Accelerating Infrastructure Projects with Utility AI Mapping and 3D BIM

Think about everything that keeps America running—our power, roads, water, and communication systems. These critical infrastructures are the backbone that not only protects the nation but also fuels our economy and improves our daily lives. However, in the U.S., many forms of critical infrastructure are deteriorating, and Georgia is no exception.

Let's examine Georgia's infrastructure challenges and how utility AI mapping can help accelerate project timelines and mitigate risks during the earliest, most cost-effective preliminary planning stages of construction.

Georgia's Infrastructure: Current Challenges

Georgia’s infrastructure is deteriorating, with a current ASCE rating of C+ — and it’s under increasing pressure. The eleventh fastest-growing state in the U.S. with 540 new residents daily, Georgia also contains one of the top ten most congested cities in its capital, Atlanta.

Georgia’s infrastructure challenges reflect those of the nation at large.

The U.S. has a current infrastructure rating of C-, and its infrastructure status has declined from first in the world to 13th.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is providing significant funding for infrastructure upgrades throughout the U.S. But the nation faces a staggering $1 trillion repair and maintenance backlog that includes 619,000 bridges and 4 million miles of public roads. Progress is slow, in part because of the construction industry’s labor shortage.

In Georgia, only 54 workers are available for every 100 open jobs, and ASCE estimates 136,000 additional workers are needed to address the state’s infrastructure needs.

Nationally, 25,000 civil engineers are needed annually, while mounting threats from extreme weather continue to batter the country’s infrastructure. 2023 was a record-breaking year for billion-dollar, weather-related disasters in the U.S.

Digital Transformation in Construction: Challenges and Opportunities

With the volume of needs and a lack of new talent, it’s obvious that what worked in the past isn’t going to work today to put Georgia — and the U.S. — on a path to ensure continuity and development of critical infrastructure and services.

“We live in a world that’s changing,” says Andy Kaiyala, Georgia-based VP Construction Technology and Controls at forward-thinking design and consulting firm WSB. While digital transformation in construction holds significant promises, it also comes with unknowns. “There’s some built-in resistance to digital transformation because of how quickly those changes to our world are occurring. People often feel overwhelmed by it.”

Kaiyala also points to other changes in the industry, such as shifts in contractual processes and reduced access to the workforce that used to flow into construction. “Our economy today is much more service-based than it was thirty years ago,” he says. With fewer people growing up on farms or doing manual labor, interest in construction careers is lagging. “These cultural changes affect where we are now.”

But the growth of digital technologies in construction can be an opportunity to attract young talent to the industry. Some contractors are creating high school programs to engage young students and foster interest in civil engineering. “One local company, C.W. Matthews Contracting Co., is leading the development of those programs in Georgia,” Kaiyala says. “It’s about introducing young people to what is possible, and showing them how they can be involved in something meaningful that benefits their community.”

Practical Applications: Utility AI Mapping

No technology will make construction easy — but some technology tools can make it easier. Because civil construction projects naturally carry a lot of variables, including safety and weather conditions, project managers and foremen may be skeptical of the value of technology to actually help them succeed. To be convinced, they need to see the specific, concrete value of new technology. What will solve their problems and remove some of the uncertainties around their projects?

“Access to better, earlier, more transparent information is what will do that,” says Kaiyala. “Getting the best possible information you can into the hands of the people who need it, when they need it, to make decisions.”

At 4M Analytics, we’re committed to delivering fast, reliable, and comprehensive utility data at the earliest stages of construction planning. This enables you to accelerate project planning, enhance field team mobilization, and gain a competitive edge to win more bids. Our Utility AI mapping and Analytics solution is powered by an AI engine overseen by human experts, enabling us to provide you with instant access to reliable utility information at scale.

We constantly collect and extract millions of utility records from private and public records and customer data, evaluating sources based on reliability, coverage, quality, and relevance. We use advanced data fusion techniques to pull all the information from different sources into a dataset. Then, we analyze, validate, and prioritize the data with the help of our AI engine.

In addition, we have domain experts with expertise in civil engineering and related fields on hand to review data points and resolve issues that require human opinions. Their review is fed back into the AI engine to improve future decisions.

The goal? Modernizing how you access and use utility data, ensuring your projects are planned and executed with precision, safety, and efficiency.

Future-proof Infrastructure: How WSB merges 4M Data with 3D BIM

Looking toward the future of technology applications in construction, Kaiyala is optimistic about the possibilities. “I would love to see the industry move toward more transparency, sharing information, and figuring out how to do the work with the best information possible. We’re at a moment in time where the tools are there. Here at WSB, we can truly publish a digital representation of a physical asset before you go do the work — and 4M data is absolutely integral to that.”

WSB’s goal is to create a federated model of each infrastructure project, bringing together all available data in a single 3D BIM environment. To do that, engineers pull 4M's advanced utility information and export it as CAD data. Then, they import the CAD data into a 3D BIM environment, combining it with information from the local municipality, locations of existing infrastructure, and models of bridges and roadways projected to be built out on the project. “Now, we can bring in the best available information as quickly as possible and impact the design as early in the process as we can,” Kaiyala says. “This is all done in a web interface where all you need is a login. There’s no unique hardware, and this is not for a tech specialist — all the stakeholders can get in here and get the information they need.”

Kaiyala, who spent most of his earlier career working on construction projects and managing the bidding process, says he would have loved to have access to this kind of early project data modeling back then. “When I saw a 4M demo, I almost couldn’t believe what you guys were doing and how fast you could do it,” he says. “We rarely had good information about utility location before starting a project, and that was always one of our top risks.”

While 4M utility data doesn’t replace the need for field investigation, it can clear the path for better early planning and decision-making — contributing to a brighter future for Georgia’s infrastructure. “There’s a compounding effect when you have access to better information earlier in the process because decisions are built on decisions,” Kaiyala points out. “If you make early decisions based on good information, you’ll have a lot fewer problems downstream.”

New technological innovations like 4M's Utility AI Mapping and Analytics solution empower infrastructure professionals to make more informed decisions and accelerate project kick-offs — right from their office.

Looking toward the future, Kaiyala is optimistic about the unfolding possibilities: access to instant utility data, integrations between software tools, and easy flow of information throughout construction projects to keep stakeholders informed. 

"I used to think there was a dam holding back the flood of [technological] change, but now I think we're in the midst of it," Kaiyala says. "There's a lot of momentum, and there's no going back now. We're at a good time."