It was clear that among the competitors for Bentley Systems’ Year in Infrastructure conference and awards in Singapore early this month, integration of AI had landed and taken root.
Companies that appealed to the juries for this celebration of digital design in major infrastructure projects around the globe needed to demonstrate measurable results in planning, design and engineering, and operations and maintenance. But also projects that showed innovation and unconventional thinking, efficiency, a return on investment, and showcased sustainability and resilience. All areas that AI can assist with.
Bentley said hundreds of projects were nominated from around the world, with winners chosen “not simply for what they build, but for how they apply technology to solve complex challenges, create measurable impact, and drive movement to digital engineering”.
Chief executive Nicholas Cumins said in his keynote address, “Twenty-two years ago, at the first BE Awards, we celebrated the pioneers who used computational design to deliver the landmarks of the 21st century.
“Tonight, at the Year in Infrastructure Awards, we celebrate you: the pioneers who are using software and AI to advance the delivery and performance of infrastructure around the world.”
“Back then, just as today, Bentley was focused on encouraging exploration, accelerating adoption, and inspiring the industry with the art of the possible.”
Cumins paid homage to the company’s standout winner in 2004 – 30 Saint Mary Axe, in London, a building that the world came to know as The Gherkin, designed by Foster + Partners.
“And here we stand today, 22 years later. AI is our generation’s technological paradigm shift. It is already starting to transform infrastructure engineering – and its potential is so much greater.
“Once again, we are using the Year in Infrastructure Awards to show the art of the possible and inspire the world. And you delivered. In this year’s submissions, close to 70 per cent of our finalists, and more than 25 per cent of all submissions, used AI in their project.
“We are not turning the Year in Infrastructure Awards into the ‘AI in Infrastructure Awards.’
“We are, and will always remain, committed to celebrating all innovative use of software, whether powered by AI or not.”
Notable winners
Cumins pointed to Ayesa Engineering, winner in the bridges and tunnel category, as a good example of that technological progress.
Ayesa, which acquired Australian engineering firm ADP Consulting in February last year, presented its Porto Metro 3.0, part of a major metro rail expansion designed to improve mobility across Porto, Portugal, involving about 5.3 kilometres of conventional tunnels and 12 emergency exit shafts.
The firm had to work through highly variable ground conditions while capturing data from 200 boreholes, 25 DPSH (dynamic probe super heavy) tests, and 1200 metres of geophysical surveys, reducing manual processing and lowering error risk.
“Usually, geotechnical modelling is so intensive that teams can only evaluate a handful of scenarios. They find one viable design that satisfies safety standards, and they stop.” Cumins said.
“AYESA fundamentally changed that workflow. They deployed AI agents to evaluate massive simulation outputs from PLAXIS (Bentley software) – deformations, stresses, and structural forces – against strict design criteria.
“Instead of running a handful of simulations, AYESA ran more than 100. The immediate efficiency gains were clear: a 30 per cent reduction in design cost.
The firm ultimately saved 4500 cubic metres of concrete and reduced carbon emissions by 1.5 million kilograms.
Cumins also paid homage to Powerchina (Power Construction Corporation of China), which was awarded the Founders Honour in design optimisation for its Putian Pinghai Bay offshore wind farm project featuring a 400 megawatt offshore wind farm in Fujian, China.
The large energy development involved building 28 jacket foundations (a fixed, three or four legged tubular steel lattice structure used to support offshore wind turbines and marine platforms in deeper waters) that had to sustain extreme 18 metre waves and typhoon conditions.
“Usually optimising just a handful of these foundations would take a dedicated engineering team weeks of tedious calculations,” Cumins said.
“POWERCHINA used AI to develop their own automated optimisation platform with SACS as their engineering solver, making optimisation cycles 10 times faster.
“And because the platform could explore countless iterations at machine speed, they reduced steel material costs by 3 to 5 per cent.”
And for jacket foundations, 3 to 5 per cent is equivalent to saving 1900 tonnes of high-grade steel, he added.
Remaining 2026 winners
Category winners
Cities and facilities – Pinnacle Future Build Pvt. Ltd for Pinnacle Madurai Campus: a digital twin for smart operations in India
Construction– Wills Bros for Dublin Port Berths 52 and 53: improving marine construction with 4D planning in Ireland
Energy production – South-to-North Water Diversion (Chongqing) New Energy Development Co., Ltd. and POWERCHINA Zhongnan Engineering Corporation Limited for Chongqing Yunyang Jianquan pumped storage: innovation in a digital power station in China
Geospatial and reality modelling – Aboitiz Renewables Inc for GeoShield: predicting landslide risk with geospatial intelligence in the Philippines
Project delivery – Port Polska for connecting information across a major infrastructure program in Poland
Rail and transit – SUDOP PRAHA a.s. for Central Bohemia high-speed rail: connecting design and project knowledge in the Czech Republic
Roads and highways – Torrens to Darlington Alliance (John Holland, Bouygues, Arcadis, Jacobs, Ventia) in partnership with the South Australian Government, Department for Infrastructure and Transport for Torrens to Darlington (T2D): digital delivery for South Australia’s north-south corridor in Adelaide
Structural engineering – PT Wijaya Karya Bangunan Gedung Tbk (WIKA Gedung) for Jakarta International Stadium: engineering the largest retractable roof in Indonesia
Subsurface modelling and analysis – Intertechne Consultores S.A. for Tailings Dam: innovative use of geological and geotechnical models and assessment in Brazil
Transmission and distribution – APD Global, Clean Energy Link – North: accelerating the renewable transition through AI?enabled digital delivery in Western Australia
Water and wastewater– Evides N.V. for water distribution: Operational digital twins for a 14,000 kilometer water network in the Netherlands
Founders’ Honors
Asset intelligence – Empresas Públicas de Medellín for EPM water secondary distribution system digital twin in Colombia
Connected data – WSP Global Inc. for iTwin AI project lifecycle intelligence platform in India
Constructioneering – PT Hutama Karya (Persero) for the parliamentary complex of Nusantara in Indonesia
Digital twin at scale – Almondz Global Infra-Consultant Limited for NAKSHA in India
Digital champion – Consultores de Engenharia e Ambiente – COBA for Santos Station – Extension of Lisbon Metro yellow and green lines
Digital infrastructure – Ampirical for powering the Western Hemisphere’s largest data centre
Education – excellence in hands-on teaching using AI – Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas ESPE for intelligent leak management with autoencoders in Ecuador
Education – excellence in teaching system of systems thinking – University of Glasgow – Smart Systems Group for Glasgow City Region: co-creation of transport and multi-energy futures in the UK
Resilience and sustainability – Powering tomorrow’s mobility – TTC for Electromobility in the southern region, Brazil
Resilience and sustainability – Resilient cities – Communaute d’Agglomeration Pau Bearn Pyrenees – CAPBP for urban data intelligence: A CDE to climate-resilient infrastructure, France
Resilience and sustainability – Restoring our environment – Norconsult Norge AS for Mongstad Refinery – contaminated groundwater risk and mitigation review – Norway
Resilience and sustainability – Securing our water future – Maynilad Water Services, Inc for scaling leak detection at Maynilad from DMA to system-wide analysis – Philippines
The Fifth Estate travelled to Singapore and attended the conference as a guest of Bentley Systems.
