MORTENSON

Saving money on construction projects with a VR walkthrough

Catching errors early can save the construction industry billions of dollars. When Mortenson shared a digital twin of a new data centre with clients, they were able to resolve over 600 issues before they became a serious problem.

Mortenson has built their reputation as a top-20 builder and developer across sports facilities, renewable energy and healthcare projects. Building Design + Construction magazine ranks the firm as the sixth largest data centre builder in the US, having completed over 375 facilities.

The Minneapolis-headquartered team takes pride in their "solution provider" approach, something that wouldn't be possible without regular and thorough design reviews. By using VR alongside other processes in the early stages of projects, Mortenson continually saves time and money for their clients.

Challenges with traditional 3D modelling in construction

Traditional building information modelling (BIM) uses 3D models to present construction projects on two-dimensional screens. It allows people involved in the planning, design and construction stages to collaborate in one digital model to identify and fix problems before breaking ground onsite, ordering materials or installing work in place.

BIM can incorporate aspects of a building's infrastructure, including the electrical systems, mechanical pipework and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) – all critical functions for complex buildings such as data centres.

While useful, Mortenson has found that presenting 3D objects with non-immersive tools has its limitations. These include:

Skill barrier – traditional BIM projects can be hard to follow. Stakeholders in the project who don't understand complex software and design models may not be able to make sense of what they see. Users may require training and advanced laptops or other devices to use the tools, which can be time-consuming to learn and expensive.
Limited access – access to traditional BIM tools may be limited to members of the team in virtual design and construction (VDC) roles. Web-based viewers are a useful work-around but it's possible that some stakeholders may only get access to models when VDC professionals can share their screen. If 20 people are looking at a single model being driven by the VDC expert, it makes gathering feedback from them more difficult than it needs to be.
Critical issues missed – traditional BIM tools automatically flag design clashes but might not capture all issues. Teams using 2D representations of 3D models might miss safety and accessibility issues not directly represented in how the model is developed.

The result is customers, regulators and even site managers don't always know what they're getting until a project is built. Even with VDC expertise, the final build can feel a lot different to on-screen models. True, BIM automatically detects clashes, but the pitfalls of a building project are often far more complex than overlapping pipes or walls.

What does this mean for projects? The combination of limited accessibility, missed issues, potential for confusion and gaps in knowledge, means there is a higher risk for mistakes to be made.

The later in the process an issue is identified, the more challenging and costly it is to fix. If caught during the initial design phase, it's much easier and more cost effective to amend. If caught after the structure is built or, even worse, after all the equipment is installed, it can be a major change order with added costs of materials and labour, not to mention project delays.

Only with truly accessible VR models in addition to the typical design documentation can more stakeholders share their perspectives and uncover potential issues that might otherwise go undetected. This helps ensure that the build is done right the first time.

Brian Nahas,
Director of Virtual,
Design and Construction,
Mortenson

“

The scalability of VR technology amidst the pandemic drove a unique way of collaboration, which will continue to influence our ways of working into the future.

Why Mortenson started using VR

Mortenson's journey started over ten years ago. They saw the value of immersive technologies in being able to truly experience what a building looks and feels like before a single brick is laid. VR allows them to:

Build a digital twin of the building that enables teams to inspect or walk through it to spot issues. And with powerful hardware and software, construction professionals have the freedom to review and experience the design at scale from the start.
Invite stakeholders in many disciplines to review a building and leave comments on the spot and in context. Giving everyone the platform to provide feedback at an earlier stage, regardless of experience with 3D tools.
Reduce geographical limitations. People across the globe can collaborate seamlessly on the same model and where possible, in real time.

Advancements in technology mean that VR headsets have become increasingly affordable and easy to use while saving the end user's time. Today, VR is a cornerstone of Mortenson's processes across a wide range of design stages and projects.

"The last three years have challenged our industry in new ways of digital communication, interaction and remote-based workflows. The scalability of VR technology amidst the pandemic drove a unique way of collaboration, which will continue to influence our ways of working into the future" – Brian Nahas, Director of Virtual Design and Construction, Mortenson

Ryan Zoldan,
Integrated Construction Manager,
Mortenson

“

Having 50 people reviewing a project in VR is pretty incredible… Meta Quest 2 and Resolve allow us to collaborate at a whole new scale

Mortenson and Quest

Mortenson understands that successful builds require immersive models. That's why they currently own 35 Meta Quest 2s, 10 Meta Quest Pros and various Oculus devices. When it came to choosing the right tools for reviewing designs, they opted for Meta devices for four key reasons:

Safety – Setting up an immersive working area without compromising spatial awareness is key. The Quest 2 and Quest Pro's capability to set boundaries and overlay 3D models over users' real-world view has been especially useful for Mortenson as they use more 1:1 scale models.
Networked headsets – Bringing team members together in a virtual environment has been an important motivator, especially among hybrid teams. It's possible to bring up to 50 people together in VR, so contributors can join from home or wherever they're based in real time.
Ease of use – Meta headsets work out of the box without the need to connect with powerful computers. Pick-up and go capabilities have not only made it easy for team members to use the devices but have also made establishing organisation-wide processes for the use of VR a simpler task.

