PlanGrid fuels heavy civil global infrastructure growth

San Francisco — PlanGrid, a provider of construction productivity software, announced it has experienced almost 200 percent growth in year-over-year annual recurring revenue specifically from customers in the heavy civil segment. More than 300 construction firms that develop civil infrastructure such as roads, bridges, tunnels, and airports now rely on PlanGrid to collaborate across large teams that are often spread out over long distances with no mobile or internet connectivity.

On average, large infrastructure projects cost 80 percent more than budgeted and run 20 months late, according to IHS Markit, and PlanGrid said it is proven to empower general contractors and subs to deliver on time and on budget.

In the past six months alone, PlanGrid has demonstrated immediate time-to-value with infrastructure projects including:

• New Jersey Turnpike widening, in New Jersey
• Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) ground transportation updates, in California
• I-64/I-264 Interchange improvements, in Virginia
• Loch Raven Dam Facilities improvements, in Maryland
• Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transport (HART) guideway and stations, in Hawaii
• Chicago Transit Authority 95th/Dan Ryan Station & Terminal Improvements, in Illinois
• I-4 Ultimate Improvement project, in Florida
• I-405 widening project, in California

These new projects add to PlanGrid’s existing partnerships with general contractors undertaking shoring up infrastructure projects such as the Zoo Interchange in Milwaukee; Sound Transit’s East Link Light Rail Extension Project in the Seattle area; Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Transbay Tube Seismic Retrofit in San Francisco; I-225 Light Rail Line in Denver; 3rd Street Viaduct Bridge Rehab in Missouri; and Transco Natural Gas Pipeline in Pennsylvania, among many others. PlanGrid is used on heavy civil projects in every major metro in the United States, as well as in heavy civil projects outside of the U.S.

Addressing challenges

While the entire construction industry struggles with a skilled labor shortage and inefficiencies from paper-based processes, teams working on civil infrastructure face challenges unique to large-scale projects that are typically underground, outside or under water. Jobs are often spread out over long distances, with hundreds of team members who need to stay in constant contact. The jobsite trailer can be several miles away and there is typically little or no mobile connectivity; frequent and necessary trips to the trailer can take up several hours of a work day, reducing the team’s ability to communicate quickly and work effectively. Once work is completed, it is often buried or covered by concrete, and documentation for future reference by owners is a challenge.

Government agencies often require meticulous record-keeping and unlike commercial owners, always award jobs to general contractors with the lowest bids, increasing pressure to keep margins low. With an uptick in public-private partnership (P3) projects, construction teams also need to be able to use a centralized information hub to collaborate with government owners, JV partners, and subs without disrupting business systems that may already be in use by each party.

PlanGrid addresses these many challenges by acting as a mobile-first central hub for real-time information on projects, increasing communication between all team members — whether they’re online or offline.

For example, field reports, as-builts and plan mark-ups can be documented and shared with the whole team as work is done, instantly eliminating trips to the trailer so workers can spend time where it matters most. GPS-tagged photos can be attached on plans to a specific location, providing a view of actual field conditions during the design phase, tracking problems and progress during build, and also documenting work that’s been completed and then buried.

Delivering a complete turnover package to owners and government agencies is easy with a comprehensive data set of all field work completed, and large-scale close-outs that previously took as long as six months can be reduced to as short as 30 days.

“Each infrastructure project we work on requires seamless coordination between every team member,” said Nick Everson, Regional Operations Manager for The Walsh Group. “For our work on the Milwaukee Zoo Interchange, PlanGrid allowed us to update more than 11,000 blueprints in real-time, and our field team was always in sync. This level of complex coordination is another advantage that can helps us prepare the lowest bid on future work.”

“By 2030, more than $57 trillion must be invested in global infrastructure to keep up with GDP growth and improve the world’s roads, railways and ports,” said Tracy Young, CEO of PlanGrid. “Governments and civil owners are looking to leverage technology to strengthen infrastructure faster and more cost effectively, and ultimately, save taxpayers money. For owners, joint venture partners and subs working together on massive projects, PlanGrid is the single source of truth allowing everyone to work off one master set and keep up with ever-changing construction documents, without disrupting any existing business systems.”