Digital Twin of Limberlost Place

Challenge Large-scale construction projects like Limberlost Place face constant pressure to maintain schedule, control costs, and ensure quality—all while coordinating multiple trades and stakeholders. Traditionally, progress tracking and issue detection relied on manual inspections, static reports, and limited visual tools. These methods are time-consuming, prone to human error, and often identify problems too late to avoid costly rework or delays. For example, during the Limberlost project, a north concrete wall in the basement level was found to be uneven only after installation was underway. This caused a two-week delay and additional costs for corrective work—an issue that could have been identified months earlier with more advanced monitoring tools. Overcoming the Problem The project team—PCL Construction, George Brown College, and Get-Tech Innovative Solutions—overcame these limitations by piloting an integrated Digital Twin approach in Flair3D. By combining laser scanning, coordinated BIM models, project schedules, and IoT sensor data, the team created a real-time, interactive 3D platform for progress monitoring, quality verification, and faster, more accurate schedule updates. Weekly scans were aligned with the BIM model to detect discrepancies early, while IoT sensors tracked conditions like moisture and leaks in real time. Automated integration with the 4D schedule enabled progress updates in hours instead of days—instantly available online for all team members and visualized in 3D simulations that added the spatial dimension to time data. This gave stakeholders a powerful, holistic view of project status, enabling earlier interventions and reducing the risk of delays. In parallel, the collaboration provided George Brown students with direct, hands-on involvement in advanced construction technology—turning a technical challenge into both a process improvement and an experiential learning opportunity.

The Limberlost Digital Twin Pilot addressed the challenge of slow, error-prone progress monitoring by implementing an integrated, real-time 3D platform—Flair3D—that combined laser scanning, BIM, IoT sensor data, and 4D scheduling. Weekly laser scans were aligned with the coordinated BIM model to capture accurate as-built conditions. Any discrepancies between design and reality were detected early, allowing corrective action before delays or rework escalated. IoT sensors, including wood moisture monitors and water leak detectors, streamed live data into the Digital Twin, enabling proactive responses to environmental or safety issues. The project schedule, exported from PCL’s system, was automatically integrated into Flair3D. This created 4D simulations—visualizing not just time, but also the spatial progression of work. As new scan data came in, schedule updates were completed in hours instead of days and became instantly available online for all stakeholders. This eliminated the lag between on-site events and team awareness, improving communication and reducing decision-making delays. By giving project managers, site supervisors, trades, and owners access to a shared, interactive view of current progress, the platform broke down data silos and improved collaboration. Issues that previously might have gone unnoticed for weeks could now be identified, discussed, and resolved almost immediately. The result was a faster, more transparent, and more accurate monitoring process—turning traditional, reactive reporting into proactive, real-time project management. This solution not only resolved the Limberlost challenges but also created a scalable model for future projects, applicable across the broader construction industry.