Bentley acquires Keynetix

Keynetix.cloud geotechnical knowledge management system streamlines geotechnical workflows and enables easy access to project data.

Infrastructure design, construction and operations software provider Bentley Systems, Inc. recently announced its acquisition of Keynetix, a U.K.-based provider of cloud-based software for the capturing, visualizing, modeling and sharing of geotechnical data.

The addition of Keynetix software “expands Bentley’s geotechnical offerings and accelerates Bentley’s vision of enabling subsurface digital twins for infrastructure projects and assets.” Subsurface digital twins, Bentley noted, “can be vital for assessing and managing risks in infrastructure projects, and to the planning, design, construction and operations of infrastructure assets.”

Bentley also said that the creation and curation of subsurface digital twins involves “modeling the underground environment (geology, hydrology, chemistry and engineering properties, and the underground infrastructure), and utility networks, structures, and tunnels—and then analyzing and simulating the subsurface behavior. Supplementing borehole reports managed by Bentley’s gINT software, Keynetix’s cloud-based geotechnical knowledge management system captures and manages underground environment information for Bentley’s geotechnical analysis applications, PLAXIS and SoilVision.”

HoleBASE SI helps users easily enter, analyze and visualize site investigation data.

“Infrastructure professionals know that the geologic, hydrologic, chemical and engineering properties of a potential project site, and the infrastructure assets buried beneath the soil, roads and other structures represent some of the greatest risks to infrastructure project safety, budgets and schedules,” said Bob Mankowski, VP and business unit executive of digital cities, Bentley Systems. “Having a subsurface digital twin—a 3D representation of the subsurface coupled with models to analyze and simulate behavior—will be immensely valuable in all phases of the asset lifecycle. The Keynetix team and their technology bring decades of experience and cutting-edge cloud services to Bentley’s already strong geotechnical portfolio—gINT, PLAXIS and SoilVision—and will accelerate the progress of our vision for subsurface digital twins.”

“Today’s announcement provides our team, customers and partners with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to advance digital engineering in the geotechnical industry,” said Roger Chandler, Managing Director, Keynetix. “At Keynetix, our mission has always been to make geotechnical data more broadly accessible and valuable. Today’s announcement will truly open up geotechnical data collaboration across Bentley, Autodesk and other platforms.”