BIM and data standard for effective investment in infrastructure

Abstract

Building information modeling has been gaining its attention worldwide in the construction industry. Digitalization of construction projects and associated workflows generated demands for data standardization. However, systems and data interoperability in the construction sector is an obstacle. This article is focusing on description of the strategy and data standard utilized on large infrastructure assets. The data standard has been prepared by BIM expert group founded by the State Transport Infrastructure Fund and the Ministry of Transportation. The data standard has been prepared in cooperation with the large design companies and construction companies as well as software developers and distributors present in the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic forms, to some extent, single European market and these design and construction companies operate worldwide. Focused groups, data analysis and international and national standards search were used as the research methods to prepare the technical regulations and methodologies presented in this paper. From this point of view, the presented data standard has ambition to became a guideline for other countries. The data standard presented in this article is in accordance with generally known principles present in the PAS 1192 series and CEN standardization. It took two years of experts work and an uncountable number of stakeholders' meetings and associated discussions to develop this data standard that is going to be used across preparation, design, construction and maintenance of the infrastructure projects. The data standard is at this moment being implemented in software solutions that are used by engineers to tackle their needs in shared digital environments. It is expected that the data standard will serve as a base stone for construction digitalization and catalyze software utilization with associated efficiency in infrastructure projects.