Project Integrator (PI)
Megan Karbowski is a Software Developer in Arup’s Advanced Digital Engineering team in Los Angeles, CA.
The Americas region Advanced Digital Engineering (ADE) team has released the Project Integrator (PI) as one of the key projects for the region. Building off the success of its inception on the Delta Sky Way LAX project, this marks a new chapter in deploying this tool to broader use on all projects with the aim of making the building design process more efficient in addition to adding value to clients and contracted deliverables in a rapid and cost-effective way.
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) first opened for commercial use in 1946, and over the years that have followed, it has undergone countless construction projects to handle the year-on-year increase in passenger traffic. The steady schedule of construction has allowed the airport to expand from one terminal to the current configuration of nine operational terminals but has led to a labyrinth of utilities and services. Many of these are still in operation, with others abandoned and disused as remnants of past operations. Documentation of these utilities is equally as scattered, housed in physical and digital archives of construction documents, record drawings, photographs, and more.
The lack of a comprehensive, easy-to-navigate collection of historical information remains one of the largest challenges on the LAX project. In addition to finding the information, there is a great deal of uncertainty with what is installed in the field compared to the recorded drawings, creating several challenges for the design team resulting in change orders increasing costs and schedule delays.
In a sizable undertaking of this scale in renovating and rebuilding two terminals in its entirety, tens of thousands of photos and notes have been collected by engineers on site visits during the early phase of the project. During the design phases, over 5,000 design drawings and hundreds of specifications are being worked on at any given time, and throughout at least twenty distinct construction phases, thousands of RFIs and submittals have been received and processed.
With immense volumes of information to handle, the Delta project team and ADE team worked together to deploy PI, or Project Integrator, a web-based platform that connects the project team to an extensive collection of project data. That collection includes site photos, 360° photos, videos, design, as-built and issued drawings, specifications, and construction administration information. Using intelligent scripts built around the way project teams typically store data in siloed areas on project drives, servers, and cloud services, the platform automatically surfaces, organizes and presents that data to users, enabling them to filter and sort by file type, discipline, level, phase, and more. The interface uses geospatial (GIS) mapping technologies to enable users to isolate files relevant to a specific location on the floor plan and specific levels.
Following a pilot in late 2018 and a thorough user experience and interface design period, the system has been iteratively developed through agile delivery methods throughout 2019, with noticeable features and improvements published every two weeks. A video showing its introduction and use is available here:
PI has now been successfully deployed on more than 15 projects across the Americas region.
Thanks to Megan Karbowski, Angela Wilson, Kevin McGee, Roland Martin and all the other developers from the regional ADE team, and Daniel Kim, Andrew Xue, Alex Sahonero and the entire Delta LAX project team
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