYS and JD7 for their input to this article. She would also like to recognise the Network Intelligence vision established by Mike Brockhurst, BB Water and Gas Innovation Strategy Manager, and the feedback from those delivering the Network Intelligence Solutions, Ken Nicholl, Jim Tattersfield and their team.]
Kathryn Vowles worked for Parsons Brinckerhoff for 11 years, latterly in the strategic consulting group. She is now working on business development for Balfour Beatty Gas and Water, with an interest in intelligent infrastructure.
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Advancing the Understanding of Former Gasworks Through the Application of Award-Winning Forensic Research
by Russell Thomas, Bristol, UK, +44 (0) 117 933 9262, thomasru@pbworld.com
Introduction
The manufactured gas industry has left a considerable environmental legacy in Britain and across the world of thousands of former gasworks (manufactured gas plant) sites, ranging in size from large city gasworks to those small gasworks at country houses. In Britain the environmental concerns on many of these sites have been addressed; however, many former gasworks require further investigation and remediation on some or all parts of the site. Historically, the analysis of coal tar has been something laboratories have avoided as the analysis required lengthy and costly preparation of different coal tar fractions, each of which had to be analysed separately. The key innovation described in this article is the development of an analytical tool which can, in one sample preparation stage, identify thousands of individual compounds of a coal tar sample. By matching expertise in forensic chemistry with a detailed historical understanding of former gasworks sites, this innovative method can attribute different coal tars found on former gasworks to specific gas manufacturing processes something previously impossible. This is valuable information for investigating groundwater pollution at former gasworks sites.
for trimming wicks and replacement, and were a significant safety hazard. The potential for a cheaper, safer, and more effective alternative, in the form of gas, was developed by William Murdoch and his colleagues at Boulton and Watt. Gas lighting soon spread to other factories and then to the public lighting of streets and houses. The early gas produced for lighting was lit in simple burners and left an unpleasant odour. This led to the development of gas purification with lime to remove the sulphurous components which caused the odour. In addition to gas purification, coal tar and ammoniacal liquor were removed by condensation and washing to prevent the blocking and corrosion of the gas pipes. Each of the by-products could be sold for use by other industries, but they have also left an environmental legacy of pollution at many former gasworks sites.
Coal Tar
AUGUST 2013 http://www.pbworld.com/news/publications.aspx The by-product of most interest for this study is coal tar, a brown-black viscous liquid with a specific gravity of about 1.15, making it a dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL)1. It is mobile, releases vapours, and can provide an ongoing source of contamination in groundwater. The coal tar contains all the condensable organic fractions of the thermally decomposed coal and is characterised as having a high concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are just a few of up to 10,000 individual compounds which may be present in coal tar. The PAHs contain some known carcinogens and are a major risk to human health. Coal tar is a difficult and complex substance to study, but its chemical diversity should be detectable by the application of forensic analysis methods. Given the potential variability in coal tar, it was hypothesised that if there were significant alterations in the way that gas was manufactured during its history, then these changes may be reflected in the tars
Brief History of Gas Manufacturing in Britain

Gas was once manufactured in Britain rather than extracted from gas fields deep below ground. Whilst natural gas has only been available in Britain for about 40 years, gas manufacturing lasted for a period of about 170 years, until the closure of the last coal gasworks in Britain on the Isle of Cumbrae, Scotland, in 1981. The roots of the gas industry were in the provision of lighting, rather than heating as it is today. Lighting of the ever expanding industrial mills and factories of Britain was difficult and dangerous. Candles and oil lamps produced a dull light, required continual attention
1
A dense non-aqueous phase liquid or DNAPL is a liquid that is both denser than water and is immiscible in or does not dissolve in water.
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Environmental/Climate Environmental/ClimateChange ChangeAnalysis Analysisand and Transport Sustainability Sustainability Sector
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produced. At the outset of this project, it was uncertain as to whether it was feasible and whether differences would be significant enough to allow for clear forensic identification of multiple sources of tar on a single site, especially as some coal tars have been present in the environment for up to 190 years. To achieve this, the project had to: Investigate the development of the different types of gas manufacturing processes used; Understand the engineering and chemistry of the gas manufacturing processes, so the characteristics of the different tars produced could be assessed; Develop an analytical method that could identify the complex nature of coal tar, identifying and quantifying a wide range of its constituent compounds; Analyse coal tar samples taken from different gas-making processes and different gasworks sites; and Publish the work in a peer reviewed journal. vapours. Early retorts made of cast iron were fragile and required regular replacement. These restraints and a preference for using cannel-type coal led to specific type of low-temperature coal tar being produced. As the cast iron retorts were replaced by fireclay and then later by silica, they became more durable and able to withstand higher temperatures. The use of gas for lighting predominated into the 20th century, but its application changed following the invention of the atmospheric gas (Bunsen) burner and gas mantle. The metals in the gas mantle when heated emitted a bright light, removing the requirement for high concentrations of illuminants. The Bunsen burner provided a basis for gas to be used for heat-based applications which became the predominant use for gas in the 20th century. Early retorts were heated directly by radiant heat from simple furnaces beneath the retort, producing relatively low temperatures. Later, the gas producer was developed which burnt coal/coke under oxygen-limited conditions, producing a crude gas of carbon monoxide which was channelled to a combustion chamber directly around the retorts where it was mixed with air and burned. This enabled higher temperatures to be achieved, producing much more thermally degraded coal tars, similar to those produced by high-temperature by-product coke ovens, which are considered to produce the most degraded coal tars. Vertical retorts As technology improved, a new type of retort was developed, the vertical retort. It reduced the labour involved as much of the movement of the coal could be achieved by gravity once the plant was loaded. Vertical retorts were heated by a gas producer and the coal was gradually carbonised at an increasing temperature producing a coal tar which had both properties of a low- and high-temperature coal tar. Water Gas Retort based gas manufacture had long lead time for gas production, incapable of rapidly dealing with periods of high gas demand. A solution was a process called water gas, which produced a lean gas of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen. It was perfected in the US in the 1870s. The lean gas could be enriched by injecting oil into it. Much of the oil was gasified; the heavier fraction of the oil, however, would be deposited as a tar. The characteristics of the tar produced would reflect the composition of oil used.
Collaboration
This project could only happen as a result of a combination of extensive collaboration and a record of delivering complex research projects. The project was funded and supported by National Grid Property, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Grant EP/D013739/2), and the Scottish Government GRPE Funding. The research partner, the University of Strathclyde, had been chosen based on a history of successful and awarding winning collaboration with Parsons Brinckerhoff. The client, National Grid Property, had collaborated with Parsons Brinckerhoff on similar research projects for over 10 years. The expertise of the project manager, in the contaminated land sector, enabled the project to call on the goodwill of other consultants and contractors to provide samples from third party sites. Previous collaboration with the National Gas Archive enabled the author to get direct access to site information records.
Types of Gas Manufacturing

Brief descriptions of the types of gas manufacturing that have evolved in Britain are described below. The engineering and chemistry of the gas manufacturing processes determine the characteristics of the different tars that were produced. Horizontal retorts Gas needed to be rich in organic compounds which provided the gas with its illuminating quality; for this reason, oil-rich cannel coals proved popular in the early gas industry. The horizontal retort was the standard for heating the coal in an oxygen-free environment to remove the gas and
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As the supply of good-quality gas-making coals both diminished and became more expensive, the British gas industry had to consider other feedstocks. Oil Gas As the petroleum industry developed in the 20th century and oil refineries were built in the UK, crude oils and their derived distillate fractions became available in abundant amounts and could provide a cheaper alternative to coal. Oil gas processes became popular in larger British gasworks and produced tar which constituted the fraction of high molecular weight organic compounds which could not be fixed into a gas. The amount and type of tar produced was related to the oil used: the heavier the oil, the greater the amount of tar produced. The above description demonstrates how the gas industry has evolved, bringing with it an environmental legacy in the form of below-ground pollution from tars. This same legacy was repeated on all continents but Antarctica, from Russia to New Zealand and from Great Britain to Japan.
using reverse-phase two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GCxGC TOFMS) was developed, capable of analysing and quantifying up to 10,000 compounds from one sample analysis (McGregor et al 2011, see references). This method separated the compounds on two dimensions, enabling greater resolution of the data. As the method produced a large amount of data, principal component analysis (PCA) was used to analyse and extract the variations within the large dataset by reducing raw sample data into smaller, uncorrelated variables known as principal components. To validate the method, Parsons Brinckerhoff collected 23 samples of coal tar from 14 different former gasworks and two operational coke oven sites across the UK. Using the specialist knowledge of the author, a detailed understanding of the site history was produced for each gasworks site, so that knowledge of the production processes used for producing the coal tar were available to validate the analytical result. The coal tar samples obtained were primarily from underground tar tanks, although samples from historic spills in the soil and deeper strata were also obtained. The samples were analysed by the method described above and the data split into two sets of principal components and plotted as shown. There was a perfect grouping of the samples based on the production process used to manufacture the tar. The results of the PCA plots of tar grouped the samples as those produced by vertical retorts, low temperature horizontal retorts, high temperature horizontal retort, coke ovens, and carburretted water gas/creosote plants (see Figure 1).
An Innovative Development in Environmental Forensics

