Kimley-Horn & Associates
Highway Design and Software Migration
San Diego, CA
Jul 2007 - May 2008
After resigning from CalTrans - 18 months of CAiCE software was too much - I quickly had three major consulting projects "fall in my lap".
I had been talking with management at the local Kimley-Horn office, I was likely to join them upon completion of my independent projects.
Talking with Mike Ross (local VP) on the phone one day about some MicroStation/J issues. "Mike, I refuse to work for a company that is still on MicroStation/J, so let me go ahead and come aboard and get you moving forward."
First step was to solve some engineering problems: the I-15 Managed Lane widenings match existing pavement slope, but to the nearest 0.5%. No problem. Create the template (using Display Rules), document and ensure staff know how to use them.
Step Two: migrate the office to new MicroStation and InRoads (the big jump to unlimited named levels, etc.).
Step Three: document
Step Four: train the staff.
The primary issues in the MicroStation/J migration were that
- We were the first KHA region to move beyond the MicroStation/J 63-level convention.
- CalTrans was far from having their Level Naming Convention defined.
- Kimley-Horn is global: Multiple-clients
We ultimately decided on a "Practical Workspace": not overly segregated or complex. Immediately portable to multiple clients (via mapping), easily extensible, and ready-for-CalTrans.
Documentation and Training was via an internal website and in-person training. The web was in-use long after I left and used by the other California offices.
Right about when that was done, I got a call from Bentley Systems to transform their training. Kind of a Dream job, had to take it.