The pandemic has delayed or stalled some construction projects, due to shortages of materials such as structural steel and glass purchased from Asia.
Second, telecommuting is also not an option for construction workers on site.
In the post-Covid era, both new as well as pending construction projects are expected to be accompanied by the expected growth in the healthcare, commercial and transportation sectors. . Residential projects are seeing growing demand for multi-family complexes.
President Biden’s vision is to create infrastructure that is sustainable, secure, environmentally friendly, and resilient to climate change. The allocation of more than $1 billion to build on existing infrastructure – including railways, bridges, ports and highways – certainly drives this ambition.
So what does the industry need to prepare itself for? Here is an example from a public sector innovation project scenario.
Traffic disruption during construction and repair poses a significant challenge to road and railway projects. For projects under renovation, add in the complexity of managing ground utilities such as sewer lines, telephone cables, water supply, etc. This directly affects passengers and passengers. passengers travel by road, rail or airport daily. This disruption will need to be managed by the project owners. To avoid implementation conflicts that lead to rework and project delays, these nuances will need to be included in the planning phase. Inadequate contract management and lack of coordination among project stakeholders can also lead to further delays and losses. BIM-based project planning can overcome all of these at once.
Although the AEC industry in the United States is one of the largest construction markets worldwide, by its very nature the industry is fragmented and has not really discovered the tools to support the construction industry. technology or digital tools to enhance productivity. However, the pandemic has given them new possibilities. McKinsey, stated in a report published in 2020, that designers and engineers are increasingly using Building Information Management (BIM) to manage projects and to speed project execution and delivery.
The incumbent demand for greater speed, scale and efficiency and renewed interest in BIM among construction companies is an invitation for adoption. BIM-based solutions. BIM is not new to construction companies in the United States. It has been in practice since the 1970s. What is surprising is the slow rate of adoption. The lack of a single federal agency that can plan and delegate BIM for all public projects, is perhaps one of the reasons for the rather low BIM adoption rate. The absence of BIM authorization makes it dependent on alignment between construction companies, contractors, architects and other stakeholders, thus slowing down the process.
In terms of implementation, it’s time to think of BIM beyond using it as a design tool and explore the depth of information that BIM models provide. BIM models can serve as a single platform for resource planning and allocation, risk management, raw material estimation and timely procurement, transparent and time-based progress monitoring. real, conflict-free construction within deadlines, better team collaboration, integrated safety and sustainability aspects and more.
A powerful application of BIM model have the ability to assess the impact of a disaster on any property. This information assists the project team in decision making at an early stage of the project, taking corrective action and saving any additional costs incurred. In high-flood areas, the use of BIM-based flood simulation and analysis can help project teams modify or redesign projects to avoid or minimize the estimated impacts of floods. overwhelm. For example, changing road elevation can reduce risk in a flood-prone area.
In fact, BIM can certainly be the fulcrum for building robust, resource-efficient, and sustainable infrastructure in the United States!
Read more:
BIM can open the door to a new era in American Infrastructure history. Here’s how!