The land ownership issues at former gasworks in Britain are complex with sites often under multiple ownership. The range of gas-making processes used; the different coal tars formed; and their handling, use and disposal, and the potential impacts of other nearby industries (producing similar pollution) create a very complex picture. The application of accurate innovative environmental forensic methods can provide a greater understanding than that afforded by conventional analytical methods. Standard analysis of coal tar was previously limited to a small number of substituent compounds, such as PAHs. These methods were unable to analyse the presence of nitrogen, sulphur, and oxygen heterocyclic compounds, which are important constituents of coal tar. A major challenge has always been to find a fast, efficient, and cost-effective method of analysing the diverse constituents of coal tars. Work supported by Parsons Brinckerhoff was undertaken at the University of Strathclyde to develop an analytical method using accelerated solvent extraction, which could rapidly prepare samples for analysis. A novel method
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Coke Ovens
200 High Temp. Horizontal Retort 100
Low Temp. Horizontal Retort Carburetted Water Gas/Creosote Vertical Retort -200 0 200 400 600
-100
-200 -400
PC1
Figure 1 The PCA score plot of the full coal tar data set including blind study samples (two samples shown with thick edging). After McGregor et al 2012.
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Conclusion
The main innovations in this project have been: the development of an analytical tool which can in one sample preparation stage identify thousands of individual compounds; the application of statistics in the form of principal component analysis (PCA) to interpret complex data sets into meaningful trends; and the combination of expertise in forensic chemistry with a detailed historical understanding of former gasworks sites, such that the method could identify coal tars found on former gasworks and the original production process that created a tar. This is valuable information for investigating groundwater pollution at former gasworks sites, especially in legal cases, where proving the original point source of multiple plumes of coal tar is required on single former gasworks which may have been rebuilt many times, subsequently split up, and then sold off as smaller plots of land. This work has already generated considerable interest from the US, from where samples are now being provided to assess the provenance of the samples source. The technique has also been used to investigate the natural biodegradation of compounds in the fringes of coal tar plumes, as it is able to identify the metabolic intermediates produced during biodegradation. The technique is also being adapted for assessing the composition of shale gas source rocks, but that is a separate story. References
Laura A. McGregor, Caroline Gauchotte-Lindsay, Niamh Nic Daid, Russell Thomas and Robert M. Kalin, Multivariate Statistical Methods for the Environmental Forensic Classification of Coal Tars from Former Manufactured Gas Plants, Environ. Sci. Technol., 2012, 46 (7), pp 37443752. Dr. Russell Thomas is Technical Director in Bristol, UK where he manages the research activities of Parsons Brinckerhoffs UK environment business and its collaboration with a number of UK universities. He is a recognised international expert in environmental issues associated with former gasworks and a member of the Institution of Gas Engineers & Managers (IGEM) Panel for the History of the Gas Industry.
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Carbon Emissions Reduction Hierarchy

by Emioshor Itoya, Balfour Beatty, Hampshire, UK, +44(0)1256 400400, emioshor.Itoya@bblivingplaces.com; and Katrina Hazell, Balfour Beatty, Hampshire, UK, +44(0)1256 400400, katrina.hazell@bblivingplaces.com
This article covers the research work undertaken as part of the Engineering Doctorate (EngD) programme at the Centre for Innovative and Collaborative Construction Engineering (CICE) at Loughborough University, co-sponsored by the UKs Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The study was commissioned by Balfour Beatty Highway Service Team (BB-HST) between 2008 and 2012. Balfour Beatty Highway Service Team is a leading provider of integrated transportation solutions for both the Local Authority and Highways Agency road networks in the UK. The main objective of the study was to develop and identify an innovative and pragmatic means of maximising potential carbon reduction opportunities within Balfour Beattys highway maintenance service delivery process. Carbon emissions assessment and reduction has become a rapidly developing concern in the UK following the enactment of the UKs Climate Change Act and Carbon Reduction Commitment (DEFRA, 2008), which place legal obligation on all sectors, including the highway maintenance service providers, to measure and reduce carbon emissions associated with their business activities. ISO 14040 Standard As such, highway clients now require their supply chains to demonstrate (a) Goal and Scope their ability to reduce Denition both direct and indirect carbon, and provide carbon emissions informa(b) Inventory tion relating to the work Analysis done or being tendered for (Itoya et al., 2012). (c)
(d) Improvement Assessment/Interpretation
way stakeholders (e.g., planners, designers, managers, and maintainers). In addition, the absence of an agreed upon industrial methodology standard is another major barrier frustrating businesses efforts on carbon emissions assessment and reduction. This presents a real and pressing need for a consistent methodology framework to be developed to assist businesses with carbon emissions assessment, whilst helping to identify areas of carbon hotspots, and opportunities for reduction across the process value chain. It is therefore necessary for a carbon emissions reduction hierarchy to be established, which presents optimum carbon reduction opportunities. PAS 2050 protocol was developed by British Standard Institute (BSI) in 2008 and updated in 2011 (British Standards Institution, 2008 & 2011) to provide a consistent and robust method of assessing life cycle carbon emissions for goods and services. It presents a unique and practical guideline that simplifies the protocol implementation for carbon emissions assessment. Through the study commissioned by Balfour Beatty, a project-focused and process-based carbon footprinting methodological framePAS2050 Protocol Stage 1 Start-Up Setting Objectives Choosing Products/Services Engaging Stakeholders
Goal and Scope Denition
Denition of Business Boundary
Stage 2
Carbon Footprint Calculation Build a Process Map Denition of Service and Process Boundaries and Prioritisation Collecting Data Calculating the Carbon Footprint Checking Uncertainty (Optional)
Denition of Operational or Process Boundary
This inherently presents both business risks and opportunities not always fully understood by high-
Impact Assessment
Quantication of Carbon Footprint Stage 3 Carbon Footprint Management and Communication
Next Step Results Validation Reducing Carbon Emissions Commiunicating the Footprint and Making Reduction Claim
Figure 1 PAS 2050 Compliant Model for Carbon Footprinting.
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work was developed based on the protocol. The framework developed is specific to highway maintenance.
Implementation
Figure 3 presents a flowchart which provides a step-by-step approach to the methodological framework implementation for carbon footprinting.
Background to PAS2050 Protocol

The PAS 2050 protocol offers a step-by-step iterative approach where the scope and objectives of the carbon assessment, including the system boundary, are defined and relevant data collected and analysed. As an independent standard, the protocol builds on and refines the existing international standard methodology, ISO 14040: Environmental management Life cycle assessment Principles and framework (International Organization for Standardization, 2006), as illustrated in Figure 1.
Case Study for New Methodology

This case study reflects typical UK highway maintenance processes selected across different supply chains and site locations (urban, semi-urban, and rural environments) so as to generate a wider understanding of highway maintenance carbon footprinting and related input from supply chains. The maintenance processes include: A. Pavement resurfacing The work includes planing-off existing asphalt surfaces to an average nominal depth of 100mm, and reinstating the planed surfaces with a thin layer of Leotak tack coat (K140), 60mm AC 20 HDM BIN 40/60 DES binder, 40mm surface courses, and polymer modified bitumen. B. Pavement marking The works involves the restriping of existing road line markings to enhance their reflectivity requirement. C. Bulk lamp replacement This operation includes the bulk removal of existing lamps that have completed their nominal life expectancy and replacing them with new ones. Following the maintenance processes selected for carbon evaluation, a representative process map is created for carbon data collection (see Figure 4). Energy-based carbon data sources from the highway maintenance processes
The Methodological Framework

An innovative project-focused and process-based carbon footprinting methodological framework was developed, based on PAS 2050 protocol, as illustrated in Figure 2. The framework is specific to highway maintenance service delivery. It provides a life cycle approach and outlines the five key steps of carbon footprinting for the three iterative stages (start-up, carbon emissions calculations, results). This approach allows the user to accurately understand their carbon inputs and interaction with their supply chains. This is the first time a project-specific and process-based methodology framework based on the PAS 2050 protocol has been developed.
Select Core Business Processes
Life Cycle Stages
Raw Materials
Manufacturer
Distribution
Customer Use
Recycling
Three Iterative Stages
Stage 1
Start-up
Stage 2 Step 3
Emissions Calculations Building Process Map Boundaries and Priorities
Stage 3
Results
Step 1
Set Objective Select Core Highway Maintenance Process Step 4 Engage Stakeholders
Validate Results Develop Carbon Reduction Hierarchy
Collecting Data Site Activities Supply Chains Process Locations Energy Used Scale of Work End-of-Life Carbon Distance
Step 2
Develop Data Collection Templates Develop Data Collection Schedule Operatives / Drivers
Opportunities for Reduction
Emission Factors Sensitivity Analyses Step 5 Embodied Carbon Analysing Data Operational Carbon Areas of Carbon Hotspots
Figure 2 A Process-Based Carbon Methodological Framework Based on PAS 2050 Protocol
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Start of process STEP 1 Setting objective within the dened: Scope System boundary
are presented (see Figure 5) which allow the energy use, material consumed, and transportation data to be collected internally and externally (from supply chains) following the highway maintenance service representative process map (Figure 4). These data are then transformed into their equivalent energy units and corresponding carbon emission values, expressed in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), based on publications of the UKs specific fuelbased emission factors, namely: University of Bath: Inventory of Carbon and Energy (ICE) v2.0 (Hammond and Jones, 2011); 2010 Guidelines to DEFRA/DECCs Greenhouse Gases Conversion Factors for Company Reporting (DECC, 2010); and Carbon Trust Conversion Factors (Carbon Trust, 2011) and UK-based product manufacturer factors.
Discard data
Identify and select core highway maintenance processes through stakeholders engagement
STEP 2 Develop data collection template and programme
STEP 3 (see Figure 4) Build representative process map: Based on outcomes from STEP 1 and 2 To support data collection Review boundaries and priorities
STEP 4 (see Figure 5) Collect carbon emissions data
Results and Key Findings

