Finalist

Arcadis

AWARD CATEGORY

Structural engineering

Project title

AutoFW: Automating design of flood protection structures  

Location

New York City and Virginia Beach, New York and Virginia, United States

Bentley software used

STAAD, SYNCHRO

Project summary

Arcadis developed AutoFW Designer to improve the structural design of reinforced concrete flood protection structures across multiple U.S. flood-management programs. The team needed to move beyond a manual workflow that took 16 to 24 hours per structure and limited both design iterations and documentation speed under strict code requirements.

Using STAAD.Pro, OpenSTAADPy, and SYNCHRO-supported workflows, Arcadis automated model generation, analysis, structural checks, optimization, and editable reporting in one pipeline. The result was a 99.4% reduction in design time, approximately 400 engineering hours saved, and roughly $70,000 in saved design fees, while also reducing material quantities by 5%.

Image Credit: Arcadis