At traffic and transport engineering firm Modus, risk mitigation, design precision, stakeholder communication and budget management are all boosted by the integration of Bluebeam Revu.
In the traffic and transport engineering space, success can often hinge on convincing clients to complete the right level of analysis and design early in the piece. It’s about getting the details right at the very start, whether that’s related to moving heavy vehicles through congested city streets or improving safety on an industrial site.
Ensuring the right level of risk management detail without adding unexpected or unacceptable expense for clients has required a high level of innovation. The integration of Bluebeam Revu into workflows has enabled the streamlining of reviews, better and more efficient client communications and more affordable and safer outcomes, says Modus traffic engineer Jarrod Lea.
“A project can be very complex, very fluid,” Lea says. “As soon as any project starts and a CAD model is built, I’m not going to work within that CAD space. Bluebeam just makes it so much quicker to draw things up, so I’ll have the layouts exported into a PDF.”
In team meetings, client catch-ups or discussions with civil engineers, Bluebeam software enables immediate communication of design, as well as mark-up and actioning of changes, Lea says. This accelerates the pace of the work while boosting confidence around information being captured and actioned.
Essentially, the process enables all safety and spatial requirements to be agreed and built in from the very beginning, rather than added as afterthoughts.
Engineering technology that hits every goal
Operating at the intersection of urban design, transport safety advisory, assessment and implementation and construction logistics management, Modus is on a mission of risk reduction, to safeguard people and property. It also has a sharp focus on the delivery of return on investment.
To achieve these goals, Modus is not just ticking boxes. The business is instead solving problems that can have real-life consequences.
For example, every state has products that construction and engineering firms are allowed to use for traffic management, Lea explains.
“What’s important is understanding how those products work in the event of a crash, and the sorts of vehicles that could crash into them,” he says. “Those barriers aren’t designed to just stay in place.”
“Most people don’t realise that if a car crashes into a water-filled barrier for example, particularly at 60 km/h, the dynamic deflection of that barrier is about four metres. So, if you put pedestrians or workers behind it and a vehicle crashes into it, it’s likely going to end in a fatality. That’s why it’s important that we do those designs and make consequences clear.”
Anything that streamlines the consultation, design and review process, and that supports speed, clarity and technical accuracy, also boosts safety and reduces costs up front and down the road.
How Bluebeam saves time and cost
CAD-based drawings are more expensive simply because they take more time to produce. They also require more effort during design reviews, which can be a time-consuming part of any engineering project. Along these lines, Bluebeam’s Revu has made positive changes for the team at Modus and their clients and stakeholders.
During stakeholder meetings, including with councils and construction firms, Bluebeam’s collaborative markup features allow live files to be annotated on screen in real time.
“I’ve just come out of a council meeting for a major project in Brisbane, with about 25 stakeholders,” Lea says.
“In Brisbane there are bus networks that must be maintained during construction and there are many events that happen across the city which can’t be interrupted. There are numerous council assets and various precincts with specific restrictions on parking and loading zones, etc.”
“Every department that deals with these things has a comment to make on the traffic designs. All of them need to clearly understand what the impact is going to be on their interests.”
If a stakeholder has an issue during a meeting, a solution is devised immediately, in real-time, with the file then saved and sent directly back into the system with all feedback captured and actioned.
The outcome is much faster decision making, fewer errors and less rework. Crucially, the result of all of this is greater human safety and lower costs for the client.
“This is not just about speed, it’s about certainty,” Lea says. “It has also meant we’ve been able to develop a new reporting method with a traffic management plan that is workplace health and safety compliant.”
“We can show the risks we identified on site, develop a site overlay plan that shows the placement of line-marking, signage, loading zones, etc., and we can do all of that within the Bluebeam package, saving a lot of time and cost.”
The outcomes are vital, Lea says, because “everyone deserves to go home safely”.
As the construction sector continues to grapple with tighter budgets and higher expectations, Modus has found a way to use technology to multiply the positive impact of excellent engineering.
“For us, it’s not about the tools, it’s about the outcomes,” he says. “Bluebeam helps us deliver better engineering, faster and safer. That’s the bottom line.”
Discover how your team can engineer smarter with Bluebeam. Book a demo today.
