Optimizing Handover of As-Built Data Using Bim for Highways

Abstract

An efficient maintenance of the UK's transportation network is of critical importance to the country's economy and among the top priorities of the government and public agencies (e.g. Network Rail, Highways England). The public transportation agencies have huge data sets related to asset management and maintenance. However, those data sets are usually held in disparate platforms and have been historically developed using multiple standards and formats. As a result, full value of such data is often not fully realized. Effective management of asset data and availability of reliable information as and when needed, could bring in key benefits for effective management of the transportation network. This paper aims to present the initial findings of a research effort understanding the potential of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in handover processes for a more efficient maintenance of highways assets, and discuss the way forward. The research methodology applied is systematic literature review and two recent best practice cases in the Highways Sector. The research findings suggest that efficient data management through BIM could provide a structured framework to improve asset handover and maintenance. However, it is important to capture the current handover practices between the construction and maintenance phase, and maintenance processes in the UK's highways sector, both of which seem to be absent in the literature at the moment. The benefits of using the Building Information Modelling (BIM) process (i.e. reduction in construction costs, improved quality of design information, integration of project systems, reduced change orders, improved interoperability, and whole life-cycle asset management) for asset project management, as a unified project-life cycle data management repository of form and function, have been widely discussed in the literature (Succar, 2009; Azhar, 2011; Eastman et al., 2011; Love et al., 2011; Barlish and Sullivan, 2012; Bryde et al., 2013). While those benefits have been readily observed in practice during the design and construction stage, particularly in controlling and managing projects' costs and schedules, such benefits are marginal when the duration of assets' life cycle, and maintenance and operations are considered (Love et al., 2014). For instance, as of 2012, the cost of operating England's strategic highways network mounted up to 0.3 British Pence/vehicle mile (DfT, 2011) with more than 800 million British Pounds/year spent on