How Digital Transformation is Shaping Infrastructure Development

Darin Welch, HNTB’s digital transformation solutions director, has dedicated his career to transforming data into insights that drive informed decision-making for clients as they maintain, improve and reimagine transportation in their communities. His 25 years of dedication to innovation earned him HNTB’s associate fellow distinction — an honor given to those on the forefront of delivering industry-leading technical solutions within the firm. Currently, Welch is establishing best practices for transportation agencies to capitalize on the fast-moving digital transformation and utilize data in new ways to reach their goals. Welch offers valuable insights into the use of digital solutions and how they’re shaping the industry now and in the future.

Why is it important for transportation agencies to digitize data?

Leveraging data effectively is crucial for making informed decisions about infrastructure, so investing in digital solutions is one of the most important steps agencies can take.

Across the industry, the process of using and gathering data varies. For example, an agency may maintain extensive data on the condition of bridges, traffic, pavement and environmental factors but may not know how to use this data to maximize decision-making. By securely sharing data with different organizational audiences, implementing governance processes, and applying scoring algorithms, we enable clients to leverage both historical and real-time data in a unified priority scoring system for projects. This system helps decision-makers identify and validate potential projects, evaluate their necessity, and make informed, strategic decisions about capital programming and maintenance investments.

How are agencies using digital tools?

Transportation agencies are embracing digital tools at an accelerating rate, such as dashboards, 3D visualizations and data visualization software to connect directly to their data, allowing for better analysis and decision-making. By working closely with our clients, we’ve demonstrated how these digital tools can enhance their ability to effectively manage and interpret large datasets, resulting in more informed and efficient operations. By merging our planning and engineering SME expertise with digital innovation, we create dynamic partnerships that empower engineers, designers and other stakeholders to collaborate, ensuring that everyone involved in a project can work together more effectively. Digital solutions foster a more data-informed and collaborative approach to infrastructure development — bridging the communication gap and streamlining processes so our clients can best serve their communities.

Digital solutions foster a more data-informed and collaborative approach to infrastructure development — bridging the communication gap and streamlining processes so our clients can best serve their communities.

– Darin Welch
Digital Transformation Solutions Director

What is PIMA, and how does this tool support meaningful community engagement?

Among the cutting-edge technologies that have significantly impacted our projects at HNTB, the Public Involvement Management Application (PIMA) stands out. PIMA is a tool designed to assist agencies in enhancing and streamlining public involvement in infrastructure projects. It provides a systematic, data-driven approach for agencies to gather, manage and analyze community feedback efficiently.

PIMA empowers agencies to incorporate public input into project planning and development, ensuring that community voices are not just heard but play a critical role in decision-making processes. For instance, Iowa, Massachusetts, and Connecticut DOTs all use PIMA to help make more strategically informed decisions to expand infrastructure across the state. The tool collects public feedback on proposed projects, capturing residents’ preferences, safety concerns and desired features. Through its spatial data analysis, PIMA helps identify high-demand areas and highlight safety issues, enabling infrastructure design to align more closely with community needs.

By fostering a more partnership-focused approach, PIMA helps transform community members into active participants in shaping a project rather than passive recipients of information. This helps ensure that the changes are impactful, widely accepted and valued by the communities they serve.

How do you see technology and data evolving over the next decade?

Over the next decade, I envision AI playing an even more crucial role in analyzing data, providing insights and answering questions that we may not even anticipate today. For example, we will see increased virtualization of design and planning teams and wider use of cutting-edge 3D modeling and AI tools, allowing for more immersive project development. Enhanced visualizations and virtual environments will enable deeper data exploration, better decision-making and improved utilization of emerging talent and technology in the industry. For instance, rather than just running an automated analysis on the environmental impact of various design options, AI can be used to test additional variations and tolerances within each option to identify the optimal design. With human oversight, design and planning teams can then refine the final model before submission to the client. Digital transformation is simplifying complex processes, making it easier to advance infrastructure projects that keep cities resilient and responsive to the needs of growing populations.

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