The University of Cincinnati has secured a $5.1m federal grant to create new digital platforms designed to improve the safety and efficiency of transit construction projects
The UC College of Engineering & Applied Science will work on seven demonstration projects harnessing digital platforms for Cincinnati Metro, Akron Metro and the Butler County Regional Transit Authority.
The Federal Transit Administration grant is funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that President Joe Biden signed in 2021.
Leveraging emerging technologies
The projects will leverage emerging technologies such as data integration, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and 3D modelling to streamline and coordinate work processes.
Professor Hazem Elzarka of the College of Engineering & Applied Science said they will apply digital platforms to demonstrate how technology leads to smarter and quicker construction management decisions.
Huge amounts of data on budgets, design and construction that go into new transit projects will be stored in a single cloud-based location to provide ready access even years from now.
“When you have a well-run project where decisions are made quickly, workers aren’t in the field as long where they face the most danger,” Professor Elzarka said.
The results of the demonstrations will be used to produce a guide for other transit agencies and construction firms with best practices in planning and deploying advanced digital construction management solutions
Professor Elzarka and associate professor Richard Li of the University of Cincinnati’s Department of Civil & Architectural Engineering & Construction Management will collaborate with UC School of Information Technology Professor Hazem Said and assistant professor-educator Vineela Kunapareddi.
Benefits for smaller construction firms
“There are direct benefits for the transit agencies, but there are indirect benefits for the construction industry,” Professor Elzarka said.
“Today, only the largest firms really can afford to implement digital technologies in their projects. So we’re hoping that our research findings will help demonstrate potential benefits of this for smaller firms.”
Professor Elzarka added that University of Cincinnati construction management and information technology students will get practical experience working with the latest digital tools.
Announcing the grand award, Federal Transit Administration deputy administrator Veronica Vanterpool said: “Our goal is to help transit agencies deliver projects on time, on task and on budget.
“[This] selection will help us do that by improving efficiency and providing tools that reduce construction delays and costs and enable workers to perform tasks faster, more safely, smarter and more accurately.”
