Information Exchange in the Design, Construction, Operation and Maintenance of Public Transit infrastructure

Abstract

Rapidly growing populations in major metropolitan centres across the world have resulted in unparalleled public transit ridership volumes. Coupled with lagging transportation infrastructure, this has forced public transit agencies to expand their services at a matching pace. The resulting design and construction projects have revealed inefficiencies that can be minimized through the use of standardised information exchange practices. Given the typically slower adoption of technology in the realm of public infrastructure, transit agencies have struggled to regulate newer information exchange practices. This thesis studies existing literature and specifications, internal workflows of the Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority (Sound Transit) and their prevalent contracting practices related to the exchange of asset data from designers and contractors to Sound Transit operations. Staff interviews and close collaboration with members of the Asset Planning and Programming team at Sound Transit were used to develop a data specification to collect inventory data at early stages of the project and more detailed asset data during and after construction. The benefits of this specification to transit agencies and the field of knowledge are also covered. The research resulted in a data specification that would improve various aspects of Sound Transit’s Operations, Maintenance and Asset Management workflows such as condition assessment, lifecycle planning, design review, EAMS system implementation and early inventory documentation from design and construction.