Update!
Read the press release: HDR Saves $1.48 Million in Travel Costs, Reduces Carbon Emissions by 581 Metric Tons With Bentley's ProjectWise Collaboration System
About HDR's Southwest Parkway Design
HDR's Southwest Parkway project was a proposed 8.2-mile, six-lane tollway to be built and maintained by the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA). Extending from Fort Worth's central business district at IH-30 to southwest Fort Worth, it eventually connects to the 13-mile Chisholm Trail project in Johnson County. Southwest Parkway will improve regional mobility by relieving the growing traffic congestion in the greater Fort Worth area.
HDR was selected to design a new five-level interchange for the parkway at SH-183 and IH-20. HDR’s segment required the design of two miles of new roadway, six-lane mainlines on Southwest Parkway with localized frontage roads, over one mile of SH-183 reconstruction with new frontage roads, and direct connectors to IH-20. The project includes nine direct connectors, 15 slip ramps, and reconstruction of one cross-street underpass. This segment represents the largest of the project’s five segments. The corridor master plan calls for a visually narrow cross section, increased plantings, and bridge and wall treatments that are sensitive to the natural and constructed environment.
Meeting NTTA’s aggressive deadline of 18 months from notice to proceed to final design required HDR to pool multiple resources for bridge and roadway design. The firm mobilized a seamless design team comprised of 90 HDR engineers, CAD designers, and staff from 12 offices along with more than 40 team members from four sub-consultants.
Video simulation of the Southwest Parkway
2008 Be Awards of Excellence Win
HDR Engineering won a 2008 Be Awards of Excellence in the “Innovation in Road and Bridge” and “Connecting Project Teams” categories for the design of the new five-level interchange.
To integrate such a diversified design team across multiple locations, ProjectWise was selected as the document management system for all project files, which included not only CAD files, but also engineering calculations, spreadsheets, word documents, and all e-mail correspondence. Having used ProjectWise on previous large-scale collaborations, the project management team easily installed the framework for efficient work sharing and workload balancing. The properly configured system and continued support provided the design team with a tool that increased productivity, improved quality, and provided an efficient way to collaborate.
HDR visited each subcontractor’s office to install ProjectWise on its workstations and assured that each user had connectivity to its database. In addition, the firm provided hands-on training to all team members for ProjectWise with a customized V8 workspace. By using Bentley’s ProjectWise collaboration system rather than relocating design team members to one central office location, HDR Engineering saved more than $1,379.000.
HDR in The Year in Infrastructure 2008 book
More on the 2008 Be Awards of Excellence winners