Transportation infrastructure projects across the US were fueled at the beginning of this year by packages such as the - BUILD Discretionary Grants - from the USDOT. The investment will go to projects modernizing roadways, bridges, and highway structures. As new structures are built and existing structures are improved upon, the need for pre and post inspections remains highly pertinent.

Following the building of a new bridge, for example, it is necessary to monitor cracking and delamination in early stages that could point to unseen errors in the construction. During this period, the use of rapid NDE data collection allows owners to document these relevant developments.

The same logic applies when adding on extra lanes to an existing bridge. It is necessary to evaluate the influence of the changes by collecting imagery before and after the addition. Having a complete visual record of the structure before and after, you can begin to answer questions like: How does cracking develop after the lanes are added? Is stress being distributed as intended in the new members? High definition IRT and visual scanning satisfies these questions like no other technology on the market.

To learn more about this recent round of infrastructure funding, visit the USDOT web post. To optimize your inspection project work this year, visit our markets page for information about how NEXCO can help.

Digital twins are influencing large-scale project management by introducing a slew of short and long-term benefits. They facilitate project planning in their early stages, capture information about the status of current projects, and provide resources for inspectors in decades, to come. If a digital twin is the living organism that - eats - the data fueling these megaprojects, then it will inevitably die if it is not fed new data.

NEXCO is like a supplier of - food - for digital twins. To keep them alive and well, we are able to feed them the inspection data. The imagery we take in the field can be transferred into various forms, such as 2D and 3D models, links to accessible online viewers, comprehensive reports on structural deficiency status, and more. When accessing the twin (or any repository), this data can be viewed and easily comprehended for informed decision-making.

The use of digital twins is enriching infrastructure projects across the globe, such as in Genoa, Italy, on the grounds of a bridge collapse in 2018. As their use expands to infrastructure projects in the US, NEXCO will collaboratively continue to keep them thriving. In fact, NEXCO would be the perfect - chef - with our innovative technology to supply project management.