Improve Public Perspective with Infrastructure Visualizations

Infrastructure Visualizations Can Be the Positive Publicity Your Project Needs

CivilFX is currently working on graphics, visuals, virtual reality and infrastructure visualizations for Project Neon in Las Vegas, Nevada.

How can infrastructure visualizations help your project?  From an engineer or project manager’s perspective, the realization of a project can be an exciting experience.  Watching a project come to life is often the culmination of years of effort.  The payoff for those involved is usually a great experience.

Roadblocks Project Managers Face

From the public’s perspective, infrastructure projects are often a frustrating and negative experience.  They aren’t caught up in the vision and years of work towards a goal.  Rather, they are caught up in construction and traffic control.  Their first and most insistent exposure to the project is stopped in traffic from their car on a crawling commute home.

Additionally, the public is often reminded of the connection between their tax rate and public works projects.  Not only are the projects a frequent frustration from the traffic disturbance, but also often an reminder of the taxes they pay to the government.  And we haven’t even addressed eminent domain property takes and changes to business access.

Large projects are often assigned a ‘public outreach’ or ‘public information’ (PI) team.  They work diligently to mitigate and communicate the negative aspects of the project.  They also highlight the benefits, vision and larger purpose of the project.  3D Visualization is becoming a bigger part of their job to communicate this vision, but the benefits of an infrastructure visualization turn out to be even more beneficial.

Good visualization can be a news story in itself.  Take our ‘virtual center’ on Project Neon in Las Vegas for example. The local public sees the project as three years of construction and bad commutes.  However, at every public event the PI team has held, our visualization booth has been the star of the show.  Sure, they could get more information about delays to their commute at the MOT (Maintenance of Traffic) booth, or they could learn about the project budget and schedule from the project manager booth.  But our animation renders, interactive model and virtual helicopter tours are always the most popular offering of these public events.

The visualization has become an overpowering positive story that has completely changed the role the PI team is playing.

Sure, not every project is 1+ billion dollars and has the budget for a dedicated PI team and the level of visualization we are providing for Project Neon. Still, 3D renders or animations are affordable enough for any project budget and can be printed out or be playing at any public meeting. These will catch the attention of any individual seeking more information about the project and can additionally be added to the project website or utilized with social media.

So in a world where public projects are often viewed negatively by much of the project, a visualization showing the infrastructure can be just what the project needs to set your project apart as a benefit to any community.

Learn more about how Civil FX can create an infrastructure visualization, virtual reality visual or other service for your project here.  Also, please feel free to reach out to me directly by emailing sam@civilfx.com for more information.