Bolton Menk Customer Story en

Bolton & Menk, Inc.
Autodesk customer success story
COMPANY
Bolton & Menk, Inc.
Optimize design
CLIENT
City of Ramsey, Minnesota

LOCATION
Ramsey, Minnesota
SOFTWARE
Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D
Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis
Autodesk AutoCAD
Ramsey designs storm water and sanitary

sewer networks 50% faster
Autodesk Storm and Sanitary

Analysis Extension is much more
user-friendly, flexible, and
powerful than other programs out
there. It can handle everything
from pipe and ditch networks to
ponds and wetlands.
William Douglass, P.E.
Water Resources Manager
Bolton & Menk, Inc.
Typical commercial detention basin and development in Ramsey. Image courtesy of Bolton & Menk, Inc.
Overview
Bolton & Menk, Inc. meets an aggressive five-week
deadline on a citywide storm water management
plan with Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis
software by completing modeling in half the time.
Project summary
Established in 1949, Bolton & Menk, Inc. provides
professional engineering, land development, and
surveying services to public clients in the Upper
Midwest and to private clients throughout the
world. Today, the firm is owned exclusively by its
staff of engineers, surveyors, and support
personnel, all of whom have a stake in providing
the best possible service in the most efficient
manner. Thats why Bolton & Menk recently
adopted Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis
tools to be their stormwater modeling software of
choice. This fully-dynamic hydrology and hydraulic
modeling tool enables users of Autodesk
AutoCAD Civil 3D software to quickly model and
analyze the performance of storm water
management plans; sanitary sewer and drainage
systems; detention ponds and outlet structures;
and more. The firms first project with the new
software was the creation of a storm water
management plan for the City of Ramsey,
Minnesota, located just northwest of the

MinneapolisSt. Paul metropolitan area.
The challenge
Located at the nexus of two major river systems,
the City of Ramsey possessed storm sewer systems
capable of handling no more than a five-year storm
event. Most storm sewer networks in Minnesota
are undersized relative to the storms that are
coming now, says William Douglass, P.E., water
resources manager at Bolton & Menk. Most were
designed with no consideration for 100-year
flooding.
Upgrading its storm water management plan to
accommodate a 100-year event and control water
pollution was an ambitious venture, the largest
engineering project undertaken by the city in
decades. To complete the project, Bolton & Menk
had to overcome numerous challenges, including
relatively flat terrain, a high water table, and a
complex network of existing storm sewer lines,
wetlands, ponds, streams, and drainage ditch
systems. The firm also had to resolve competing
stakeholder demands, and comply with an array of
city, county, state, and federal environmental
standards.
Bolton & Menk, Inc.
Autodesk customer success story
Engineers completed modeling in half the time with Autodesk

Storm and Sewer Analysis tools in Civil 3D
Using traditional methods, the engineers would
have had to use multiple modeling applications,
requiring frequent manual updates whenever
they switched applications. We had one
program for ponds and culverts and another
for the pipe network and storm sewers, says
Douglass. Additionally, these applications were
incapable of exporting data to ArcGIS, the
suite of GIS products the firm used for
presentations.
The solution
After careful evaluation, Bolton & Menk
selected Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis,
both for its improved integration with the
firms design software and its compatibility
with numerous hydrology methods, including
the EPAs storm water management model.
Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis is much
more user-friendly, flexible, and powerful than
other programs out there, says Douglass. It
can handle everything from pipe and ditch
networks to ponds and wetlands.
Bolton & Menk imported Autodesk AutoCAD
drawings into this extension, and then
separated the city into multiple watersheds,
simultaneously modeling scenarios for both 10and 100-year storm events and creating
compelling graphic presentations, such as
color-coding the ponds to illustrate risk to local
structures.
The extension greatly increased team efficiency
on the large 5,000-node project. For example,
when the engineers changed an element in one

location, all other connected elements adjusted
automatically, eliminating the need for timeconsuming manual updates in other programs.
Its a one-stop shop, says Douglass.
When they completed a project phase, the
engineers exported shapefiles directly into
ArcGIS for graphical presentation to the
extended team and city engineers. File transfer
was seamless, says Tim Olson, M.S., E.I.T,
design engineer at Bolton & Menk. It was also
quick, requiring mere hourscompared to
weeks using traditional methods. Autodesk
Storm and Sanitary Analysis further facilitated
collaboration by enabling the city engineers
who acquired a licenseto quickly validate and
update Bolton & Menks work.
The result
Autodesk Storm and Sanitary

Analysis capabilities added
substantial value to the project,
particularly in helping the team
meet the projects aggressive
deadlines. Bolton & Menk modeled
the entire citywide storm water
management plan in just under
five weeksroughly half the time
it would have taken using
traditional methods. Both Bolton &
Menk and the City of Ramsey plan
to use this extension on future
projects.
Storm and Sanitary Analysis added substantial

value to the project, particularly in helping the
team meet the projects aggressive deadlines.
Bolton & Menk modeled the entire citywide
storm water management plan in just under
five weeksroughly half the time it would
have taken using traditional methods. Both
Bolton & Menk and the City of Ramsey plan to
use this extension on future projects.
Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis
Extension clearly gives us a competitive
advantage on most projects, says Douglass.
For more information, please visit
www.autodesk.com/civil3d or visit,
www.autodesk.com/industry/civilinfrastructure/
Natural classified wetland in Ramsey. Image courtesy of

Bolton & Menk, Inc.
Autodesk, AutoCAD, the Autodesk logo, and Civil 3D are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or
affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk
reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for
typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. 2014 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.
Storm sewer catch basin intake structure (Neenah casting).

Image courtesy of Bolton & Menk, Inc.

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Bolton & Menk, Inc.

Autodesk customer success story

Bolton & Menk, Inc.

City of Ramsey, Minnesota

Ramsey designs storm water and sanitary

Autodesk Storm and Sanitary

Minnesota, located just northwest of the

Bolton & Menk, Inc.

Autodesk customer success story

Engineers completed modeling in half the time with Autodesk

when the engineers changed an element in one

Autodesk Storm and Sanitary

Storm and Sanitary Analysis added substantial

Natural classified wetland in Ramsey. Image courtesy of

Storm sewer catch basin intake structure (Neenah casting).

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