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Bentley Systems, a global provider of engineering software and digital twins services, has released a new cloud service that offers access to geotechnical data for better engineering decision support and increased collaboration across the supply chain.
OpenGround Cloud forms a solution for planning, data entry, borehole log production, lab data management, reporting and visualisation. The platform’s aim is to improve collaboration across multidisciplinary project teams and increase the value of geotechnical data by making it easily accessible to key project stakeholders.
Geotechnical project team dynamics and the applications and services they require to manage natural resources are changing rapidly, Bentley Systems explained. Relevant geotechnical data is typically dispersed across various applications and devices and can be cumbersome to gather and consolidate.
According to Bentley, with OpenGround Cloud, geotechnical engineers can readily access reliable, high-quality current and historical geotechnical data for the modelling, simulation and analysis of infrastructure projects’ ground conditions.
Bentley Systems geotechnical information management secnior director Scott Devoe said: “OpenGround Cloud provides a single enterprise repository of multiple data sources for all ground investigation projects – a long-sought improvement for geotechnical and geological professionals.
“It eliminates the need to retain copies or to exchange data and ensures that everyone in the supply chain has the correct access rights to the most current version. As a result, OpenGround Cloud helps minimise project delays due to encountering unforeseen ground risks during construction.”
Atkins principal process engineer Richard O’Brien noted that the service could help easily identify data gaps to “highlight risk items and, if required, assist in the planning of targeted ground investigations”.
“From the tender process, when local site data availability is limited, through to detailed design, we are now able to undertake data-driven assessments to aid in our decision-making,” he added.
Lower Thames Crossing ground engineering lead Cedric Allenou confirmed that OpenGround Cloud was used on the project to improve the workflow for all members of the team.
“The various add-ins are faster within the cloud version of the database, which is useful when dealing with large datasets such as CPT data,” he said.
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