HDR and Mott MacDonald Named Finalists for 2024 Going Digital Awards for Driving Project Delivery Efficiencies

Digital Delivery Strategy on Ontario Line Honored in Enterprise Engineering Category

A team of digital delivery leaders and experts from HDR and Mott MacDonald has been named a finalist in the prestigious 2024 Going Digital Awards, presented by Bentley Systems. The team is being honored in the Enterprise Engineering category for its work on Metrolinx’s Ontario Line, a nearly 16-kilometer subway through downtown Toronto. 

The project is one of 36 finalists across 12 categories, selected from hundreds of nominations submitted by organizations in 36 countries. For the Ontario Line, the project team developed and delivered a comprehensive digital delivery strategy to improve information sharing across a multiteam program. The CA$27 billion megaprogram involves 28 separate but interrelated contracts, delivered through multiple contract approaches. With more than 19,000 design deliverables already issued, efficient information sharing, particularly across contract interfaces, is crucial to staying on schedule. 

The common data environment that was established allowed organizations to efficiently access the right information at the right time, improving early engagement and communication among the thousands of individuals working on the program. Custom dashboards helped senior leadership track user access and project progress. And by integrating digital models, construction logic and scheduling, the project team produced weekly updated 4D models that were available to the entire project team. This allowed members to independently review and analyze the construction logic at their convenience, resulting in optimization of construction sequencing in the office rather than in the field, helping reduce the impact to the community. 

“Programs like this are fundamentally changing how clients use their digital tools,” said Cameron Schaefer, HDR’s transportation digital delivery and data acquisition director. “We’re helping introduce custom scripts, connected dashboards and automation to enable exciting new capabilities as agencies continue their digital transformations.”

“This project has demonstrated the value of a digital approach. Consistent data creation and sharing drives collaboration,” said Michael Gaunt, Mott MacDonald’s North American digital implementation lead. “Establishing foundational data management principles early on provides the right information to the right people during delivery and creates opportunities to scale the value of this data through future approaches like digital twins.”

Project leaders will present to judges in October and the final award winners will be revealed on Oct. 9 during the Going Digital Awards event.