By ; Nelly All

To accelerate socio-economic growth in East Malaysia, a plan to fully develop and upgrade the Pan Borneo Highway was announced in 2013. Construction began in 2015 and, when fully completed in 2021, the four-lane dual carriageway and toll-free Pan Borneo Highway will be the transportation backbone of the area and play a major role in opening up economic corridors and opportunities for residents and local businesses. 

The Pan Borneo Highway Sarawak is the benchmark for government road projects in Malaysia, providing increased efficiency throughout delivery of the project, and setting the stage for operation and maintenance of the highway in the future. Pan Borneo Highway Sarawak is the first road and highway project in Malaysia to utilize building information modeling (BIM). The BIM information has been integrated with a geographical information system (GIS) to produce highway information modeling (HIM) for the entire 786 kilometers of phase one.

During the phase-one delivery stage, a connected data environment (CDE) was used extensively to manage the design and construction data generated on the project. Project delivery partner Lebuhraya Borneo Utara (LBU) used ProjectWise to manage 3D design information and detect clashes earlier, which helped to avoid unnecessary rework and simplify construction management.

AssetWise enabled the team to link the valuable information being generated with asset tags in order to track and manage change throughout project delivery. For example, upon completion of the 32-kilometer span from Telok Melano to Sematan in January 2019, LBU began integrating construction data from ProjectWise into Bentley’s AssetWise for its ongoing operations and maintenance. The ability to provide seamless integration with a CDE that spans project delivery and operations unlocks the full potential of the organization’s data.

Having facilitated the integration of data from multiple sources, along with tagging assets in line with the Malaysian government highway asset tagging system MYSKATA, the CDE is providing a common view of accurate and reliable information. AssetWise supports the asset management needs of Pan Borneo Highway Sarawak as the single source of truth for asset management information. AssetWise combines a road information system, a bridge management system, and a maintenance management system that is specifically developed and designed to include development of non-conformance reports. It also includes a cyclic work program and customized interim payment certificate for managing work orders, as well as a web-based GIS, a mobile-based field data collection for inventory of assets and their condition, a pavement management system in conjunction with HDM-4, and a real-time dashboard and reporting system. 

In addition to seamlessly integrating design and construction information on the newly built network, LBU is also using ContextCapture to incorporate the reality context for stretches of existing roads on a highway network built over the last 10 to 15 years. Leveraging images captured using unmanned aerial vehicles and drones, LBU has built an accurate record of asset information for the entire 1,060-kilometer Pan Borneo Highway as it works to meet the objectives of the Malaysian government to optimize costs during operation and maintenance.

AssetWise leverages a CDE to facilitate the inter-operation of multiple data sources, providing a common view of data that delivers accurate and reliable information when it is needed for operations, maintenance, and engineering. AssetWise enables LBU to mitigate risks, increase operational efficiency, and ensure regulatory compliance in the highway’s asset management. The improved information flow and seamless integration allows the collection, analysis, and control of relevant asset information.

As a result, senior management can make strategic decisions and policies that can be more efficiently translated into operational programs during the implementation stage. The result is efficient, economic, and effective management of the Pan Borneo Highway network.

Sauani Abdul Hamid, chief executive officer with LBU, said, “AssetWise provides industry-leading tools for network management and asset inventory coupled with unparalleled capabilities in the field of road asset maintenance. AssetWise helps to optimize operations and maintenance through more informed decisions based on the data in its CDE.”