Case Study: New York State Department of Transportation achieves industrialized delivery and 15% lower contractor bids for the East 138th Street Bridge with Bentley digital twin solutions

NYSDOT Industrializes East 138th Street Bridge Using Digital Twin

The New York State Department of Transportation faced the challenge of replacing the aging East 138th Street Bridge in the Bronx while keeping a critical interchange fully functional amid high traffic volumes, dense underground utilities, tight urban constraints, and pandemic pressures. To avoid lengthy paper plans and improve stakeholder coordination, NYSDOT turned to Bentley, using applications such as OpenBridge Modeler, MicroStation, and iTwin Design Review to develop a digital twin as the primary contract and public outreach document.

Bentley’s integrated modeling and iTwin technology enabled NYSDOT to create a detailed 3D/4D digital twin, support review by more than 180 reviewers across 15 agencies, and visualize construction sequencing with SYNCHRO and LumenRT. The digital contract model helped identify and resolve costly issues before construction, improved prefabrication and installation planning, and produced a winning contractor bid 15% below the engineer’s estimate; the model will continue to serve for asset management and inspections.

New York State Department of Transportation

Zachary Maybury

Design Squad Manager, Highway Design