Figures 6, 7 and 8 present areas of carbon hotspots and related opportunities for reduction for the core highway maintenance processes considered. The figures then provide carbon reduction hierarchies that can be used to prioritise carbon reduction efforts and support highway maintenance design, procurement, and investments decision-making. The hierarchies further reveal that material (asphalt) production and its delivery to site are the main areas of carbon hotspots across the highway maintenance process irrespective of the site location. This highlights important sustainability decision points for highway maintenance stakeholders.
Selected Highway Maintainance Process
Has the data met: The Collection Approach? The PAS2050 Data Quality Rules?
No
Yes STEP 5 Analyse data Present results Interpret outcomes End of process
Figure 3 A Flowchart for the Application of the Methodological Framework
Selected Process Life Cycle Stages (Level One) Activities Carbon Sources (Level Two) Task Carbon Sources (Level Three) Activity-oriented Carbon Categories Task-oriented Carbon Categories Boundary Conditions Extraction Raw Materials Manufacturer
Distribution Associated Transport
Customer Use Products Application Activities
Waste Waste Management Activities
Products Production Activities
Transport to Factory
Products Manufacturing
Products Delivery to Site
Operatives Travel
Trafc Management (TM)
Site Operations
Waste Transport Off-site
Waste Processing Recycling
Embodied Carbon Emissions
On-site Carbon Emissions
Waste Removal and Recycling Carbon Emissions Waste Transport Carbon Waste Recycling Carbon
Material Manufacturing Carbon Cradle to Site
Material Delivery Carbon
Operatives Travel Carbon Cradle to Grave
Site Activities Carbon
Site to Grave
Figure 4 Highway Maintenance Service Representative Process Map
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BB-HST Highway Maintenance Processes
Pavement Resurfacing
Pavement Marking
Bulk Lamp Replacement
Grass Cutting
Energy-Based Emissions Data Sources
Materials Manufacturing and Delivery Data
On-Site Activities Data
Waste Removal and Recycling Data
Energy consumed for raw material extraction
Energy consumed by operatives travelling to site Energy consumed by plant and equipment on site Energy consumed by operatives travelling off-site
Energy consumed by vehicles removing waste from site Energy consumed during waste processing Energy consumed during waste recycling
Fuel used during manufacturing
Fuel used for transportation
Figure 5 Highway Maintenance Processes and Energy-Based Carbon Data Sources
Furthermore, the percentage of on-site carbon contributions to the overall project carbon footprint in semi-urban and rural site locations for the bulk lamp replacement process increases significantly compared to the embodied carbon contributions, as indicated in Figure 8. This is due to the type of traffic management (mobile TM) used on site, since a majority of the work was carried out on site locations where the average vehicle speed is at the national speed level (in excess of 60 mph compared to 30 mph in an urban site location).
be achieved quickly and cheaply across the highway maintenance process value chain. It provides important sustainability decision points for highway maintenance stakeholders (highway maintenance designers, managers, and maintainers). The methodology framework gives Balfour Beatty the ability to make informed carbon reduction decisions. The carbon footprint data has been used to develop a 25-year carbon budget to support private finance initiative (PFI) bid submissions, re-think BB-HST highway maintenance design, energy efficiency, investment, and sustainable procurement decision-making. The methodology demonstrates an innovative life cycle approach to carbon footprinting, credible data collection, analysis, and interpretation of results. References
British Standards Institution. (2008). Publicly Available Specification (PAS2050). How to assess the carbon footprint of goods and services: Guide to PAS2050. BSI. London. Available at: http://www.bsigroup.com/upload/ Standards%20&%20Publications/Energy/PAS2050-Guide. pdf. Accessed Jun. 2009 British Standards Institution. (2011). Publicly Available Specification (PAS2050). Specification for the assessment of the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of goods and services. BSI. London. Available at: http://www.bsigroup. com/upload/Standards%20&%20Publications/Energy/ PAS2050.pdf. Accessed Oct. 2011
Conclusion
Carbon footprinting provides businesses with a general understanding of the trends of their carbon emissions. The calculation process is relatively simple, the key challenge has been the absence of an agreed upon industrial methodology standard that provides a consistent and practical approach to carbon data collection, carbon emissions assessment, and interpretation of results to support decision-making in carbon reduction. This study presented a project-focused and process-based carbon footprinting methodological framework based on the PAS2050 life cycle methodology but specific to highway maintenance service delivery. The case study undertaken using the framework demonstrates the innovative approach taken to identify carbon hotspots which informs a reduction hierarchy. This can be used to prioritise where the largest potential emissions reduction opportunity can
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Carbon Emissions Reduction Hierarchy From Twelve Payment Resurfacing Work Areas Across Urban, Semi-Urban and Rural Site Locations Asphalt Manufacturing Site Activities Asphalt Delivery Operatives Travel Waste Transport Waste Recycling 0
LEGEND Rural site location carbon emissions Semi-urban site location carbon emissions Urban site location carbon emissions 20 40 60 80 The Rate of Task Carbon Emissions to Average Carbon Footprint 100
DECC. (2010). The 2010 Guidelines to DEFRA/DECC's Greenhouse Gases Conversion Factors for Company Reporting. Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)/Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). United Kingdom. Available at: http://archive.defra.gov.uk/environment/ business/reporting/pdf/101006-guidelinesghg-conversion-factors.pdf. Accessed Jan. 2011. DEFRA. (2008). The UK Climate Change Act. United Kingdom: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). Available at: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/ acts2008/pdf/ukpga_20080027_en.pdf Accessed: 21/12/2008. Hammond, G.P . and Jones, C.I. (2011). Inventory of Carbon and Energy (ICE). University of Bath. United Kingdom. International Organization for Standardisation (2006). Environmental Management Life Cycle Assessment-Principles and Framework. ISO14040: 2006(E).
Figure 6 Carbon Emissions Reduction Hierarchy for Pavement Resurfacing Work
Carbon Emissions Reduction Hierarchy for Twelve Road Pavement Marking Projects at Different Site Locations Material Manufacturing Material Delivery Traffic Management Site Activities LEGEND Rural location carbon emissions Semi-urban location carbon emissions Urban location carbon emissions 0 20 40 60 80 Rate of Task Carbon Emissions to Overall Process Footprint 100
Figure 7 Carbon Reduction Hierarchy for Pavement Marking
Carbon Emissions Reduction Hierarchy for Bulk Lamp Replacement Work Across Urban, Semi-Urban and Rural Site Locations Lamp Manufacturing Lamp Delivery Traffic Management Site Activities Lamps WasteTransport Lamps Waste Recycling 0 LEGEND Urban location carbon emissions Rural location carbon emissions Semi-urban location carbon emissions 20 40 60 80 100 Rate of Task Carbon Emissions to Overall Process Carbon Footprint
Emioshor Itoya is a Research Engineer in the department of sustainability at Balfour Beatty Living Places Limited based in Basingstoke, UK where he has advanced the body of knowledge in business carbon footprinting. He has a BSc in civil engineering and an MSc in hydraulic structures. Katrina Hazell is Sustainability Manager at Balfour Beatty Living Places (BBLP) Limited based in Basingstoke, UK. Her areas of specialty include carbon management, waste management, sustainability, and strategy development.
Figure 8 Carbon Emissions Reduction Hierarchy for Bulk Lamp Replacement Works
Carbon Trust . (2011). Conversion Factors: Energy and Carbon Conversions. Carbon Trust, United Kingdom, 2011. See http://www.carbontrust.com/media/18223/ctl153_conversion_factors.pdf. Accessed 20/11/2011
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Related publication: Emioshor Itoya and BBLPs research has recently been published in the following journal: Itoya, E., Hazell, K., Ison, S.G., EL-Hamalawi, A. and Frost, M.W. (2012). Framework for Carbon Emissions Evaluation of Road Maintenance. Transport Research Record (TRR): a Journal of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academies, No. 2292 Washington, DC
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An Innovative Decision Framework for Addressing Climate Change in Our Communities

by Christopher Dorney, Baltimore, MD, 1-410-385-4155, dorney@pbworld.com; Justin Lennon, Baltimore, MD, 1-410752-9632, lennonj@pbworld.com; Mike Flood, Baltimore, MD, 1-410-246-0528, flood@pbworld.com; and Chin Lien, Baltimore, MD, 1-410-385-4186, lienc@pbworld.com
Climate plays a critical role in the design and long-term viability of our communitys infrastructure. Appropriate considerations of climate conditions help to ensure that lifecycle maintenance costs are low and that facilities remain safe and serviceable. Traditional practice assumes that climate falls within a fixed envelope of conditions similar to those in the past (i.e., climate is stationary), at least over the design life of any man-made asset. However, this paradigm of stationarity1 is being challenged by the seemingly frequent occurrence of natural disasters throughout the US and emerging evidence of a warming climate. Arguments within the climatology community are pointing towards the possibility that the rate of climate change is accelerating and extreme events could potentially exceed the traditional envelope. The rate of change could be such that the climate experienced towards the end of a facilitys design life might be quite different from the climate it was originally designed for. The prospect of a more rapidly changing climate has implications for the way engineering professionals view and design infrastructure within our communities. No longer can planners and engineers rely solely on historical climate data to develop projects; moving forward, they will need to include greater considerations for climate uncertainty and include projections of future climate in their analyses. The design process requires alterations that consider a wider range of possible climate conditions, an action called adaptation. Adaptation raises complications because, while there is growing consensus amongst professionals that change is likely, there is uncertainty as to how much change to expect: the future is never certain. While uncer1
tainty is nothing new to project development (e.g., there is uncertainty as to future traffic volumes and the impact of future land uses on stream discharges), incorporating climate projections and their associated uncertainties into the project development process is something new. This paper presents an innovative new approach to the planning and design process that takes into account the potential of a more rapidly changing climate. It also provides a context for weighing the benefits of increased considerations for climate in the design of our infrastructure. The work presented in this paper is a continuation of the process described in a 2013 report for the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP 2083(5)), authored by various Parsons Brinckerhoff employees. The process as described is the first in a series of climate adaptation processes that Parsons Brinckerhoff is developing as a strategic initiative to establish ourselves as a market leader in the area of infrastructure adaptation design and planning.
Overview of the Adaptive Design Process

