Credit: Stance Venture
A new online article has addressed the reluctance for infrastructure construction professionals to adopt Building Information Modelling processes.
Suibhne Cullen of MWH Global has authored a report published to Australian site Sourceable, in which he lists reasons that are perhaps why BIM adoption within the infrastructure circle, or ‘Linear BIM’ is not as widespread as that in ‘vertical BIM’, which relates to buildings.
MWH’s BIM Lead in Asia Pacific believes raising funds is a big reason for the lack of infrastructure BIM implementation, amongst others: “For infrastructure projects (and, inherently, the majority of its client base) one of the reasons for this reluctance is quite often the time to raise funds and procure via public bodies – local, state or federal,” explained Cullen.
“There are also hang-ups due to the current required contractual frameworks and the protracted delivery times of large infrastructure projects. Other challenges include a perceived lack of technical expertise; soft and hard implementation costs; a lack of industry standards. Ultimately, the reference made is that clients are unaware and industry has, thus far, done a poor job of communicating the benefits of the migration to BIM as a ‘better than current’ client outcome delivery method.”
Despite many believing industry has not done its best to promote the use of BIM for the construction of roads, bridges and the like, Cullen lists various groups who have made a positive impact, positivity he is hoping to convey too. He stated: “From an industry standpoint, it has not been for the lack of effort, mainly by industry professionals such as BuildingSMART and collaborate-anz offering their own time to introduce and promote BIM across all sectors.
“These groups and the myriad of BIM user groups and vendor specific user groups have been championing the push for adoption across the Asia Pacific region. The momentum they have built has prompted governments to provide a level of guidance and investment to realise a consistent asset focused BIM process.”
Cullen closes his opinion with an upbeat message: “We now see ourselves at the foot of the BIM for infrastructure climb.
“I see a bright future in BIM for infrastructure over the coming years and personally welcome the challenges we face as an industry in adopting common robust methodologies which provide both productivity gains for companies plus sustainable outcomes for infrastructure client organisations and their clients, the public.”
Click here to read the entire article.
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