The Last Frontier State leads the way using 3D design technology to design, build and maintain transportation projects in the toughest of environments.
Alaska’s rough terrain, cold weather and thousands of miles of coastline present a transportation management challenge that most state managers don’t have to face every day. What’s more, managers have to factor in the high cost of labor in Alaska and the lengthy environmental permitting process before they can kick off any state transportation project.
Working within these constraints is among the challenges that Malcolm Menzies, director, Southeast Region, Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT), faces on a day-to-day basis. As the Southeast Regional Director, Menzies is in charge of an area slightly larger than the state of Florida that includes the state capital Juneau. Much of the community located there in the panhandle of the state is only accessible by boat or plane. “It’s a challenge working with the community, balancing projects and getting the permits to start new construction activities such as building a new road,” Menzies said.
Most of the design work takes place during the winter, Menzies said, so that construction can take place during the warmer months. But this isn’t a hard and fast rule. “We work when dollars allow us to work,” he said. Technology has been a boon to transportation projects, Menzies said, because it has helped save money. “The advantage of technology is that you can do the same amount of work in less time. Alaska is a very expensive place to live and labor is very expensive, so we look at more economical ways to do work,” he said.
The state operating budget for DOT and Public Facilities is $499 million – $35 million of that goes to the Southeast Region. Menzies said his region has $401 million in 63 projects under construction, and $504 million in 81 design projects over this year and next.
While Alaska historically may have been the last frontier, this is not the case from a technology perspective. “We were some of the first to jump on the Autodesk® bandwagon (with AutoCAD®) and followed suit with Global Positioning System technology. We’re very progressive because labor is so expensive,” Menzies said.
Primarily, the Southeast Region relies on AutoCAD® Land Desktop to plan and analyze most projects, but plans to move to AutoCAD® Civil 3D®, said Chad Howard, Design engineering manager, Southeast Region, Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.
“Land Desktop helps us establish alignments and profiles for use on digital terrain models,” Howard said. His group works primarily on highway, urban roadways and some public works grading projects.
The plan is to eventually convert to Civil 3D to make it easier to design and manage projects, Howard said. “It’s more interactive. It’s a lot easier to make changes. I think once people get some experience with Civil 3D, it will work well.”
Also becoming more common is the use of equipment such as graders and snowplows that are guided by the Global Positioning System and integrated digital maps. Because of this, these machines can conduct maintenance in whiteout conditions, Menzies said.
The Southeast Region is not the only part of the state that has embraced Autodesk technology.
At the time of publication, Alaska’s Central Region was using AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008 for all new highway projects, said Cynthia Ferguson, project manager, Central Region, Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. It will also continue to use AutoCAD, which it has been using for nearly 15 years.
The Central Region contains the bulk of the state’s highways and population, most of who live in Anchorage. Ferguson’s group is responsible for designing road projects in the Central Region including simple repair jobs, reconstruction and road widening projects. Once complete, the designs are then released to contractors for bid.
“We’re all pretty excited about the capabilities in Civil 3D,” Ferguson said. “We think it will really streamline our work.”
Civil 3D offers more flexibility when it comes to making design changes, Ferguson said. “Before it could be difficult to determine what the latest information was. Now, Civil 3D lets us make changes pretty seamlessly without having to double check that it’s been entered correctly or that we have the correct versions of cross sections.”
The move to Civil 3D has also meant a change in workflow, Ferguson said. Previously, designers would work on a piece of the project and then put the pieces together in the main base drawing. “Now we will have one drawing that everyone will work from. Everything will be in there,” she said, adding it will take “a little bit of growing pain to figure that part out.”
Alaska Quick Facts Population: 683,478 Size: 591,004 square miles (more than twice the size of Texas) Did you know: 70 percent of the state’s communities are only accessible by boat or plane Alaska DOT responsibility includes: highways, marine highway system, airports, railroads Divided into three regions: Southeast (includes Juneau), Central (includes Anchorage), Northern (includes Fairbanks) Colleen O’Hara, Reporter, [acronym] magazine Originally published in [acronym] magazine, Issue 7
Alaska Quick Facts Population: 683,478 Size: 591,004 square miles (more than twice the size of Texas) Did you know: 70 percent of the state’s communities are only accessible by boat or plane Alaska DOT responsibility includes: highways, marine highway system, airports, railroads Divided into three regions: Southeast (includes Juneau), Central (includes Anchorage), Northern (includes Fairbanks) Colleen O’Hara, Reporter, [acronym] magazine Originally published in [acronym] magazine, Issue 7
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