The adaptive design process, as proposed, represents a refocused paradigm in the engineering approach to asset design, particularly in relation to hydraulic engineering and floodplain-related design features. Under the traditional engineering approach, the engineer works with pre-set design standards and historically based climate design inputs. The historically based design inputs include such things as the 50-year or 100-year precipitation event and the distribution of the precipitation hyetograph or flow estimation based upon stream gage data. The adaptive
Stationarity in reference to climate defines weather conditions where individual events fall within a defined range of values or a historical envelope. The probability of any given weather event (e.g., the 100-year storm with a 1% annual chance of occurrence) is assumed to remain the same from year-to-year. Non-stationarity refers to the condition where individual climate events occur at rates or amounts that exceed the historical envelope and where probabilities change over time. For example, in a non-stationary climate, the 1% annual chance of occurrence storm today could have a 5% annual chance of occurrence by 2075.
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design process suggests that the engineer develop design alternatives that either incorporate the uncertainty of future potential climate change or more fully consider the uncertainty in the current climate record. The method proposed has been conceived for implementation during the design of a new asset. However, the method can also be utilized for the in-depth analysis of an existing asset and the development of retrofit alternatives. The process is categorized into four primary steps: Step 1: Development of Climate versus Probability Curves Climate versus probability curves are ultimately employed by the adaptive design process to correlate the hydrologic damage curves to a probability of occurrence. These curves are similar to the development of a discharge versus probability curve used as a standard practice for any water resources engineering professional. The general development of the curve is followed herein, with the additional inclusion of multiple scenarios over the single curve normally employed in practice. The inclusion of climate change conditions into the engineering process is proposed as a meshing of climate prediction and modeling efforts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and their partners in the engineering process. The use of any model predicting future climate conditions first requires the design professional to understand 30,000 the uncertainty, applicability, and nature of that model. 25,000
including globalization versus regionalization and environmental versus economic growth prioritization. According to the IPCC, each of the scenarios should be considered independent of one another and each has an equal potential to occur. Under these circumstances, our process recommends that multiple scenarios be included in the evaluation to fully define the uncertainty space across all of the potential scenarios. When gathering the climate data, further consideration must also be given to which specific climate models are to be used for the analysis. The IPCC coordinates with a number of modeling centers worldwide to test the impacts of the emissions scenarios they develop on global climate. Each climate centers model represents a slightly different take on the functioning of the earths climate system such that, even within a given emissions scenario, there are a range of projections for any given climate variable depending on which model one looks at. Some models perform better in some regions than do other models. Given this, analysts are encouraged to seek good counsel from academic institutions or consultants on which models best capture the climate for the project location and to use only those well-calibrated models in their analysis. Upon selection of the emissions scenarios and models for analysis, projected climate conditions (in this case precipitation rates) for the various design storm events are
Discharge (cfs)
Use of the climatology models starts by selection of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions scenarios for use in the assessment. The selection of these scenarios is likely to be a programmatic decision by the asset or system owner or potentially based upon regulatory requirements. GHG emission scenarios have been developed by the IPCC for up to 12 different socioeconomic conditions2. The differing scenarios represent different socioeconomic projections
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20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 0 0.001 0.01 0.1 1
Low Mid High
Probability
Figure 1 Discharge versus probability curves for climate change conditions. Historic conditions relative to low (1/3), medium (2/3), and high (maximum) climate change projections. Projections are depicted for year 2100 at a sample project site.
These socioeconomic scenarios were developed by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and used in their (latest) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) on the topic. They have since become the standard emissions scenarios for adaptation assessments worldwide. A new Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) is due to be released in 2013 or 2014 and will utilize a new set of emissions scenarios called Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs). The RCPs are to capture the range of possible atmospheric composition of greenhouse gases but are not tied to any specific socioeconomic storylines as are the AR4 scenarios. It is expected that, once released, these RCPs will become the standard for climate adaptation assessments.
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Current/ Historic
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to be obtained for each scenario. Since $10,000,000 the subject focus is changing climate, it is also critical to the process to obtain the projected data at different points in $1,000,000 time. Since the rate of climate change from year-to-year is assumed to be relatively low, only a small sample set of $100,000 Baseline projected climate conditions need be obtained. The larger source of the proAlternative $10,000 jected precipitation rates is a topic of Alternative 2 greater debate within the climatology and engineering community. Analysis $1,000 of all of the sources and applicability 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 35,000 40,000 45,000 50,000 0 of the sources is outside of the scope Discharge (cfs) of this document, however, the use of Figure 2 Example of a hydrologic damage curves for a baseline design condition and two downscaled data from the US Geological adaptation alternatives. Survey (USGS), SimCLIM, or academic mately failure. The project team will be required to esresearchers provide possible sources for the data. timate costs associated with each of the activities. The design alternative method as proposed currently includes Once the projected climate data has been selected, sectwo categories for costs: capital and maintenance costs, ondary processing of the data can be performed as necesand socioeconomic costs. Additional cost categories sary (modeling discharges based on precipitation rates for should be considered as the adaptive design process instance). Additional considerations for the incorporation is expanded to include different types of infrastructure. of climate change modeling into the hydrologic engineering Other categories for consideration include environmental process can be found in NCHRP Report 2083(5) Climate impact costs or loss of income costs. Change and the Highway System. Figure 1 provides an example plot of a climate versus probability curve for a given Figure 2 presents a sample climate (in this case hydrofuture year developed for a sample project. In this case, logic) damage curve for a roadway and bridge project with a the secondary climate input of flow discharge is plotted for baseline condition and two adaptation alternatives. Some a bridge/roadway project. of the assumptions used to create the hydrologic damage curve include closure times for the various maintenance Step 2: Development of Project Alternatives activities, depths of flow over the roadway for debris acOnce the discharge probability curves have been detercumulation or pavement damage, unit costs for roadway mined, the design professional is to develop design alterreconstruction, and unit costs for structure replacement. natives (adaptations) for the defined number of conditions The curves differ amongst the alternative designs because in the scenarios. There are likely to be multiple alternaeach has its own unique discharge threshold and costs tives for each condition. Each of the design alternatives for overtopping, foundation damage, and structure failure. are proposed to be designed at only a conceptual level. Each alternative will be developed to include a conceptual Step 4: Economic Analysis of Adaptation Alternatives cost estimate that will be used to weigh the alternatives The question of whether to adapt the project to climate in the economic analysis process. change and, if so, which adaptation alternative to choose, ultimately comes down to a weighing of benefits and Step 3: Development of Hydrologic Damage Curves for costs: Does the benefit of the adaptation measure outEach Alternative weigh the additional incremental cost of doing the adapHydrologic damage curves are developed for each of the tation? How does this comparison vary across the posadaptation alternatives to graphically represent the persible climate scenarios? formance of the alternative designs under a wide range of climate scenarios. The goal of the curves is to quantify Calculating a benefit-cost figure for each adaptation op(in dollars) points at which the asset will incur socioecotion involves a number of calculations and is best hannomic impacts, maintenance upkeep, damage, and ultidled through use of a tool specifically designed for this
Damage Cost (USD$)
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Benet-Cost Ratio Project cost (millions) Baseline4 Adaptation Option 1 Adaptation Option 2 Adaptation Option 3 $5 $5.5 $6 $10 No change 0.8 0.5 0.16 Low change 2 1.3 0.32 Mid change 3.2 2 0.32 High change 6.2 3.6 0.8
Table 1 Example of a Benefit-Cost Decision Matrix
Once annual damage costs have been calculated for each year in the facilitys design life, the resulting figures must be discounted to their present-day values using an appropriate discount rate determined by the asset owner. The resulting numbers are then summed across all the years to obtain a cumulative annualized expected damage cost for the asset. The cumulative value for the baseline can then be subtracted from the value for the adaptation option being studied to determine the benefit (costs-saved) of that adaptation option. This figure can then be divided by the
3
As evidence of climate change continues to mount, planners and engineers will increasingly be called upon to incorporate an understanding of that change into the work they do and to help guide clients on when to make decisions and at which point. The adaptive design process described in this article provides an approach for incorporating climate considerations into infrastructure development. The process helps answer the questions of whether an adaptation is needed and, if so, which adaptation alternative is most cost-effective, enabling decision-makers to make more informed investments despite the uncertainties surrounding future climate conditions. Ultimately, a small investment in an adaptation analysis
One such tool is COAST (the COastal Adaptation to Sea level rise Tool) developed with US EPA funding by Catalysis Adaptation Partners. This free tool is expected to be made publically available in 2013. For more information on COAST see http://catalysisadaptationpartners.com/ the-coast-approach.html. 4 Existing asset if assessing retrofit / replacement needs. If a new project, the baseline is the conventional design based on the historical data traditionally used.
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task3. The basic process is as follows: first, one must develop an estimated annual cost of damage to the facility in each year of the projects design life. This must first be done for the baseline alternative (i.e., the design based on historic data) and then for each adaptation alternative. The annual estimated damage cost is calculated by multiplying the probability of an event occurring in the given year by the repair and economic costs associated with that event in that year: in essence, multiplying the curves shown in Figures 1 and 2. This must be repeated for the full range of storm events and then tallied together to get a total for the year. For example, one would multiply the chance of the 100-year storm occurring (.01) by the damage costs associated with that discharge. Then one would repeat this for the 101-year storm, the 102year storm, etc., and add all the products together. The resulting figure represents that years expected damage cost. This whole process must then be repeated for each year in the projects design life. As the severity of extreme precipitation and other climate events increase over time with climate change, so too would the estimated annual damage costs increase over the assets lifespan.
incremental cost of doing the adaptation option to obtain a benefit-cost ratio. The process must then be repeated for that adaptation option under each climate scenario being tested as each scenario will have a different probability for a given discharge. A similar exercise would then be undertaken for each of the adaptation alternatives. The final results would be presented in a table similar to Table 1 and evaluated. Ideally, the adaptation option chosen would meet the asset owners minimum benefit-cost threshold and be the one that has the highest ratio (i.e., is most robust) across the full range of scenarios. Such a clear cut answer will not always be found, however. Nonetheless the benefit-cost table, and the project-level process that helped create it, will help decision-makers grapple with the trade-offs associated with selecting the best alternative to ensure the assets resiliency in the face of a changing climate.
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could save millions of dollars over a projects lifespan: its time to ask the question, is your project climate-ready? References
Bonnin, Geoffrey M., et al (2004) NOAA Atlas 14 Precipitation-Frequency Atlas of the United States, Volume 2 Version 3.0, National Weather Services, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Silver Spring, MD. Kirshen, P .; Merrill, S.; and Slovinsky, P . (2011) Simplified method for scenario-based risk assessment adaptation planning in the coastal zone, Climatic Change, Springer Science Meyer, M., et al (2013) NCHRP Report 20-83(5) Climate Change and the Highway System: Impacts and Adaptation Approaches, National Cooperative Highway Research Program, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies. Climate Change Adaptation Planning for Infrastructure Investments: A Multinational Effort, by Dorney, Flood, Lees, and Porter, Investigating Climate Change (Network # 72, February 2011) Chris Dorney, AICP is a Transportation and Land Use Planner in the Baltimore office with four years of experience in climate change adaptation planning. Justin Lennon, P.E. is a Professional Associate, certified Project Manager and Lead Water Resources Engineer in the Baltimore office Water Technical Excellence Center. He specializes in river engineering, bridge hydraulics and scour evaluation, stream geomorphology, and stream restoration design. Mike Flood, AICP is the Baltimore office Planning Manager and has four years of experience in climate change adaptation planning. Chin Lien, P.E. is an Assistant Vice President, Senior Professional Associate, Project Manager, and the river and watershed technical lead for the Water Technical Excellence Center.
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Innovative Methods of Reducing Waste in Infrastructure and Building Projects

by Tim Danson, Bristol, UK, +44 (0)117 933 9300, dansont@pbworld.com; and Scarlett Franklin, Junior Consultant, UK Sustainability Team
Introduction
It is now widely accepted that improved resource efficiency is a key element of sustainable growth, and that adopting an approach that minimises waste has benefits for: businesses reducing capital and operational expenditure, and avoiding landfill taxation and levies on the use of certain primary materials; e.g., virgin aggregates; and the environment reducing adverse impacts on resource extraction, transportation, manufacture, and consumption, and diverting waste from a dwindling landfill capacity. This article discusses the context for, and concept of, designing out waste as an important approach to resource efficiency. It also highlights howthrough innovation Parsons Brinckerhoff has applied the principles of designing out waste to reduce costs for our clients and maintain our commitments to environmental protection.
than only 30 years ago, and trends continue to show a steady rise in worldwide demand (Figure 1).
120 100 Billion Tonnes 80 60 40 20 0 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030 Biomass Metals Mineral Fossil Fuels
Figure 1 Business-as-usual scenario on worldwide resource extraction, 2005 to 2030 2
Parsons Brinckerhoffs response

AUGUST 2013 http://www.pbworld.com/news/publications.aspx To help respond to these trends, as part of its global Sustainability Programme, Parsons Brinckerhoff collects information on the percentage of projects in which a design or construction process was put in place to reduce waste generated by the project. All Parsons Brinckerhoff consultants, designers, engineers, and project managers are expected to help provide information against this metric, to share good practice, celebrate innovation in project delivery and demonstrable client benefit.
Global resource consumption trends

The global extraction and use of natural resources is shown in Table 1.
All Metal Fossil Resources Minerals Ores Fuels Biomass Asia 43% 41% 41% 54% 38% Latin America 16% 12% 28% 7% 21% North America 15% 18% 9% 17% 11% Europe 14% 21% 5% 11% 12% Africa 9% 5% 7% 7% 15% Oceania 3% 2% 11% 4% 3% Table 1 Shares of different world regions in global resource extraction1
The waste hierarchy

