Tracking Infrastructure

If you are not familiar with the term 'reality capture' you are probably not alone. Now is a good time to become so, however, because this will be the core of 'smart infrastructure'. You are probably thinking: "Sure, some day, maybe."                  (Graphic courtesy of National Geospacial Advisory Committee)

Our guess is that precast manufacturers will need to offer some form of reality capture with every infrastructure product they sell in 5 years or less.  

The 'smart city' is the wave of the future and there is a lot of interest in making it happen. However, you don't seem to hear as much about 'smart infrastructure', which is curious. Every house has a foundation, and infrastructure is the foundation of the city, so it stands to reason that you can't have a truly 'smart' city unless it is 'smart' all the way down to its foundation. Idencia is all about smart infrastructure so we thought we would share our vision.

We were pleased to be asked to speak at the Command Alkon ELEVATE 2017 customer conference this past week. As the theme implies, creating ways to offer more customer value was a topic of extensive discussion. The Idencia presentation was Connected Concrete: An Opportunity to Lead. Since this was the topic of last week's post, we thought we would provide a deeper dive in this post by sharing our slide deck. Thanks to Command Alkon for a great conference!

As project owners and contractors adapt to the demands of the coming infrastructure boom, precast and prestressed concrete manufacturers will be forced to redefine the nature of the products they provide. They will have to deliver "Connected Concrete", concrete that can deliver information.

A future of crumbling roads and bridges, trillions of dollars in investment needs, a national economy that requires modern infrastructure to remain competitive globally and the inevitable transition to 'Smart Cities'.  These are all factors that create the highest stakes confronting federal, state and municipal departments of transportation (DOTs) since World War II. 

This is the first in a series of blog posts in which we address the opportunities and potential pitfalls faced by each party in the infrastructure value chain as a result of the unique circumstances in place today. We start at the top of the chain with the project owners: DOTs.

All of a sudden it seems that everyone is interested in 'Smart Cities'. Publishers are creating periodicals dedicated to them (our favorite is Smart Cities Dive); in 2016 the venture capital community invested $2.7 billion in the sector; and now business accelerators (DreamIt and Urban-X, to name two) are incubating companies dedicated to the space. This is because, for the first time in the history of the planet, more than 50% of the world's population is currently living in urban areas (80% in the US). Projected to rise to 66% by 2050, this is unsustainable without a complete overhaul of existing infrastructure and services. No wonder that leading investors are focusing on the 'Smart Cities' opportunity.

RFID tracking will serve as its foundation.

There has been a lot of talk over the past year about the importance of rebuilding America's infrastructure. Now there is more evidence supporting the claim. Every four years the American Society of Civil Engineers prepares a report card on the state of our infrastructure; its 2017 report was released March 9th. The report card justifies public concern by grading the overall state of the country's infrastructure with a D+. What does this mean?

One of the many great outcomes from rebuilding our nation's infrastructure is that its massive scale will reshape the productivity of the entire supply chain. Being dedicated to helping the precast industry improve productivity with our RFID-based paperless quality control, inventory management and GPS tracking system, we are always intrigued by new technology for construction contractors and asset managers. Between these two, construction has gotten the lion's share of attention. That is now changing.

In 2016 demand for construction continued to rise and the industry embraced new technologies to profitability serve the opportunity. As we start 2017 it appears that the industry will enjoy continued upside. However, several factors indicate that gains will not be won by business as usual. Specifically:

1. Margin pressures will continue

2. Workflows will need to be adjusted to manage volume approaching 2007 highs

3. Pressure to shorten the construction cycle will heighten

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a construction video of the new Seattle tunnel project is incalculable. The project, known locally as the SR 99 tunnel, is replacing the above-ground Alaskan Way trestle with a tunnel that will run underneath the city. The video below shows how the contractors are boring the tunnel and installing the concrete rings that line it. An engineering marvel!