A General Contractor’s Perspective on Construction Digital Twin: Implementation, Impacts and Challenges

Abstract

The Digital Twin (DT), as a real-time and data-connected virtual replica of a physical asset, introduces a new paradigm in the construction industry. To date, the use of DT in the construction phase has not been addressed sufficiently. Hence, this research studies the implementation of DT during the construction phase of projects to support general contractors’ decisions and operations. Starting from existing literature, a Construction Digital Twin (CDT) framework has been developed from a general contractor’s perspective and a case study was implemented as an application of the proposed CDT to validate the framework and demonstrate its benefits. In the selected project, the simulation of the construction operations in evaluating various “what-if” scenarios for optimum resource allocation and operation management proved the benefits of using a CDT in the construction phase of projects for general contractors. By implementing the proposed CDT framework, several impacts such as reduced costs, improved collaboration and information exchange and data-driven construction management can be anticipated.