The concept and principles of designing out waste are founded on the notion that there is a set of priorities that should be followed to manage resources efficiently: the waste hierarchy.
Global extraction and use of natural materials has increased significantly in the last three decades, and is now reaching some 60 billion tonnes/year. This is 50% more
1 2
Global Material Flow Database (www.materialflows.net), Sustainable Europe Research Institute (SERI), 2009 Adapted from: Global dimensions of European natural resource use: first results from the Global Resource Accounting Model (GRAM). Sustainable Europe Research Institute (SERI), 2008.
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Most preferred option Prevention Minimisation Re-use Recycling Least preferred option Other recovery (Disposal) Re-use (Direct) Repurposing Preparation for re-use Remanufacturing Not zero waste activities
Zero waste activities
Figure 2 The waste hierarchy
As shown in Figure 2, the most significant way to reduce waste is to prevent it being created in the first place; i.e., eliminating the need to extract or consume. At the other end of the scale, the most expensive and environmentally damaging option is disposal.
The principles of designing out waste

In responding to our own global commitments, our technical staff are being encouraged to innovate within their own specialisms, to integrate the following five principles of designing out waste in their work: 1. Design for recovery and reuse recovering materials so that they can be reused. Reuse and recovery also includes specifying materials with a higher than expected recycled content. 2. Design for off-site construction using design to encourage the specification of modular or prefabricated units, components, and products. By using components and products that arrive at site ready prepared and in the correct dimensions, on-site construction waste is reduced. 3. Design for material optimisation minimising excavation waste (balancing cut and fill), coordinating the design and using standard sizes to minimise construction off-cuts, and simplifying the range of materials and components specified to encourage resource efficient maintenance and repair. 4. Design for deconstruction and flexibility developing a design that is flexible enough to adapt with user needs over time, and that can be disassembled (rather than demolished) into recoverable materials and components at its eventual end of life. 5. Design for waste reduction through procurement ensuring that the requirements for achieving the other four principles of designing out waste are integrated into supply chain contracts.
measures, such as the US Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCCA) and the European Waste Framework Directive (WFD), and by statutory documents concerning landfill tax and waste management planning. However, Parsons Brinckerhoff must continue to be pro-active in making efficiencies in resource utilisation throughout a projects lifecycle. To uphold our commitment into the future, we must have the courage to innovate. Innovation in design can lead to more efficient architectural solutions, and encourages the use of more efficient methods of managing construction and logistics all of which play an important role in operating in the highest tiers of the waste hierarchy during a project. If managed correctly, the benefits of creating innovative designs that improve resource efficiency include: meeting planning requirements; reducing material, construction, and logistical costs; driving down lifecycle waste management costs; reducing reliance on diminishing landfill capacity; and enhancing corporate reputation/marketability.
Designing out waste in practice

Some exemplar Parsons Brinckerhoff projects that have applied the principles of designing out waste to reap the benefits noted above, include: Cambridge Guided Busway, Cambridge (UK) Design for recovery and reuse For this 40km transport corridor in the English county of Cambridgeshire, the challenge was to find a drainage material with a lower-than-traditional cost and environmental impact, to be placed between the busway tracks. The extraction of quarried material did not meet with Parsons Brinckerhoffs environmental commitments. By collaborating with the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme (NISP),3 using shredded rubber tyres was found to be a suitable alternative. Over one and a half million
The need to innovate to design out waste

We will be increasingly directed in our ventures by policy
3
www.nisp.org.uk.
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Figure 3 Cambridgeshire Guided Busway with shredded tyres recovered and reused in the busway tracks
tyres were used (Figure 3), diverting approximately 16,200t of waste from landfill and saving the client hundreds of thousands of pounds. The project won gold awards for environmental improvement and sustainable development in 2011, at the Green Apple awards ceremony. Millennium Town Park Remediation, St Helier (States of Jersey) Design for material optimisation Parsons Brinckerhoff designed a strategy based on the use of a geotextile capping system 4 that avoided the need to excavate and remediate at site 50,000m 3 of potentially contaminated materials. The team safely diverted 100% of the potential site waste from landfill, and in doing so saved the client an estimated GBP6M (US$9.2M) in excavation and off-island transportation costs. The Parsons Brinckerhoff team also orchestrated the in-situ re-use of an historical onsite tar and liquor vessel, converting it to a 500m3 rainwater capture storage tank for irrigation of the Town Park (Figure 4).
Use of Pulverised Fuel Ash (PFA) as embankment fill on the A421 Highway Junction (UK) Design for waste reduction through procurement, reuse and recovery, and for material optimisation The client for this commission (Highways Agency) required the successful bidder of the works (Balfour Beatty) to engage in Early Contractor Involvement (ECI). The ECI programme encouraged the systematic consideration of design resource efficiency issues, and Balfour Beatty was able to engage with its industry partners long before material was needed. By liaising with a range of partners, and by undertaking research into viable material alternatives, Balfour Beatty resolved a significant deficit in earthworks materials using the principles of designing out waste. For the majority of the works on the northern part of the site, planning consent for two borrow pits5 was obtained. Recycled material was also sourced locally, and included 310,000 tonnes of crushed construction and demolition
Figure 4 Before and after images of the rainwater capture tank In this instance, the geotextile capping was an impermeable clay liner located below the park ground surface. The liner was designed to prevent the migration of in-situ contaminants to sensitive human and environmental receptors, and to minimise the need to excavate, treat and/or dispose of contaminated material. 5 Borrow pit: an area where material is excavated from one location, for use at another.
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waste, and 140,000 tonnes of excavated blacktop planings.6 Logistically, these solutions werent suitable for embankment works in the south; for these works, pulverised fuel-ash (PFA) material was sourced from local power stations, diverting approximately 393,000 tonnes of potential waste from landfill. The PFA solution was also more economic than using primary or even recycled aggregates: savings of approximately GBP1M (US$1.5M) were achieved for the client. Tier III / IV Data Center Building, Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, Hong Kong (PRC) Design for off-site construction, material optimisation, and flexibility Parsons Brinckerhoff is providing project management, mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) and LEED7 consultancy services for the development of a new Data Center Building (Figure 5), located in Hong Kongs Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate. The MEP team has designed for off-site construction by providing modular MEP infrastructure design, which will incorporate dual chilled water main headers. The system allows for further expansion and efficiency within the infrastructure itself; therefore, additional spare capacity which often goes unuseddoes not need to be installed. The header features maximise the MEP infrastructure potential, as they can be upgraded to accommodate future needs (capacity) without the need for re-design (and potential waste). The MEP data hall configuration has also been optimised for resource efficiency: all of the essential elements of the hall (for example, the computer room air conditioning unit, floor grilles, and panels) can be easily reconfigured to adapt to different power densities based on user requirements. Through application of LEED, construction waste management measures will also be applied. For example, Parsons Brinckerhoff will be responsible for reviewing and approving the projects waste management plan, and for monitoring waste recycling performance against LEED requirements. Adopted strategies to date include: establishing a dedicated waste management team, on-site sorting of potential construction waste, monthly waste inspections, and resource efficiency training.
Conclusion
Parsons Brinckerhoff consultants, designers, engineers, and project managers will increasingly be called upon to reduce their contribution to the extraction and consumption of resources and its associated waste, worldwide. Their work in this context will have both economic and environmental benefit. For further reading and resources, online good practice guidance documents and tools for designing out waste are available from the UK Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP).8 [The authors would like to thank David Eve and Nigel Snedker, Parsons Brinckerhoff in the UK; Philip Dumelow, Balfour Beatty in the UK; and Michael Ming-Fun Waye, Parsons Brinckerhoff in Hong Kong, for supplying case studies for this paper.]
Tim Danson is a Principal Consultant for the UK Sustainability Team. He specialises in sustainable development, strategic and policy planning for design and construction of buildings and infrastructure, sustainability management systems, resource efficiency, and sustainable procurement. He also develops pragmatic and user-friendly tools to improve sustainability decision-making in the project delivery lifecycle. Scarlett Franklin is a Masters student from the University of the West of England. In May 2013, she completed a three month work placement with the Parsons Brinckerhoff UK Sustainability Team.
Figure 5 Hong Kong Science and Technology Park Data Center designed to reduce waste in construction and operation
Blacktop planings: materials mechanically reclaimed from the layers of bituminous binder and mineral aggregate used in surface paving. http://www.usgbc.org/leed 8 http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/designing-out-waste-1
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Planning in the Hands of the Community: A New Approach to Bottom-Up Plan-Making

by Jon Herbert, London, UK, +44(0)20 7337 1733, jon.herbert@pbworld.com
Overhauling the system

