Defining BIM for Infrastructure Projects

What Necessitates BIM in Infrastructure Projects?

BIM has been a proven tool in successfully designing, planning, executing and handing over building projects. There are several established industry standards, protocols and best practices for creating and managing BIM models for building projects. The return on investment is high and collaboration stress is also reduced. 

The formula for success in implementing BIM and digitizing your construction processes is of the inverse ratio. The larger your project, the higher return on investment you realize. BIM workflows work best with a large universal set of data.

Extending its capabilities to large-scale infrastructure projects, while in theory is a no-brainer, in implementation, is a challenge. Creating models for doubly curved alignments, sophisticated utility networks, cross drainage structures, interchanges and rotaries is easier said than done. 

Creating the most efficient and effective methods is the need of the hour. We, at CUBE, have developed this expertise over the course of several years. Implementing our solution stacks in challenging infrastructure projects - ranging from urban transportation to smart cities to industrial greenfields.

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Defining the Infrastructural Process for BIM

1. Need for an existing conditions model The need to map out existing terrain is crucial in understanding the design layout and design intent of an infrastructural development.
2. Validation of design with existing conditionsYour designer’s intent should work in cohesion with the existing utility networks, ground terrain and topography to have the most value engineered design proposition. 
3. Creating accurate engineering models A 3D model, made not just for visualization purposes but a model which can be utilized as an engineering tool to preempt construction challenges in a virtual environment and subsequently prepare to overcome these obstacles, well ahead. 
4. Dynamic progress tracking Utilizing the mine of data that exists in every construction project and then bringing in Business Intelligence by advanced analytics, ensures that you don’t overshoot your budgets. 
5. Efficient handover COBie standards define the framework for creating a successful facility management system. While these are specifically defined for building projects, CUBE has pioneered workflows for bringing this capability to infrastructural projects.

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Reinventing Infrastructure with BIM

A complete lifecycle implementation strategy ensures that all the stakeholders are working off of a single source of truth, right from the start. Avoiding major delays due to miscommunication, mismanagement and uninformed decision making. 

The last, most crucial aspect would be the expertise in using the correct tools for creating your BIM models. While Revit, ArchiCAD, Allplan and Aecosim are excellent tools for authoring BIM models for buildings, their capabilities do not directly transfer over to create an engineered 3D model for infrastructural requirements. AutoCAD Civil 3D is a much better suited tool, when projects like - highways, smart cities, industrial green fields, and solar power plants are to be modelled. 

Replacing bits and pieces of existing vertical construction workflows with tools and processes that are better suited to horizontal construction is not the correct approach. Reimagining the entire process, with the exact problem statement in hindsight is how one defines a solution to this problem. 

Additionally, efficient data management brings in another dimension of organized working. Automating the tracking and collection of this data ensures no human error in reporting. Creation of interactive and dynamic dashboards using industry leading business intelligence tools extends the utility of this data.