by Tim Kannegieter
The construction industry is set for major transformation after a recommendation from the Australian Productivity Commission that the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) be adopted in all complex government projects in Australia.
Buried toward the back of a weighty two volume report from the Productivity Commission’s inquiry into public infrastructure was a recommendation that did not capture mainstream headlines but, if accepted by governments across Australia, it will have a profound effect on Australian engineering.
Recommendation 12.5 said: “For complex infrastructure projects, government clients should provide concept designs using BIM … and require tender designs to be submitted using BIM”.
The commission believes adoption of BIM can deliver substantial cost savings, not just in the tendering and design stages, but across the entire lifecycle of the structure. In making these recommendations, the commission is following the 2011 lead of the UK government, which mandated the use of BIM for all government projects by 2016.
While, BIM has already gained traction across Australia is not yet mandatory on all government projects. The report noted that “the current ad hoc use of BIM by government clients [could] lead to varying standards and confusion amongst industry participants and low uptake.”
To address this issue the commission has also recommended that public sector procurers across Australian, state and territory governments work together to facilitate a common set of standards and protocols as well as procurement guidelines for all government agencies on the use of BIM.
The recommendations will be welcomed by a wide range of industry stakeholders, both large and small, which are concerned about the lack of clear government direction on BIM standards. In the absence of clear guidelines, government departments and primary contractors on government projects are tempted to ask for project information using the proprietary file formats of the BIM platforms they have in-house.
The issue of standards is also of particular concern to engineering and building services consultants that rely on specialised software that may not be compatible with all propriety BIM standards. Having standards in place will allow specialise software vendors of all types to interface easily with BIM data models regardless of the main BIM vendor. This will increase the range of participants and hence competition.
Another key concern is around contracting arrangements for projects using BIM models. Because BIM involves developing a shared model with input from multiple project participants, it is requiring a dramatic rethink around issues such as intellectual property, insurance, confidentiality as well as the practicalities of data input management.
OBA quoted a McGraw Hill Construction report that found lack of software interoperability in the US adds roughly 3.1% to building construction project costs and a similar amount to the project schedule.
The wider engineering implications of the Australian Productivity Commission’s report will be covered in the August issue of Engineers Australia magazine.
Dr Tim Kannegieter is the editor of Engineers Australia magazine.
This news item has been posted by Engineers Media, a wholly owned subsidiary of Engineers Australia.