In May 2010, the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties formed a new coalition government in the UK. This was to signal the start of perhaps the single biggest shakeup of the planning system in England since the passing of the first Town & Country Planning Act in 1947. Thousands of pages of planning policy and supporting guidance have been recast into a slim-line handbag friendly document. The regional tier of planning that established strategic priorities the scale and direction of growth has been swept aside and a new bottom-up tier of planning, led by the community, has been introduced. Known as neighbourhood planning, this new policy tier provides local communities with a very real say in the future of the area in which they live. It puts the local community in the driving seat and enables them to establish how much development should take place, where, in what form, and what infrastructure and services should be planned for. If these plans have the buy-in of the community at large, and conform to general planning objectives, they will be formally adopted for planning purposes. Parsons Brinckerhoff is helping councils and communities better understand this innovative new approach to community planning through the development of case studies and tips prepared on behalf of the UK government.
ment that will comprise part of the statutory development plan for an area and which planning applications and proposals will need to be in accordance with. Understandably, many communities across the country have been excited by the opportunities that neighbourhood planning affords them. However, the opportunity does not come without responsibility, commitment to delivering the plan and, implicit in the way this new approach has been set out, the need to understand policy and process. The UK Department for Communities and Local Government1 (CLG) is driving the agenda and has awarded funding to more than 200 communities across England to test this new approach. However, there is no formal guidance as to what form or shape a neighbourhood plan should take, or what should be in it. With more communities now seeking to start their own neighbourhood plan, questions have begun to be asked about what constitutes best practice, how people should engage, what should be in the plan, and what constitutes a robust policy document. Parsons Brinckerhoff has been commissioned by the UK government2 to undertake research into early progress on neighbourhood plans and to prepare a series of case studies which communities across the country can refer to for help and assistance. The focus of the work is on those neighbourhood plans being undertaken in rural parts of the country, where there exists a particular set of planning matters. These include: provision of affordable housing for local people; protection and retention of shops and services; diversification of traditional industries and strengthening of the economy; enhancement of access; and protection of the character and quality of the rural environment. However, our work is identifying findings that will be of relevance to a wider audience to
Community-led planning
There has been a long history of community-led planning in England and indeed across the UK. This has often taken the form of, for example, parish plans and village design statements. Although these represented the communities aspirations for an area, they had very little influence as to what would actually happen. This is where neighbourhood planning is different. Now, for the very first time, the community can prepare a planning docu1 2
The CLG is the government department responsible for the UK planning system. Parsons Brinckerhoff has been commissioned by Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) with CLG.
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Community CommunityEngagement Engagementand and Transport Social SocialMedia Sector Media
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communities and councils in both rural and urban parts of the country. When people know that they will get proper support to cope with the demands of new development; when they have a proper say over what new homes will look like; and when they can influence where those homes go, they have reasons to say yes to growth.4 Many early commentators suggested that this new approach would be no more than a charter for Nimby-ism ("Not In My Back Yard"-ism). That certainly wasnt the UK governments intention. Indeed, our research has shown that local groups and organisations are coming together and planning collaboratively for what is best for the town or village in which they live. Indeed, if we are to make places that are better for everyone and improve quality of life, it is only through a local or neighbourhood-based approach that we can get under the skin of an area. But, although our work shows that some communities are planning for new development, much of this is small scale and is only addressing matters of local need and affordability. Some of the neighbourhood plans we have looked at include policies that provide a definition of local person and need, and which create a cascade of opportunity where new affordable housing is offered first to those considered local, before being opened up to a wider catchment. So, whilst new growth is being promoted, it is unlikely to be anywhere near the scale needed to address the national housing shortage. This puts pressure on planners who need to marry important strategic decisions (and in the absence of any regional policy) with locally driven and derived plans.
What is happening?
A neighbourhood plan can cover many things. It can (and perhaps should) include a vision for the area. It can also include general principles and planning policies, identify development and opportunity sites, establish the scale and location of growth and design parameters. Our research has shown a variety of different approaches in the plans coming forward. Some are focussing on a single issue that the local community holds dear, whereas others are preparing mini-local plans, drafting masterplans that represent the spatial expression of the communitys aspirations, allocating sites for development, and establishing planning policy across a whole range of land-use topics. Although it is uncertain how long it will take for neighbourhood plans to be prepared, tested, and adopted (some people we have spoken to have suggested in excess of two years), what is clear is that for the plan to be successful it needs to be proactive and positive, built upon the spirit of collaboration. Central to this will be the involvement of locally elected members; as much as anything it is political will that can drive a good plan forward. But perhaps more important is the issue of speed. Experience has shown us that a lengthy, drawn out plan-making process leads to apathy. Interest must be maintained throughout the process; there is little point in creating a fantastic, visionary plan if the people that are supposed to deliver it have lost all interest.
Is it delivering growth?
The underlying rationale behind neighbourhood planning is the UK governments intention to deliver growth. Many of the changes to the planning system are set in the context of this being the lowest rate of house building the UK has seen in peacetime. Rightly or wrongly, the government thinks much of this is due to the planning system and the imposition of house building targets on communities from the top-down, which were often opposed at a local level. Instead, it is felt that if a local community is given the opportunity to consider the qualities and needs of its area, then it is more likely to welcome growth and new development. As Greg Clark, Member of Parliament (MP),3 put it:
The new role of the planner?

A recent London Assembly report5 highlighted what it terms the capacity gap in neighbourhood planning. It highlights the often bureaucratic and multi-layered planning process and the technical knowledge needed to navigate this, the lack of mutual trust that often exists between communities and local authority officers, and the lack of skills that often exists within the planning profession to facilitate planning and engage communities. What our research highlights is that perhaps the traditional role of the planner might need redening from one of planning and managing change to one of facilita-
Minister of State for Decentralisation and Planning Policy, May 2010 September 2012 Speaking at Localis, London, 18 November 2010. Localis is an independent think-tank with an interest in local government issues. 5 London Assembly, February 2012, Beyond Consultation: The role of neighbourhood plans in supporting local involvement in planning
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Parsons Brinckerhoff identified some new and innovative approaches taken by local UK authorities to benefit communities in the neighbourhood planning process:
Advising community groups on the interpretation of legislation and policy; Establishing community networks and discussion forums so that communities can come together and share ideas; Facilitating discussions between the community and different council departments, such as education and transport; Helping to run and facilitate consultation events; Participating in steering group discussions; Preparing guidance, toolkits and advice notes for community groups; Drafting maps and plans, providing information and data, and printing leaflets and posters; Providing training to community groups on planning and design, thus allowing them to make informed decisions; Restructuring and hiring new team members specifically to assist communities, including single points of contact; and Running drop-in surgeries where officers, trained up in the new approach to planning, are available to provide support and direction to community groups. In some instances, officers have made themselves available for people to come in on a specific date, without the need for a meeting, to ask for advice.
tion and communication. We will need to be out in the field far more, engaging, mediating, assisting, and even educating. It requires a cultural shift and a move away from the silo mentality of separating forward planning from development management. We as planners will need to embrace a wider, all encompassing role that leads and supports all aspects of the agenda. It is only through working together that the challenges can be understood and solutions generated to truly balance local and strategic issues. Where this happens, where resources are shared and the council acts in an enabling role, the result can be far greater than the sum of the parts. Whether this will deliver the scale of growth needed remains to be seen, but it is at least bringing people and communities together, helping to foster civic pride and ownership. If neighbourhood planning delivers little else, then this, in its own right, must be seen as an excellent achievement.
Jon Herbert is a Regional Associate and part of the new Masterplanning and Urban Integration team in the UK. A planner with more than fifteen years experience, he has worked on many policy and design studies. He is also a Built Environment Expert at the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE).
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Social Media and NEPA Public Involvement: Opportunities to Innovate Stakeholder Engagement
by Eileen R. Barron, Murray, UT, 1-801-288-3256, barron@pbworld.com; and Shane Peck, Chicago, IL, 1-312-803-6496, pecks@pbworld.com Public involvement for National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) studies has always been focused on early and ongoing outreach to engage people in decisions that affect their lives. Other than a required public hearing, NEPA does not dictate the tools for public outreach, but instead focuses on the intent of public involvement to provide notification, share information, and provide opportunities for comment from a broad range of stakeholders. With the advent of social media, agencies are re-examining their public involvement toolbox and rethinking how stakeholder engagement can take place. Social media presents a whole new world of opportunities and challenges as a place where people (virtually) meet, exchange information, and engage in dialogue. But, how can NEPA project teams capitalize on the interactive nature of social media and the critical mass of people who already congregate online? Parsons Brinckerhoffs Communications & Public Involvement staff is implementing innovative use of social media for public outreach in a range of venues including the Huey P . Long Bridge Widening project in New Orleans which earned awards from the Association of Government Communicators and AASHTOs Transportation Communications Subcommittee in 2012 for its successful Facebook outreach; a Twitter feed and Facebook page for Los Angeles Metros Express Lanes that included Spanish language posts which helped it become one of the most active accounts for a toll facility in the nation; and most recently a National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) study on the potential use of social media during NEPA. This study includes a survey of 50 transportation agencies, case study interviews with five NEPA project teams, and a federal roundtable. The research findings will be presented later this year in a report that will cover the innovative use of social media during NEPA and will provide suggestions for implementing social media. one-way communication to build project awareness, Parsons Brinckerhoffs recommended approach is to leverage social media as a tool for engagement where interactive dialogue takes place. This takes social media beyond its current use by transportation agencies for projects. A more robust use of social media can broaden stakeholder outreach, create a more informed public that yields more meaningful comments, and generate valuable discussion and input to the NEPA decision-making process. Like any other public involvement tool, project teams should consider how social media can best support the NEPA public involvement process and define the purpose of its use. Social media is a powerful tool for sharing information and has potential to reach a broad audience. But using social media only for information-sharing misses the opportunity for interactive dialogue. Social media can be a prime vehicle for posing questions and soliciting input from project stakeholders. It can provide an opportunity to gauge real-time reactions to project information and can serve as a key tool for assessing public sentiment about the study process and project alternatives. Project teams will gain insight to stakeholder values and be better able to tailor outreach and decision-making through real-time interactions. As public expectations for transparency and accountability continue to grow, social media provides a forum to share information and hear peoples reactions during the study process.
Making social media engagement successful

Because using social media for public involvement during planning and environmental phases is fairly new, the NEPA project team should have detailed discussions about the purpose of social media outreach, what tools to use, and how to implement it effectively. Importantly, in order for social media to be a successful public involvement tool, the project team needs the flexibility to be social. In part, this means that posts should
Whats so innovative about social media?

Although present social media use primarily consists of
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tend to be written in an informal tone with a human voice.1 Posts also need to be interesting and relevant to the audience the project is trying to reach, which means that not all posts are necessarily going to be directly related to the project or agencies. A unique aspect of social media is the layering of conversations over time and the ability for users to talk to each other. A sign of success is when people answer each others questions. Social media is not simply two-way communication between the project team and an individual stakeholder; it has the potential to be a multi-vocal forum for interactive discussion. As a result, there will be off-topic conversations and posts that do not seem to make sense. There may be criticism of the project, technical work, process, and sponsoring agency. Similar to a workshop with people seated at multiple tables to work on a common problem, there will be some discussion and opinions about the weather, a basketball game, dance recital, and upcoming community festival. In order to encourage discussion, the social media page should include off-topic conversations as communitybuilding and trust-building endeavors.
are already familiar with project facts and processes, and therefore they are more equipped to respond to each other when misinformation occurs. No federal guidance currently exists to address the legal considerations of social media interactions during NEPA. However, there is no regulation that precludes the inclusion of online dialogue as formal comment, and we suggest that project teams consider including social media posts as part of the project file. Such decisions are being made on a case-by-case basis with agency legal counsel and regional federal agency representatives. In addition to questions about legal standing of online dialogue, agencies are also wrestling with staff resources, expertise, and internet access to social media sites in the workplace as barriers to implementation. The NCHRP research will address these concerns with a suggested practices guidance resource and webinar as part of the final report.
Challenges of social media in NEPA

Social media presents a new form of engagement for the NEPA process. Fears of potential misinformation often hold back project teams from fully using social media as a public involvement tool. Concerns about whether social media posts are considered formal comments in the project record are also common. We recommend embracing the full interactive capabilities of social media to contribute meaningful dialogue and information to the NEPA study. Negative comments will most certainly occur. A negative post can turn into a positive conversation based on how the project team responds; a disgruntled stakeholder can change his or her attitude when he or she feels acknowledged and heard. Misinformation is a growing issue whether the project chooses to implement its own online social media tools or not. Conversations about the project will occur online with or without the project team participating on social media sites. Although project teams often discuss the risks of having a social media presence, the team should also consider the risks of not participating in social media sites. Ultimately, building an engaged community of social media users from the start can help mitigate misinformation. Regular participants
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Leading the transportation industry in innovative social media use

