CASE STUDIES
PEACE BRIDGE VISUALIZATION PROJECT
START DATE: 11/1/2001
END DATE: 2/20/2002
COST: $250,000
PROJECT TYPE: Web based Applications, Digital Animation, Urban Simulation, Highways and Bridges
FUNDED BY: Peace Bridge Authority
COLLABORATORS: Parsons Engineering, Bergmann Associates, Niagara College of Canada, IBC Digital, eMedia Inc.
PROBLEM STATEMENT: Peace Bridge is a 75 year old 3 lane bridge that connects Buffalo, NY to Fort Erie Canada. The Peace Bridge Authority is interested in building either a companion span or replacement for the existing bridge. Visualization is needed to gain approval from the public and various local authorities on what the replacement structure will look like, i.e., a Signature Span versus a utilitarian companion span.
OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE: Phase I of the project is complete - the development of a Urban Simulation of the existing bridge and surrounding area. We are waiting on the proposed new bridge designs to place them in the Urban Simulation so that decision makers and the public can view all proposed bridges in the simulation
METHODOLOGY / APPROACH: Started with a team to do both ground and aerial photography, for both placements and textures. Used CAD drawings to create the 3D bridges for the model, as well as other animation software to build the surrounding areas. Afterwards software was used to modify the 3D structures to make them computationally tractable in a real-time environment. Both rendered animations and a real-time application are available.
OUTCOME: Project has shown that urban visualization is an effective and practical way to convey ideas to both the public and private sector. Giving both areas the ability to view what is important to them further demonstrates the flexibility and the usefulness of this type of application. This project has increased desire to include other features (traffic for example) to make this more than just a fly-through database. Adding various features will allow this to become more of a "living" database instead of a static one.
MEASURED BENEFITS:
FURTHER STUDY: Implement the various options for the new designs of the Peace Bridge, allowing the observers to see the impact on urban landscape as well as traffic flow, from a structural as well as from an aesthetic standpoint.
OTHER COMMENTS: For greater detail visit link below.
LINKS
International Peace Bridge Project