The proliferation of digital and geospatial technologies in labour intensive construction industry are completely changing the way we design, build, or maintain the Infrastructure assets. Artificial Intelligence, big data, 3D printing, satellite imagery, robotics, BIM, additive manufacturing, GIS, LiDAR, blockchain, drones, the Internet of things (IoT), and immersive technologies (augmented and virtual reality) are notably the technologies been used or are in pilot phases. However, there is still a gap seen in the use of such technologies among various sectors of the construction industry.
The role of BIM in highways
The success stories for using BIM in vertical environment (say buildings, structures, bridges) is far more when compared to the ones in horizontal environment (say road, rail, airports). Also, most of the horizontal construction projects adopt BIM primarily due to the requirement slated by the bidder, with very less turnout of voluntarily adoption of BIM processes by the concessionaires. The main reason for this trend is the less awareness among concessionaires.
The expansive project characteristics of roads and highway projects results in generating a pool of data points originating from a gamut of activities. Managing these large datasets often is a herculean task at project site with manually stacking each information in levels, for a better viewing ability. The digitization and automation of systems, such as by using BIM has resulted in better management of these data pools more efficiently.
Integrating Geospatial and BIM for highways
A coherent approach to integrating geospatial and BIM necessitates consensus between various stakeholders involved in the project. The integration of BIM and geospatial Information results in not just facilitating the designers but also the builders/concessionaires and the client at large. With the 3D virtual model in place along with the location data mapped to it, the client can control and monitor the project progress, carry out health and safety checks, performance based cash flow monitoring while managing operations in a coordinated manner. However, fundamental differences between the two still raise some questions on the amalgamation of these technologies/processes. Some of the major geospatial technologies used across a road transport project lifecycle are mentioned below:
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In delivering one among the UK’s largest road projects, Skanska in collaboration with Costain and Balfour Beatty, delivered the $1.94 billion A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme. The project inculcated the use of 3D machine control systems in earthwork, Trimble SiteVision for augmenting the digital world in real using BIM, and drones for monitoring activities. The Information models were prepared with exact location coordinates Integrated with the BIM model for an easy collaboration among different stakeholders.
Another remarkable project in this category is the $168.9 million N33 highway project (the Netherlands) which was completed in 2014. The contractor used 5D BIM (time and cost) model integrated with a geospatial-enabled database (collected through LiDAR surveys) starting from the design phase. Post completion, the BIM-geospatial data collected was migrated to GIS+Maximo system designed for the highway asset management.
The integration of BIM and geospatial in road infrastructure projects tends to eliminate the data redundancies and aid in a seamless flow of information between the platform as well as the stakeholders. The increasing Interoperability between the geospatial and BIM component facilitates in minimizing job time, waste, and cost. Additionally, with all the data stored in a cloud platform, it gives an easy access to all project stakeholders to manage and analyse data from anywhere.
