"Our goal is to promote the flow of information throughout the life cycle of transport infrastructure assets - from planning to construction, maintenance and asset management. bSDD supports this goal by providing a standardised, machine-readable database that enables efficient and uniform distribution of information related to transport infrastructure sites to all service providers," explains Marion Schenkwein, an Infrastructure Modelling Expert at the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency.
bSDD benefits both in the design and construction phases
bSDD responds to a number of infrastructure information management needs, enabling the production of high-quality information both internally at the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency and in the processes of partners and service providers. The aim is to compile the technical specifications of structures related to all channel forms, such as data types related to materials, condition, properties and maintenance in a single database. This will facilitate the production, utilisation and monitoring of information.
"bSDD, will help us ensure that data production is easy and that the data produced is of high quality, consistent and compliant," Schenkwein emphasises.
The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency's data library benefits in particular service providers, such as designers, contractors and maintenance providers:
"To date, it has been necessary to e.g. manually compile the characteristics of traffic signs in tables at the planning stage. In the future, compiling and using different specifications data will be easier in both rail traffic and the road traffic. Differing specification data, given to such things as traffic signs or safety devices, will be easier to attribute to the intended object and available for further use. This reduces the chances of human error," says Schenkwein.
The open database will be tested during the current year in various projects
During the current year, the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency will test the functionality of the data library in projects such as the following: The Vt4 project for the development of the Äänekoski–Viitasaari road section, the Mynämäki–Vehmaa rail plan project and the construction of the Kitee marshalling track.
"The aim of the tests is to collect experiences from several different perspectives: we want to hear how searching for and supplementing information using bSDD works in practice, for example from a designer's perspective. We are also interested in observations on the capabilities and development targets of the software used. In addition, we will examine the potential needs for changes to the current operating methods arising from the introduction of the data library. Feedback and observations from the testing will enable us to plan the implementation as well as possible," says Schenkwein.