Year In Infrastructure 2005

VISUALIZATION
I- 44 & I-235 Realignment
Interchange
Oklahoma Department of
Transportation

This 3.5-mile project will provide a six-lane freeway and replace an existing cloverleaf interchange, improving circulation and safety in a major urban transportation corridor faced with increasing traffic volume.

The consultant designing this project provided graphics created in one software package, design data created in another, and paper sets of plans. The Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) converted the design data to MicroStation format, referenced the design to ODOT’s topography and surface files created with MicroStation and InRoads, and quickly imported horizontal alignments from the consultant’s graphic files. InRoads also let ODOT easily recreate profiles for the alignments from the consultant’s paper plan

sheets. Recreating the design using InRoads
allowed faster, easier renderings of the pro-
posal for the general public. Using Bentley
Descartes to incorporate aerial photography
lent greater realism to the renderings, and
further reduced time and labor in the
rendering process. ;

VISUALIZATION

I- 90 Snoqualmie Pass East
Washington State Department
of Transportation

For the animation, all proposed bridges were created with GEOPAK Bridge; walls and tunnels were created using standard MicroStation modeling tools. WSDOT’s design office supplied the digital terrain model, and additional terrain was created from USGS Digital Elevation Models. Detailed aerial photography was applied to the terrain as an elevation drape in MicroStation.

Creating the visualization entailed building the entire seven-mile location inside MicroStation. This provided the flexibility to create the final animation from any perspective, allowing adjustments without the need to refilm a location. MicroStation’s rendering capabilities even allowed the re-creation of the incredible reflections seen on the lake’s surface. Successfully capturing the beauty of the surrounding environment was important, since the aesthetic impact of this project was a major concern. ;