The Transportation Department has partnered with Autodesk to offer Smart City Challenge finalists access to a building information modeling platform in an effort to help participating cities develop urban innovation plans, CityLab reported Monday.
Eric Jaffe writes DOT has received ideas from more than 78 U.S. cities on how to address mobility and safety problems through technology and will announce five finalists at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin on Saturday.
Selected cities will have access to Autodesk’s Infraworks 360 BIM software designed to generate three-dimensional models and real-world data for infrastructure projects, Jaffe reports.
Jim Lynch, vice president of Autodesk’s building products group, told CityLab the platform will work to help city planners create possible transport scenarios for existing urban environments.
DoD said it expects to name the Smart City Challenge’s winner by June.
The winning city can receive as much $40 million in federal funds and another $10 million from investor Paul Allen’s company Vulcan, the department noted.