CivilThought leadership

Above and below ground: Seequent and Bentley’s journey to
transform how infrastructure is built

By Liz Crawshaw

‘When we talk about infrastructure, everything above ground is largely known and well described,’ said Nicholas Cumins, CEO, Bentley Systems. ‘What is uncertain is the world below. It’s designed by nature. We cannot see it. That’s where Seequent comes in.’

The acquisition of Seequent by Bentley Systems in 2021 was a gamechanger, bringing Seequent’s deep subsurface software expertise into the Bentley fold.

As the Bentley Subsurface Company, Seequent has added its two decades of subsurface technology experience to Bentley’s forty years’ experience in infrastructure engineering to connect the built and natural environment in new digital ways. These new ways were not widely envisaged five years ago, as the industry began to ramp its cloud adoption.

‘Ground conditions have a fundamental impact on infrastructure,’ said Graham Grant, CEO, Seequent. ‘Seequent and Bentley together connect the dots above and below ground. It’s about increasing understanding to reduce costs, save time, optimise asset performance and build long-term resilience.’

Seequent CEO Graham Grant.

A lack of certainty about the subsurface is a real and expensive headache for civil infrastructure projects. In the recent CRUXInsight report 2024: Changing the Narrative, unforeseen physical conditions were the second most common cause of claims and overruns on transportation infrastructure projects. Claims on 384 transportation projects tracked in 2024 cost an average of $324 million per project, while time overran by a hefty 70%.

‘The infrastructure sector is working hard to deliver projects at speed to solve some big global challenges,’ said Pat McLarin, Civil Segment Director, Seequent, who has over 25 years of experience in geospatial applications and leads Seequent’s strategy for civil infrastructure. ‘But this is driving designs to be developed much earlier, while ground investigations are still in progress, presenting projects with a new range of challenges. So the need for a tighter level of coordination between disciplines, and high stakes decision making with limited information are more important than ever in the current environment.

‘Taking a digital approach to connect and model data above and below ground reduces risk, and de-risking goes hands in hand with predictability. Having that fuller picture also allows projects to pivot and respond to change.’

Related content:
* How hidden ground risk is sinking the world’s largest projects
* Meet the expert: Civil Segment Director Pat McLarin

Bringing teams and disciplines closer together 

Geotechnical teams are crucial to managing ground risk on projects, and many teams are deploying Seequent’s earth modelling and analysis, data management, and collaboration software to help them understand and manage ground conditions. This includes many of the world’s top civil engineering design firms, such as WSP, AECOM, Arup and Arcadis.

‘Infrastructure engineers at these companies are invariably using Bentley Systems software, so we have this huge opportunity to bring the knowledge and data held by these teams together’, said Pat, ‘and get rid of these siloes.’

By bringing Bentley’s geotechnical products OpenGround, PLAXIS and gINT under the Seequent portfolio, geotechnical engineers have access to a more connected workflow with Seequent’s 3D geological modelling solution Leapfrog Works, the industry’s go-to solution for slope stability, GeoStudio, and Seequent Central for team collaboration. Together these solutions offer a comprehensive enterprise end-to-end software suite for ground engineering. The move also created a single centre for geotechnical expertise under a Seequent umbrella.

Much of the geotechnical software suite is cloud-enabled and connects with some of Bentley’s infrastructure engineering tools to help build the above and below ground picture.

In 2023, Seequent’s Leapfrog Works and PLAXIS connected to Bentley’s OpenTunnel Designer to streamline the tunnelling infrastructure project workflow from geological modelling and geotechnical analysis to design.

And the introduction of OpenGround’s geotechnical extension for Bentley’s civil design applications, including OpenRoads, OpenRail, and OpenBridge in late 2024 is now bringing the richness of subsurface information directly into the design process.

‘We’re already seeing strong interest in the potential of this extension from departments of transportation and their supply chains,’ said Pat.

Discover how Tecne Systra-SWS Advanced Tunnelling is using both Bentley and Seequent products to create an all-in-one
connected workflow.
Source: Tecne Systra-SWS Advanced Tunnelling

Bringing the pieces together

An example of this burgeoning interoperability is a project to rehabilitate Italy’s vast tunnel network. Tecne Systra-SWS Advanced Tunnelling used Bentley’s OpenTunnel Designer and Seequent’s Leapfrog Works and PLAXIS to create an all-in-one connected workflow for modelling, design, and analysis. This has allowed them to assess and design the structural renewal and reinforcement of Italy’s vast network of tunnels built in the 1960s and 1970s.

The team found they could improve and reduce time on the interpretation of the existing state of a tunnel by 30% in comparison to traditional methods.

Discover how the North East Link Central project leverages advanced geological modelling and data integration to optimise design, reduce waste, and enhance construction efficiency.

On the other side of the world, in Australia’s bustling city of Melbourne, global consortium Spark engaged engineering design consultants WSP to provide ground engineering services for the North East Link rail project, a road tunnel that will take an estimated 15,000 trucks off the street and shave 35 minutes off travel times. The team leveraged efficiencies provided by Leapfrog Works,  PLAXIS, gINT, and Bentley’s ProjectWise, along with a number of Bentley’s Open engineering applications.

Their innovations earned Spark and WSP the Subsurface Modelling and Analysis award in the Bentley 2024 Going Digital Awards in Infrastructure.

What does the future hold?

‘Seequent and Bentley will continue to build deeper connections between their software solutions to add further value to infrastructure,’ said Pat. ‘And I’m so excited by that prospect.’

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