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Setting the Scene
Infrastructure Construction Projects are large-scale Projects that aim to improve social living conditions. Contractors execute them under EPC, BOT, PPP or any other similar Contract of Public Works. In addition, these projects have a long operational life expectancy across design, construction and maintenance, and the industry usually calls them Civil Works.
These projects are mainly Public Projects. National budgets (public money) and/or Private investing initiatives fund them, and owners announce them as National or International Tenders. Once the Bidding Process ends, Engineering and Construction Companies execute the works, while Public and Private Professional Engineering services Organizations supervise them.
In practice, these Projects are mainly:
- Highways, Streets, and Roads
- Bridges
- Mass Transit, Airports, and Airways
- Harbors and Coastal
- Water Supply and Resources
- Waste Management and Waste Water Management
- Power Generation and Transmission.
- Telecommunications.
- Hazardous Waste Removal and Storage
- Renewable Energy
Based on the Wikipedia:
· Civil engineering is: a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewerage systems, pipelines, structural components of buildings, and railways.
· Architectural engineering, also known as building engineering or architecture engineering, is a discipline that deals with the technological aspects and multi-disciplinary approach to planning, design, construction and operation of buildings, such as analysis and integrated design of environmental systems (energy conservation, HVAC, lighting, acoustics, vertical and horizontal transportation), structural systems, behavior and properties of building components and materials, and construction management.
What is BIM?
Based on the Wikipedia:
The US National Building Information Model Standard Project Committee has the following definition:
“ Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a facility. A BIM is a shared knowledge resource for information about a facility forming a reliable basis for decisions during its life-cycle; defined as existing from earliest conception to demolition.
Traditional building design was largely reliant upon two-dimensional technical drawings (plans, elevations, sections, etc). Building information modeling extends this beyond 3D, augmenting the three primary spatial dimensions (width, height and depth) with time as the fourth dimension (4D)[20] and cost as the fifth (5D)”
BIM for NO Buildings
A BIM system provides undisputable added value for Architectural and Building facilities. However, the nature of Civil Works Projects does not justify the same.
As an example, a BIM applied to a highway construction is like a 3d Modeling on steroids. In that case, visualizations of structures and roadworks (as mockups) matter more to investors than to engineers.
In terms of foundation engineering/piling, layers of materials and quantities have no meaning, and no one can standardize them. This is because they mainly relate to underground works, where geotechnical evidence varies significantly from side to side. The same applies to several other types of works, including tunnels, dams, embankments, cut and covers, etc.
For engineering designers, Computer Aided Design such as finite element analysis and structural engineering is essential for complex calculations. It can also produce BIM analytical designs. By contrast, the same does not hold for BIM in Construction. There, geospatial software is more important than a typical BIM model, and the 4D – 5D concept does not apply to real works on site.
What does BIM for infrastructure projects mean on site?
Above all, any Civil Engineer professional must understand plans, sections, topographical maps and structural drawings. They must then build onsite by applying these designs and making the necessary changes when required.
In short, Civil Engineering is not about assembling but rather building … As a result, a ‘Building’ Information Modeling System can add only limited value to most Civil Works, except Architectural Engineering for Buildings. Its use may possibly be limited to As-Built Drawings.
