The importance of information management was recognised in surface construction industry decades ago, and is increasingly being recognised through formal processes and laws. Around the world, these laws and codes of practice are currently being drafted and enacted, to reflect the development of software tools and corresponding increasing adoption by industry. This paper deals with general overview of BIM and its benefits as well as specifics of implementing information modelling in the tunnelling business utilizing BIM (Building Information Modelling) technology developed for buildings as well as similar technology developed for the mining industry. Although BIM was initially recognised as a 3D digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a facility, the benefits of using it are much wider than anticipated by its definition. This paper focuses on aspect of consultants and the role of other parties in developing projects.
The modern issue within the construction industry is its conservative approach to innovation and poor data management. In a world where information means everything and efficient workflows are becoming the norm for advanced businesses, not using the attainable data pool is a recipe for stagnation and even regression. Different ways to mitigate the risks involved in building projects have been developed at the design company Elea iC to become more flexible and efficient. Through several large-scale high-rise and tunnelling BIM projects in the past four years, engineers at Elea iC have identified two crucial development barriers for advanced proficient BIM usage. The first is organizing the BIM models: internal model structure, information required in models, and how this information is written into models. The second barrier is establishing crucial information workflows to achieve valuable practical results. Exploration of the required model content and its organization together with data workflows are thus the main purposes of this article. Incremental improvement from project to project was needed to provide a much-needed baseline for crucial project data which makes 4D, 5D and 6D BIM modelling possible. A database structure for model properties was developed, from which consistent properties can be inserted into all project BIM models. This provides a unified internal standard ensuring the correct level of information modelling. At the same time essential workflows for BIM implementation, modelling, data sharing, and information management were also developed. Standard BIM software was used to create the base models, but collaboration with other software developers and adapting their solutions was needed in order to attain the desired outcomes of advanced BIM analyses. As more and more clients require advanced BIM solutions for their projects, neglecting to develop and implement new ways of using BIM will diminish companies’ potential in the market in the long run. This paper demonstrates that BIM, coupled with databases including standard model content requirements and information workflows, can provide a credible solution for proficient project data management in the construction industry. Therefore, BIM must not be seen as an impractical tool only requiring additional expenses, but as a system that needs internal company development to be adequately utilized and profited from.
Tunnelling differs fundamentally from mining, high rise buildings and civil surface construction in many ways, but when it comes to challenges, it combines the toughest from the three worlds. Tunnelling projects inherit uncertainties of ground conditions and constant preparedness for on‐site changes from mining; complexity, dynamics and the need for detailing from buildings; and one of the challenges that tunnels inherit from civil surface construction is definitely the complex and curved geometry. To overcome the challenges and exploit the benefits of BIM methodology on tunnelling project it is essential to harmonize particles of existing standards, guidelines, processes and tools from the three worlds. There are hundreds of specific questions arising from the BIM tunnelling pioneers: Which tool should be used? How can the efficiency of modelling and implementation of changes be increased? Which elements of the primary support structures need to be modelled? Which properties need to be assigned to elements? How to classify the elements? What to do when the performance of the software is over its limits? How should the spatial elements be used? How accurate should specific elements be modelled? And many more. Unfortunately, each of the question generates hundreds of different solutions. Thais article will tackle some of them and provide possible solutions as a result of experience from past projects with the goal of raising the discussion in a wider tunnel engineering society and consequently promoting the development and implementation of BIM methodology in tunnelling.
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