A transformation program within the Victoria government is standing up an engineering data resource intended to improve transport policy decisions and outlast any machinery of government changes.
Ban Chee (Credit: Bentley Systems)
Victorian Transport Digital Engineering, or VTDE, is characterised as a “shared initiative across the Victorian Transport portfolio”, with a vision to create a “hyperconnected ecosystem of digital engineering and asset information” by 2026.
At the Bentley Illuminate conference in Sydney, VTDE program reality capture data manager Ban Chee shed light on a particular aspect of the program that is opening up surveying data.
The data includes “2D and 3D survey data, photo meshes, and LiDAR point clouds”, a slide deck showed.
“We’ve got data stored everywhere,” he said. “We’re looking at bringing all that data together in one space, and … trying to be more user-centric with data management.”.
Chee said that Bentley Systems’ iTwin platform is being used to visualise and analyse survey data.
It is currently accessed either via a GIS or via an IBM Maximo system used for transport asset information.
Chee said that making survey data available could improve policy decision-making and lead to more efficient spending on transport projects.
“Why don’t we enable decision-makers or designers within government with better information? This is how – through using survey [data] as a tool and being able to push out that information and share it across the board,” he said.
“My focus is on making sure data is available and people will actually use data, because there’s no point in capturing high-quality data, sitting on it and not sharing it. Then you get the next project surveying the exact same area and you wonder why we are spending so much money for government infrastructure projects.
“So, by making the data available, my colleagues, people working on a project, even private industry, can actually understand what’s there and are able to make more informed and better decisions based on the information that’s available.”
Chee also predicted that the resource could be used to “inform government budgets” for future transport work and identify visibility gaps.
“By having the data available, managers and asset maintainers can go in there and say, ‘Hang on, we haven’t captured or done a survey of this area for a while, maybe we should start planning for it’, so it helps decision-making by making this data accessible,” he said.
One of the big hopes is that the data resource can be a constant for transport, even as governments change, priorities shift, and departments or agencies are restructured.
All of these kinds of changes are captured under an umbrella term, ‘machinery of government’.
Chee is hopeful that the data resources created under VTDE can outlast any such changes and continue to provide utility value.
Ry Crozier attended Bentley Illuminate as a guest of Bentley Systems.