The complete NCHRP report will be available within the next year detailing the survey results, case studies, and practical tips for implementation. Parsons Brinckerhoff will continue to track industry trends and be a leader in social media innovation for public involvement. Our success is based on a philosophy of engagement that means we work to build an online community that participates in an exchange of information that adds value to the user and to the project. If your project team is considering social media as an outreach tool, we encourage you to contact the Parsons Brinckerhoff Communications & Public Involvement group.
Eileen Barron is a Senior Professional Associate in Public Involvement who built her career implementing public involvement for complex NEPA projects. She is a member of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Committee on Public Involvement in Transportation and is a founding member of the International Association for Public Participation, Intermountain Chapter. Shane Peck is Senior Communications Coordinator and manages social media sites for transportation projects. In 2012, Shane was named Communicator of the Year by the New Orleans chapter for the International Association of Business Communicators.
The 2013 AASHTO social media survey noted a shift in tone and a growing number of transportation agencies discovering the effectiveness of a more informal, human voice. A quoted survey comment read: We used to be very rigid and formal in all our responses. Now, were trying to humanize the feed. We answer the feed as people (saying I and we) instead of an agency (DOT says...). It has helped tremendously and weve received really good public feedback!
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Using Innovation and Collaboration to Solve a Decades-Old Transportation Problem in Roswell, Georgia
by Jonathan Reid, Atlanta, GA, 1-404-364-5225, reid@pbworld.com; Valerie Birch, Nashville, TN, 1-615-340-9186, birchv@pbword.com; and Alice Wiggins, Jacksonville, FL Roswell is Georgias eight-largest city, located in the fastgrowing northern suburbs of the Atlanta metropolitan region; yet Roswell preserves a small-town feel, with an historic district on the banks of the Chattahoochee River and remnants of the Roswell Manufacturing Company cotton mills that operated in the mid-1850s. The main stretch of roadway that runs through Historic Roswell is State Route 9 (SR 9), which is one of only a few crossings of the wide Chattahoochee River on the north side of Atlanta. SR 9 is fronted by residential and business properties (some historic), several places of worship, and a national park. Due to rapidly increasing regional traffic demand on SR 9, in the mid-1980s, the original three-lane roadway was modified to include a reversible lane system two lanes operate in the peak direction by time of day (see Figure 1) to better serve peak directional flow demands. However, the reversible lane conversion resulted in a significant increase in car crashes along the corridor. In the early 1990s the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) initiated a project to widen SR 9 and remove the reversible lanes. The study recommendations to significantly widen the corridor and long bridge over the Chattahoochee were met with stiff resistance by the community over concerns about historic preservation and environmental impacts, and the project ultimately failed to achieve consensus on a solution. For nearly two decades the corridor remained a safety problem and a bottleneck without a solution. In 2010, the city of Roswell was able to reenergize the project among its citizens with a focus on quality of life issues and with the help of innovative concepts developed by the Parsons Brinckerhoff team. The city contracted Parsons Brinckerhoff to provide traffic analysis, public involvement services, environmental documentation, and design plans for the project. The teams ability to apply an innovative, context-sensitive approach to the project was ultimately what moved this project forward.
Innovation in Design
In the northern portion of the corridor, where most of the historic properties are located, Parsons Brinckerhoff studied and recommended an innovative bowtie concept that reduces the median width and thereby property impacts between two multi-lane roundabouts that are used to accommodate left turn movements to access the properties in between the roundabouts (see Figure 2). The Parsons Brinckerhoff team used photosimulations and video animation tools to show the public how the project would impact operations, access, and safety in the corridor. The community liked the idea of iconic roundabouts and the bowtie concept for its ability to slow traffic, improve business and property access compared to a traditional median-divided roadway design, preserve historic properties, lessen right-of-way impacts, and substantially improve vehicle and pedestrian safety in the corridor. At the south end of the corridor, Parsons Brinckerhoff devised another innovative solution by grade-separating the current at-grade intersection of SR 9 with Riverside Road. Located at the foot of the Chattahoochee River Bridge and at the beginning of the reversible lane system, this intersection had the worst safety problems and was the largest bottleneck in the corridor. The design solution replaced a deficient bridge on Riverside Road over a river tributary, separated the scenic Riverside Road (that runs along the Chattahoochee riverbed) from intersecting with SR 9, and greatly minimized impacts to the National Park and other historic and environmentally important sites
Figure 1 Reversible lanes on State Route 9
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Figure 2 Bowtie concept for the corridor, illustrating vehicles turn right and use the roundabouts to turn left
Figure 3 Design Concept and Photosimulation of SR 9 / Riverside Road Grade Separation
along the corridor. The grade-separated design (see Figure 3) improved intersection efficiency to such an extent that the long bridge over the Chattahoochee River did not need to be widened, saving tens of millions dollars and ultimately making the project affordable to the community.
Innovation in Approach
When people hear the term Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS), they usually think about sustainable design that respects the natural environment. While that is certainly a part of the philosophy, CSS also considers the approach of the project to be inclusive of all modes of travel and all people in the community, and to define the needs and issues before designing the project. CSS differs from the traditional design approach in that it is driven by proactive collaboration and creativity and does not employ a standards-driven prescriptive and reactive approach. To that end, a major reason for the success in moving the project forward is that the Parsons Brinckerhoff public involvement team created a number of opportunities for the voices of the citizens to be heard, and for them to engage in the thought process from inception to conclusion of the project. To maximize public participation, Parsons Brinckerhoff created both a technical advisory group (TAG) and community advisory group (CAG). These CAGs and TAGs were made up of broadly-diverse constituents, including
Traditional Approach
Constrained Sequential Arms Length Standards Driven Prescriptive Transportation Trumps Context
CSS Approach
Creative Iterative Collaborative Adaptive Flexible Transportation/ Contextual Parity
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residents, community/civic organizations, schools, environmentalists, business owners, roadway users, and operators, etc. These engaged groups, acting as leaders and champions of the project, gave invaluable, contextual insight in defining the problems and potential solutions. By the end of the process, the very members of the community who resisted previous recommendations became the strongest advocates of the final version of the project because they had developed buy-in to the need for the
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project and for the creative solutions that were offered. The four rounds of public meetings, conducted as workshops, plus the ongoing availability of the team for community briefings, provided the Parsons Brinckerhoff team and the city with greater insight into the communitys and publics needs. The approach also included proactive outreach to the National Park Service, which resulted in its support and engagement in the project as advisors. As a result of the process, the community helped the project team frame the project purpose and needs, consider numerous alternatives that could potentially meet those needs, and refine the alternatives to a singular concept to move forward. served as a model for public involvement and contextsensitive design innovation for future challenging projects in the city of Roswell and state of Georgia. More information about this project can be found on the City of Roswell Project website at: http://www.roswellgov. com/index.aspx?nid=837
Conclusion
For its project efforts, the Parsons Brinckerhoff team received an award from the Georgia Department of Transportation. The 2012 Georgia Partnership for Transportation Quality Program presented its award in the category of Public Involvement and Context Design to the Roswell Gateway Project. However, what was more rewarding to the team were the comments received at the final public information open house meeting, at which the community credited the success of the project to the open process and the teams availability to truly listen to the publics comments and concerns before recommending solutions that reflected the desires of the community and the city. In the end, Parsons Brinckerhoff was able to deliver an award-winning project to its client, as well as provide a solution to a decades-old problem for the citizens of Roswell and users of SR 9. Also very importantly, the project has
Jonathan Reid is a Professional Engineer, Professional Traffic Operations Engineer, and Principle Professional Associate with Parsons Brinckerhoff and has over 18 years of progressive traffic engineering and traffic planning project experience with emphasis on traffic simulation modeling, intersection operations and concept design. He published a monograph, Unconventional Arterial Intersection Design, as recipient of the William Barclay Parsons Fellowship in 2002. Valerie Birch is an Environmental Planner and Principal Professional Associate with Parsons Brinckerhoff. She has over 22 years of environmental project experience with an emphasis on NEPA documentation, public involvement, agency coordination, and project management. She currently manages Parsons Brinckerhoffs South Planning and Environment Technical Excellence Center. Alice Tolbert-Wiggins has over 25 years of experience as a National Leader in public involvement for Parsons Brinckerhoff, and served as the interdisciplinary team and public involvement lead for the Roswell Historic Gateway project. She recently left Parsons Brinckerhoff to become Director of Public Involvement for the City of Jacksonville, Florida.
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Creating Connections With Mobile Applications

by Thomas L. Coleman, Chicago, IL, 1-312-294-5663, colemant@pbworld.com
In the age of increasing media awareness, our project teams must understand the use of social media and other media outlets to receive and share information with stakeholders and the general public. Parsons Brinckerhoff currently oversees interactive media outreach on many projects across the US and is delivering our clients a direct return on investment by the sheer number of people participating in our projects through interactive media sites. We have developed a social media philosophy and protocol that emphasizes stakeholder engagement in the transportation planning processes. In a recent venture, the idea of advancing the way we communicate and connect within the confines of the projects at Parsons Brinckerhoff was conceptualized, prototyped, and is now available for use on Parsons Brinckerhoffs projects worldwide.
called the Interprofessional Projects Program (IPRO), offered courses within a team-based learning environment in which students from various concentrations and disciplines work together to solve a real-world problem.1 The author assisted the undergraduate students in meeting the course objective the development of a mobile stakeholder involvement tool. The first semester course served as a feasibility study and resulted in the development of a storyboard for the application by the students at the end of the semester. During the second semester, the students created an actual working version of a stakeholder engagement mobile application. GeneXus USA, a Chicago based technology company, provided training and mobile app development software to IIT students. Eventually, the courses led to the development and use of a new mobile application by Parsons Brinckerhoff and GeneXus for the Metropolitan Atlanta Voter Education Network (MAVEN). MAVEN is a coalition of businesses and civic groups that ran a public information campaign to educate voters about a July 2012 transportation referendum. The Transform Atl"2 application was introduced to assist with voter education in the 10-county Atlanta region. The app allowed the user to learn more about the projects proposed for funding by viewing an interactive project map of the Atlanta region and accessing information on the proposed 157 transportation projects in the region. Users could also submit public comments on the projects. The Transform ATL was available for iOS, Android, and Blackberry smartphones and was downloaded over 10,000 times by July 31, 2012. The voter initiative failed to pass. However, the app was recognized as a valued service performed by Parsons Brinckerhoff and local officials.
Strengthening the Initiative