Chris Zech,
Project Executive,
Mortenson

“

The level of engagement from our project stakeholders would not have been possible with traditional desktop computers and monitors, specialised team members or the ITS infrastructure to support

Mortenson and Resolve

Construction projects use Quest headsets with the Resolve app to handle the largest and most complex BIM files, bringing stakeholders who usually take a backseat to the front and centre of the review process.

With just a few minutes of training, Mortenson team members with no prior experience of VR become self-sufficient with Resolve. Once models are linked from the project's document management platform to the powerful app, new versions sync seamlessly to reflect the latest tweaks and amends. Furthermore, Resolve can host a wide variety of models for VR review and it isn't limited to a single federated model.

Taylor Gilmore,
Operating Group Integrated Construction Director,
Mortenson

“

Resolve is the only application that can handle the large federated models of our data centre projects on both the Quest 2 and Quest Pro...

"Resolve is the only application that can handle the large federated models of our data centre projects on both the Quest 2 and Quest Pro. Other solutions on the market require us to tether to a computer, drastically reduce the size of our models or section the files into smaller areas for them to function with stability. With Resolve, our massive files work immediately without any added work, which is important for the scale of implementation that we need to achieve." — Taylor Gilmore, Operating Group Integrated Construction Director, Mortenson

For Mortenson, it's not just seamless integration from document management platform to headsets, Resolve also powers a smoother review process. From easy-to-learn controls to VR comments, and Meta avatars to Resolve collaboration tools, the app allows stakeholders to review, document and comment on designs simultaneously and has dramatically reduced the time spent discussing issues outside of review sessions.

For those issues that demand extra attention, Mortenson syncs Resolve with issue tracking software that allows project teams to prioritise and find solutions in an efficient way.

Why Resolve?

The Mortenson team turned to Resolve to make BIM accessible for everyone. Here are five reasons why they use the comprehensive virtual collaboration app:

Ability to handle large, data rich 3D models
Easy model sharing with non-technical teams
Powerful measuring and inspecting capabilities
Speech-to-text issue logging
Seamless integration into sign-off process
Multi-user collaboration in the model concurrently

Dekalb data centre - key results

One of Mortenson's greatest VR success stories came during their work on a hyperscale data centre in Dekalb, Illinois.

50 reviewers equipped with Quest headsets spanning four states and 10 companies walked through 3D models of the data centre. Quest headsets and their out-of-the-box capabilities encouraged stakeholders to engage in the review process and raise more than 600 issues. This new way of reviewing gives everyone more confidence in the final build.

"I've been on projects where we've had traditional virtual reality, which takes a lot longer to prepare and to get ready. And maybe only five people use it, and it's usually just the VDC people on the project site. So using Resolve on the Quest was a pretty eye-opening experience of what we can use VR for in our coordination process." – Ryan Zoldan, Integrated Construction Manager, Mortenson

Ryan Zoldan,
Integrated Construction Manager,
Mortenson

“

Using Resolve on the Quest was a pretty eye-opening experience of what we can use VR for in our coordination process.

Some of the issues flagged by reviewers included:

Restricted access to end feed boxes – While virtually simulating a maintenance procedure, the team discovered that end feed boxes were blocked by light fixtures. Fixing the problem before it made it to the field saved an estimated USD 26,500.
Short electrical conduits Raceways into the IDF (individual distribution frame) could be more accessible if they routed down and finished closer to cable trays. By catching the issue early, the end user was able to pull wires without obstructions and save approximately USD 12,000.

These issues were captured in just a few minutes in VR and demonstrate the efficiency of VR reviews over traditional methods. Other issues included security camera boxes mounted directly to the bottom of cable trays when they required their own Unistrut support; flow meters with access impeded by drain pipes; a card reader and light switch conflicting with a lighting control panel (LCP) and inadequate lighting.

Why Meta Quest?

Mortenson knows that when it comes to reviewing complex data centre models, not just any VR headset will do. Here are some of the reasons they chose Quest:

Boundary setting for added safety
Hand tracking for simple interaction
Networked headsets for collaboration
Easy out-of-the-box use