Last May the Government announced its intention that 3D Building Information Modelling was to be required on all major government projects by 2016.

Building Information Modelling, commonly known as BIM, is the process of collaborative design using one coherent system of computer models, rather than separate sets of drawings. Ultimately all project and asset information, documentation and data will be electronic. The objective of including this approach as part of project management is that it enables efficiencies in management, construction and long term maintenance both in time and cost.

Afive-year timeframe has been assigned to give the construction industry the opportunity to get to grips with this new collaborative way of working, both in terms of learning new processes and changing the adversarial culture of the construction industry.

What is the proposed outcome?

Essentially, BIM is central to the reform of the government’s procurement strategy and aims to cut construction costs by 20% by the end of this Parliament.

The Construction Industry Council (CIC) is working with the government department BIS on taking forward this initiative and have established a dedicated BIM Forum. The group, which includes representatives from CIHT, is working closely with the Government’s BIM Task Group and other industry bodies, to take forward a main recommendation in the Innovation and Growth Report on Low Carbon Construction.

What does this mean for the highways and transportation industry?

Many larger companies are already beginning to apply the process within their building projects but not so on highway projects.  SME’s as an important part of the supply chain will also have to embrace this initiative.

It is expected that BIM will be rolled out to the transport sector in the near future and CIHT intends to run a workshop for professionals in the industry this September.

In preparation for this, it would be helpful to have feedback from CIHT members on their general awareness of the BIM process and whether it is being embedded within their organisations.

Therefore we would greatly appreciate it if you could take the time to answer a few questions in our quick survey, it will only take  a couple of minutes. Simply click here or visit the link:
http://fluidsurveys.com/surveys/daniel-isichei/bim-and-the-transport-sector/