A meeting was held in January 2010 with the Parsons Brinckerhoff highway market leader, the project visualization practice manager, and a member of the communications and public involvement practice team to explore various strategies for the increased use of technology by stakeholders to provide, manage, and share information that reflects their views. The discussion produced consensus that Parsons Brinckerhoff has a responsibility to stakeholders at several levels, ranging from clients and agencies, to residents of a community. A project-based mobile application could promote enhanced communication and sharing among project teams, stakeholders, and the public. Furthermore, the recent growth of smartphones and use of social media applications (e.g., Facebook and Twitter) demonstrated a need for mobile tools to support transportation related projects. During the 2010 summer and fall semesters, the author served as co-instructor for a course at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago. The program,
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Expanding Our Reach

Within the public involvement process of a project,
Interprofessional Projects Program. 2011. Web. 21 Sept. 2011. http://ipro.iit.edu/ https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/transform-atl/id525519717?mt=8
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Figure 1 Five mobile apps released by Parsons Brinckerhoff and GeneXus
traditional methods utilize surveys and in-person meetings to gather public opinions about a project. The mobile application tool is designed to overcome the constraints of location and time. This mobile application complements the conventional methods of public meetings and project websites with the native features of smartphones to promote two-way interactivity with project stakeholders. A unique demonstration application, PB Demo App, was developed in September 2012. This app expanded on Parsons Brinckerhoff's mobile application capabilities with data provided by the Center for Neighborhood Technology in Chicago. Parsons Brinckerhoffs demo application was presented at the Chicago Metropolitan Planning Councils "Plugging into Placemaking: Technologys Role in Community Planning", a roundtable event held in Chicago on October 9, 20123.
What does all of this mean? Parsons Brinckerhoffs mobile app service is a dynamic tool that can be used to engage stakeholders and incite a sense of ownership for the community in which they reside. The feeling of ownership comes from having increased opportunities to state an opinion about the next project planned for a community. If someone is unable to attend a public meeting in person, the functionality of the application and the website still enables access to decision makers and planners.
On the Brink of Innovation

Parsons Brinckerhoff has a heritage of innovation. The collaboration with the project visualization group and the communications and public involvement teams in developing Parsons Brinckerhoffs mobile application services has supported Parsons Brinckerhoffs reputation as an innovator. Innovation starts with an idea. A novel invention or a new application of an existing one can turn the tides. A new application for use during the 2013 American Planning Association (APA) conference in Chicago was unveiled on April 13, 2013 at the APA Expo opening reception, sponsored by Parsons Brinckerhoff. The Chicago Planning Tour Application provided a virtual tour of over 30 community planning projects to conference attendees4. Since June 2013, five mobile applications (see Figure 1) have been released by Parsons Brinckerhoff and GeneXus USA: Transform Atlanta, May 2012, (Blackberry, Android, iOS) ACEC Arizona Roads and Streets Conference, March 2013 (Android, iOS) Transform Woodward, April 2013 (Android, iOS) Chicago Planning Tour, April 2013, (Android, iOS)
The resources are assembled to develop native mobile applications for iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows 8, and HTML 5. Smart and compelling apps can now be created that: Are accessible to participants wherever, whenever; Build brand awareness and increase the number of project stakeholders at digital speed; Provide a community-building tool for sharing and conversation; Enable rapid content delivery; Present measurable engagement and analytics; Create efficacy for project stakeholder participation; and Support diverse constituents in languages such as English, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, simplified Chinese, Spanish, and traditional Chinese.
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See MPC YouTube website (http://www.metroplanning.org/multimedia/video/605) https://itunes.apple.com/bm/app/chicago-planning-tour/id605800715?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo=2
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IDA Midwest Urban District Forum, May 2013 (Android, iOS)
A Look Into the Future

Have you ever e-mailed a colleague a simple question, although they sit two offices down from you? The chance to connect face to face should not be taken for granted, if the obstacles of location and time do not present themselves. However, when we are hindered from connecting by long distance and time conflicts, a technology such as the Parsons Brinckerhoff mobile application can enhance
our projects and the public we serve. We can use social media technologies to strengthen lines of communication. Parsons Brinckerhoffs mobile application is developed to add value to a project, improving the means by which we connect with our clients and the public.
Thomas Coleman is a Supervising Planner in Parsons Brinckerhoffs Chicago office. He has 20 years of experience as a transportation planner and project manager for transit, roadway, and highway projects and is leading the development of mobile applications for Parsons Brinckerhoff projects and programs nationwide.
The book Exploring Innovation and its companion book Collaboration at Work are both available as downloads, as e-books, or as hardcopy at: http://pbworld.com/exploringinnovation and http://pbworld.com/ collaborationatwork Employees from Parsons Brinckerhoff and across the Balfour Beatty Group can request copies of either book for their key clients by emailing UK-Communications@pbworld.com. Employees can also find additional related information and download PDF or Word versions of the books from the 360 Intranet site: Exploring Innovation: https://home360.balfourbeatty.com/pb/uk/WorkingWithClients/MarketingCommunications/Pages/EI.aspx Collaboration at Work: https://home360.balfourbeatty.com/pb/uk/WorkingWithClients/MarketingCommunications/Pages/ Collaboration-at-work.aspx
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Transport Network Sector
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Call for Articles

We invite all employees to participate in technology transfer and submit articles to Network. We look forward to hearing from you.
We invite employees from all offices of Parsons Brinckerhoff and affiliates to share their knowledge and submit articles to the Network technical journal about Water (#77). This publication will focus on Parsons Brinckerhoffs expertise, capabilities, and projects in the broad areas of: Drinking water/integrated water resources planning; Wastewater; Stormwater, watershed, and ecosystem management; Hydraulic structures and flood control; and Program support, strategic consulting, and asset management. Other future Network topics will include alternative project delivery systems, building efficiency, and building information management (BIM) systems. Contact editors John Chow (chow@pbworld.com) and Susan Lysaght (lysaght@pbworld.com).
Network 77, Water
Our Goal
The goal of Network is to promote technology transfer by featuring articles that: Tell readers about innovative developments. Appeal to a broad range of readers. Include only essential information in a readable format. Encourage readers to contact authors for more information.
Guidelines for Articles
Articles should conform to Network format (defined below). Keep your article as short as you caninclude only relevant details and descriptions. Papers written for other publications will not be accepted unless they are modified to conform to Network format.
in parentheses. For assistance in converting measures, see http://www.onlineconversion.com/ Conclusion: What lessons did you learn? What was the impact of your solution on your project? What does your new technology or technique mean to our firm and the state-of-the-art of the industry? What is the current status of your project, technique, or technology? Biographical Information: Please provide your title and a brief description of your work in 12 sentences at the end of your article. Related Web Sites: Provide any web addresses that readers can go to for related information.
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Network August 2013. Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc., One Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10119, 1-212-465-5000. All rights reserved. Articles may be reprinted only with permission from the executive editor. This journal is intended to foster the free flow of ideas and information among Parsons Brinckerhoff staff. The opinions expressed by the writers are their own and are not necessarily those of Parsons Brinckerhoff. Past issues of Network are available electronically on Parsons Brinckerhoffs web site, (http://www.pbworld.com) or go directly to: http://www.pbworld.com/news/publications.aspx. Past issues are available to employees via the Parsons Brinckerhoff intranet. Employees may request printed copies to use for conferences, seminars, and proposals. Send your request to pbnetwork@pbworld.com. Executive Editor: John Chow, New York, NY, chow@pbworld.com Editor: Susan Lysaght, Lancaster, PA, lysaght@pbworld.com Graphic Designer: Suzanne Daloisio, Lancaster, PA, daloisiosl@pbworld.com Advisor: Judy Cooper, New York, NY Guest Reviewers for this issue: Karen Block, Houston, TX; Steve Denton, Bristol, UK; Alan Hobson, Brisbane, AUS; Alan Knott, Manchester, UK; Peter Kydd, Bristol, UK; Steven Lai, Hong Kong
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PB Network 76 Pathways To Innovation PDF

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ISSUE NO.

A technical journal by Parsons Brinckerhoff employees and colleagues

Table Transport of Contents Sector

ENVIRONMENTAL/CLIMATE CHANGE ANALYSIS AND SUSTAINABILITY

RENEWABLE ENERGY AND GREEN BUILDING DESIGN

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND SOCIAL MEDIA

DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION, AND INSPECTION OF CIVIL STRUCTURES

Thinking Differently About Innovation

Exploring the Innovation Pathway

AUGUST 2013 http://www.pbworld.com/news/publications.aspx

Transport Introduction Introduction Sector

Transport Introduction Sector

Figure 1 Capturing the innovation pathway

Showcasing global innovations

Investing in the future

Steve Denton Director of Engineering Parsons Brinckerhoff Ltd. Bristol, UK

AUGUST 2013 http://www.pbworld.com/news/publications.aspx

Transport Introduction Sector

Transport Introduction Sector

AUGUST 2013 http://www.pbworld.com/news/publications.aspx

Innovation making a difference to our clients and ourselves

AUGUST 2013 http://www.pbworld.com/news/publications.aspx

Transport Introduction Sector

The Connected Vehicle Concept

Figure 1 Example of DSRC roadside equipment (RSE) installation

Safety Pilot Model Deployment

AUGUST 2013 http://www.pbworld.com/news/publications.aspx

Coming to a Vehicle Near You

Innovative and Sustainable Ways of Managing Capacity on Our Urban Roadways

AUGUST 2013 http://www.pbworld.com/news/publications.aspx

Parsons Brinckerhoffs Role

AUGUST 2013 http://www.pbworld.com/news/publications.aspx

Challenges and Opportunities Looking Forward

AUGUST 2013 http://www.pbworld.com/news/publications.aspx

Figure 1 Staging Diagram

AUGUST 2013 http://www.pbworld.com/news/publications.aspx

Existing Working Practices

Figure 2 Time Chainage Diagram

Trial application of BIM to rail possession planning

Figure 3 Rolling stock models

Figure 4 Accurate geometric models

AUGUST 2013 http://www.pbworld.com/news/publications.aspx

AUGUST 2013 http://www.pbworld.com/news/publications.aspx

Figure 6 Animation scripts

Issues identified through the process.

Conclusion and future developments

WTE needs to be clear for plant to move into work area

Figure 8 Model view

AUGUST 2013 http://www.pbworld.com/news/publications.aspx

AUGUST 2013 http://www.pbworld.com/news/publications.aspx

Urban Design Principles

KIZAD 2 Abu Dhabi Central

Shahama Abu Dhabi Airport Capital District

Figure 1 Abu Dhabi Regional Rail Study Route

AUGUST 2013 http://www.pbworld.com/news/publications.aspx

Achieving Principles with Guidelines

Bus Staging TOD: Retail/Commercial

Taxi Zone TOD: Retail/Commercial

Physical/Visual Connection to Exisiting Community and Development

Cross-Trackway Pedestrian/Vehicular Connection Staging area Bus stops and shelters

Seeing is Believing: Exporting US Best Practices

Pedestrian access to/from community Bicycle access to/from community/trail system