National road 4 is scheduled to open 8 months ahead of schedule

Project Manager Jarmo Niskanen from Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency reveals that they are hoping to be move traffic to the new road on December 20th or 21st . (YLE 7.12.2021)

According to Niskanen the move to the new stretch of road has been carefully planned of time with dozens of people communicating with each other while the obstacles are being removed.

“We will have a car leading the line from both ends of the road to start the traffic. Neither Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency nor the contractor will organize a special opening for the road.” says Niskanen.

“The low temperatures are causing some delays so we can’t say for sure when the road will be opened. We are in the middle of installing important railings, without them the road can’t be used. All other aspects of the road have been completed,” Niskanen describes.

The opening day will be confirmed on December 15th according to Niskanen. At the latest the road is set to be opened in January, up to 8 months ahead of schedule.

Main contractor on the project is Destia.

Read about the projects background at Destia.fi

Read the original article at YLE in Finnish (published 7.12.2021)

Autodesk and Infrakit Connect Civil Infrastructure Project Design and Construction

For a better information flow during their project lifecycle, stakeholders require open formats that improve collaboration and reduce the risk of losing and recompiling data. Autodesk and Infrakit established a partnership to bridge gaps between project phases with open data exchange formats. Infrakit will now enable the use of 3D designs from Autodesk’s civil engineering design tools, Autodesk® Civil 3D® and Autodesk® InfraWorks®. Users can exploit and validate the 3D Designs in construction work through the Infrakit cloud platform.

This integration with Autodesk leading technologies will allow customers to forward checked designs to field solutions like Machine Control systems (MC) through Infrakit to create and ensure common understanding among stakeholders. MC uses data from sources such as 3D models to guide construction equipment during earth works. Users can ensure the improvement of safety, efficiency and quality while also reducing environmental impacts, schedule, and costs.

This partnership together, along with progress in open data exchange formats, enables more connected data and information workflows from design to construction. Enhancing our customers’ ability to collaborate and ensuring seamless flow of information regardless of vendors and service providers is crucial for accuracy and timeliness of project outcomes.

“The buildingSMART Infrastructure Room has been working with industry stakeholders and the Railway Room to develop IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) extensions for infrastructure to include roads, bridges, marine and rail entities. There is a clear need to improve information exchange between disciplines and across the project lifecycle into asset operations in order to leverage improving technology capabilities without a need to recreate data at each stage” said Marek Suchocki, Chair of the buildingSMART International Infrastructure Room Project Steering Committee and Autodesk Global Business Development Executive. “Technology providers have been fully engaged in the developing, testing and implementation of this international standard to better demonstrate seamless data exchanges that will improve the adoption of open formats resulting in better project outcomes and fewer errors or rework. This will ultimately make the whole infrastructure industry more productive and sustainable and bodes well for the future.”

Connecting the communication gaps between project phases helps stakeholders avoid wasted resources and expensive errors, providing them with the latest plans and schedules. Customers using Infrakit can now benefit from syncing design models from Civil 3D and InfraWorks with machine control systems. This seamless approach will enhance quality and monitor as-built progress reported from the field in real-time.  Additionally, when quality documentation builds up into the system, it can be easily handed over to asset information management – digitally.

“We are excited to partner with Autodesk, a technology leader in our industry, to provide our mutual customers with enhanced data flow from design phase to the construction phase.” – Teemu Kivimäki Founder and CEO of Infrakit Group Oy. “Many customers are using products from both companies and are looking to build a workflow that requires fluid data transfer between them.”

“The convergence of design and construction workflows coupled with the digital transformation of the AEC industry is delivering great value to infrastructure projects. We are pleased to be in a position to help our customers realize this value through our partnership with Infrakit” – Eric DesRoche, Sr. Manager AEC Design Strategy at Autodesk.

