08 October 2009

EXTON, Pa. -  Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the leading company dedicated to providing comprehensive software solutions for the infrastructure that sustains our world, will announce the winners of its 2009 Be Inspired Awards next week during its Be Inspired: Infrastructure Best Practices Symposium and Awards in Charlotte, N.C. The awards honor outstanding achievements in infrastructure and are judged by an independent panel of industry experts.

Today, Bentley announced the winners of a new set of awards called Be Inspired Special Recognition Awards. The winners of these awards are uniquely innovative and visionary infrastructure projects and organizations that were placed into nomination by the Be Inspired jurors for achievements embracing multiple Be Inspired Awards categories. The nominees were then reviewed by a panel consisting of Bentley Systems CEO Greg Bentley, CTO and founder Keith Bentley, COO Malcolm Walter, SVP Bhupinder Singh, SVP Buddy Cleveland, and Jay McGraw, Group Publisher, McGraw-Hill Construction. The achievements being recognized include: Attaining Return on Innovation, Sustaining Our Society, Sustaining Our Environment, and Sustaining the Professions.

Greg Bentley said, "In reviewing this year's Be Inspired Awards, the jurors recognized that select nominations had distinguished themselves across a number of Be Inspired categories and, therefore, deserved to be placed in a special awards category. This new category acknowledges innovations in employing technology and implementing practices that best exemplify Bentley's mission of Sustaining Infrastructure. On behalf of all my colleagues at Bentley, I offer my hearty congratulations to these winners for their distinctive accomplishments in improving the quality of life for us all."

The winners of the 2009 Be Inspired Special Recognition Awards are as follows:

  • Attaining Return on Innovation - KBR/EOS Oil & Gas Services Joint Venture, the North Rankin Redevelopment Project. This project best represents innovation in the use of technology and creative workflows to create value and deliver better-performing infrastructure with quantifiable results. Its goal is the recovery of low-pressure gas from the North Rankin and Perseus fields off Karratha, Western Australia. The project scope includes the design and construction of a second platform with gas compression facilities, low-pressure separators, utilities, and accommodations. The project team's use of Bentley's ProjectWise Lifecycle Server provided all stakeholders with access to real-time information via a portal dashboard, allowing enhanced decision-making and transparency between client and contractor. For additional information, visit www.bentley.com/Return-on-Innovation.

  • Sustaining Our Society - Hatch Associates Pty Ltd, Adelaide Desalination Project. This project best demonstrates the power of infrastructure to benefit society by improving quality of life, promoting economic development, and increasing resilience against natural disasters or climate change. Its primary objective is the design and development of a 100-gigaliter-capacity desalination plant urgently commissioned by South Australia Water following a long drought. The new plant will help the region supplement its fresh water supply, relieve the current burden on the existing rain-water catchment system, and allow water levels to regenerate. The project team employed Bentley's advanced 3D modeling applications to achieve an optimal and highly accurate plant layout and material take-off, as well as to visualize the plant's impact on the environment and local communities. For additional information, visit www.bentley.com/Sustaining-Our-Society.

  • Sustaining Our Environment - Olsson Associates, Antelope Valley. This project best illustrates how an infrastructure project can help reduce ecological footprint, increase biocapacity, and facilitate the wise use of nonrenewable resources. The City of Lincoln, Nebraska, the University of Nebraska, and the Lower Platte South Natural Resources District had identified three goals for Antelope Valley: community revitalization, storm water management, and transportation improvements. The project has created new and improved housing, parks, and recreation facilities; storm sewer improvements; and a roadway system designed for 2025 traffic volumes. In addition, by removing 50 acres of the university campus from the 100-year flood plain, a flood event will be contained to the banks of the new channel. Moreover, various low-impact development concepts were used throughout the project. The innovative use of Bentley's interoperable software resulted in enhanced data sharing and increased workflow efficiencies among design teams, clients, and other stakeholders. For additional information, visit www.bentley.com/Sustaining-Our-Environment.

  • Sustaining the Professions - Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB). This organization has demonstrated an exemplary commitment to sustaining the infrastructure professions through continuous learning, professional development, mentoring the next generation of infrastructure professionals, and providing an exceptional environment for learning. Its Professional Growth Network - an industry first - allows the firm's emerging professionals to directly shape the future of PB by enabling direct communication among peers and senior management. To date, it has yielded recommendations for PB's corporate strategy as well as improvements to the mentoring and new employee programs. PB also maximizes the value it creates from its Bentley training subscription by earning 50 percent of its Bentley Institute learning units online and using a virtual classroom for more than 80 percent of its live training. For additional information, visit www.bentley.com/Sustaining-the-Professions.

About Be Inspired: Infrastructure Best Practices Symposium and Awards

The Be Inspired: Infrastructure Best Practices Symposium and Awards, taking place Oct. 12-14 in Charlotte, N.C., is Bentley's premier thought leadership and networking event for 2009. During this invitation-only symposium, the finalists of the 2009 Be Inspired Awards will present the best practices behind the successful realization of their projects. In addition, all of the leading practitioners who have gathered for this event will have an opportunity to participate in interactive roundtable discussions on the key issues driving the business and design of infrastructure. For additional information about the Be Inspired: Infrastructure Best Practices Symposium and Awards, visit www.bentley.com/BeInspired.

About Bentley Systems, Incorporated

Bentley is the global leader dedicated to providing architects, engineers, constructors, and owner-operators with comprehensive software solutions for sustaining infrastructure. Founded in 1984, Bentley has more than 2,700 colleagues and offices in more than 45 countries, had 2008 revenues surpassing $500 million, and, since 1995, has invested more than $1 billion in research, development, and acquisitions.

For additional information about Bentley, visit http://www.bentley.com/. To subscribe to an RSS feed of Bentley press releases, visit www.bentley.com/rss/news. To view a searchable collection of the year's top infrastructure projects from the annual Be Awards of Excellence (which this year becomes the Be Inspired Awards), visit www.bentley.com/yearininfrastructure. For information about Be Communities, a professional networking site that enables members of the infrastructure community to connect, communicate, and learn from each other, visit http://communities.bentley.com/.