Photo By Kelsie Hall | Members of the Louisville District Project Design Team use virtual reality technology...... read more read more
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Louisville District and the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center are collaborating to innovate the early stages of design development for new military construction projects, specifically the design for the FY26 Ft. Campbell unaccompanied enlisted personnel housing barracks.
“The FY26 Ft. Campbell UEPH barracks is the largest project in Louisville District Military Construction history to be designed by our in-house vertical design team, which places even more emphasis on utilizing all tools and resources available to us to achieve the quality the Louisville District is known for,” architectural section chief, Maggie Thacher said. “The Louisville District Design Branch is proud to support the Army’s initiatives to increase the quality of life for our nation’s soldiers.”
The FY26 UEPH barracks is designed to house 312 soldiers and is one of three new barracks currently in design at Ft. Campbell for fiscal years 2026 to 2028 by the district’s in-house design team.
“The goal is to ingest the work into digital twin applications as a method to accelerate and enhance design, design reviews and reduce manpower issues,” Brandon Meinert, ERDC Information Technology Laboratory research engineer, said. “The current study, ongoing through March 2025, will leverage design deliverables for the in-house design of the FY26 Ft. Campbell UEPH Barracks project being produced following USACE Advanced Modeling Requirements. The evaluation will conclude with the final documentation outlining best practices and recommendations for each design milestone.”
The Louisville District Project Design Team has identified two main goals for this research collaboration.
The first goal is to incorporate the use of Navisworks, a 3D design review software, to leverage clash detection, a specialized process within building information modeling that detects incompatible overlap of different building elements. The team received Navisworks training earlier this year, which will be utilized to run more efficient and informative reports for robust collaboration between CAD/BIM technicians and the overall design team.
The second goal is to integrate virtual reality headsets, alongside traditional review methods, to enhance the design process and provide benefits post construction. The team intends to use a VR headset for team collaboration meetings as a first line of clash detection and for modeling issues concurrent with the design quality control review period. The team hopes that VR technology will provide long-term benefits by equipping installation personnel performing maintenance on the building post construction with detailed information of all building areas, especially data related to the mechanical and electrical equipment rooms.
“The team is entering Interim Design and is hopeful that the brainstorming sessions, training, and coordination of best practices will enhance the overall mission to provide quality projects, on time, and within budget,” Thacher said. “The collaboration will place Louisville District at the forefront of this approach which embraces new technologies and explores the benefits of BIM and VR.”
| Date Taken: | 12.19.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 01.02.2025 10:36 |
| Story ID: | 488610 |
| Location: | LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, US |
| Web Views: | 85 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Innovation for the future: Louisville District engineering design section embraces collaboration and new technologies, by Kelsie Hall, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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