About Autodesk

Autodesk is changing how the world is designed and made. Our technology spans architecture, engineering, construction, product design, manufacturing, media, and entertainment, empowering innovators everywhere to solve challenges big and small. From greener buildings to smarter products to more mesmerizing blockbusters, Autodesk software helps our customers to design and make a better world for all. Learn more at www.autodesk.com

About Infrakit

Infrakit is an industry-disrupting digital platform to increase infrastructure construction productivity. We are driven by the goal of a sustainable infra industry – while offering 20% savings in total project costs. Our customers include the most advanced construction companies and infrastructure owners in the world. We have been helping our customers to digitalize their infra projects since 2010 – over 30 billion euros of infra-assets has been built with Infrakit in more than 2000 projects in 11 countries.

Highways UK – exciting encounters and possibilities

With a focus on innovation, sustainability and investment, Highways UK has come to an end after two full days of excellent conversations and speeches by some of the industry’s leading experts. We want to thank you all for the interest you showed in us during our first Highways UK event as an exhibitor. Our demos were well received, and the stand lighting certainly got some attention, we’ll be sure to keep that in the future.

“My experience in Highways was very positive. I didn’t have many expectations due to Covid-19 and the fact that this was our very first exhibition on Highways. I was just hoping that we would get something out of it. This was met, and much more. We had the right people at stand, right people visiting, we received encouraging feedback from visitors, and we had plenty of different, but interesting discussions that will take us further in the UK – hopefully soon.” recalls our VP of Business Development Pasi Joensuu.

Demos were held for Colas, Skanska UK and Leica Geosystems

Sebastien Cailliau, General Manager of Infrakit SARL in France says that “Highways UK exhibition was a real success, not only was it good to meet customers and users in person after the long COVID period, but the interest shown by visitors and exhibitors towards Infrakit proves that the UK market is ready to implement and deploy digital solutions for construction of infrastructures locally”

“We met a lot of current and new potential customers at the Highways UK seminar. We got a clear message that customers and the market are ready to implement model-based construction and data and quality management processes to infra projects in the UK with Infrakit. With support from Infrakit Services team UK infra projects can get a great boost for construction efficiency and quality control.” Says Olli Planting, Development Manager.

We’ll see you soon at BIM World Munich and in Geo Business in London!

Finnish BIM Pavilion present at BIM World Munich November 23.-24.

Infrakit will once again participate in BIM World Munich as part of the Finnish BIM Pavilion. You can find us at Booth 1 on the 23rd and 24th of November. Read more about the Finnish BIM Pavilion here and book your tickets to the event here. Other participants of the pavilion include Novatron, Pointscene, Gravicon, Mestamaster and the University of Oulu. See you in Munich!

Event hours for attendees:

9.00 AM – 6.00 PM

Peter Branzell joins Infrakit as Sweden’s new Sales Director

Hi there!

My name is Peter Branzell, and I have joined Infrakit AB as the Sales Director in Sweden. Being in the BIM, export/import, open API, and collaboration industry for so many years I will now help existing and new customers to increase their productivity of infra projects, save money with better planning and fewer errors when working with Infrakit solutions.

I have been working with sales for over 25 years, mostly in the AEC business. I have a master’s in civil engineering from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. My specialties were geotechnics, hydrology, hydrogeology and taking the water all the way from the sky until we drink it.

As a sales manager I have been working most of the time and nearly 18 years for Trimble (formerly Tekla) as the sales manager. I was managing the B&C Division for Trimble in the Nordics. Directed all sales aspects of the building and construction (AEC) division. Identified new sales channels and established strong customer relationships. Developed long- and short-term sales plans. Ensured maximum exposure for the product at exhibits and conventions.

I have made more than 7.000 physical customer visits during the years and have been traveling more than 1.000.000 km (25 times around the world) in the car so, I do hope I know how to drive. Spending hundreds of hours in the air without learning to fly.

I have been training my whole life, in the pass in a high level and competing in track and field and triathlon, nowadays I’m training a very intensive and short training several times/weeks. I wish I could say that I play golf, but my golf partners will say that I am joyful to play with, not that I should, play golf!

Highways UK is around the corner

This year’s Highways UK is held in Birmingham on November 3rd-4th in The NEC Hall 9 and 10, and Infrakit will be attending live. We will be holding live demos on both days at our booth D80. Stay tuned for a more detailed schedule and themes.

Register for the event here.