RICS BIM: Status of the UK Government's BIM initiative

Yesterday at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors RICS BIM National Conference 2013, Prof David Philp, Head of BIM Implementation, Cabinet Office, UK Government gave the keynote address on the status of the Government Construction Strategy 2016 BIM objective.  The overarching aim of the Government's initative is to reduce the cost of Government construction projects by 20% (cost is king) and to reduce the UK's carbon intensity (carbon is queen) in line with its EU carbon committments. 

Digital Built Britain

To reach its goal for the construction industry the UK Government has undertaken several initatives, one of which is a commitment to embrace Building Information Modelling (BIM) in Government projects over a 5-year time frame, to encourage industry to participate in this effort, and to position the UK to become a world leader in BIM.  Dr Philp sees BIM as essentially value creating collaboration through the entire life-cycle of an asset, supported by the creation and exchange of shared 3D models and the intelligent, structured data attached to them.  The inital focus is on the design/build part of the lifecycle, but the government has said that "the 20% saving refers to CapEx cost savings however we know that the largest prize for BIM lies in the operational stages of the project life-cycle"

The UK Government has explicitly targeted Level 2 BIM in the maturity ramp, defined as “file based collaboration and library management.”  Level 2 BIM is a series of domain specific models (e.g. architectural, structural, services etc) with a single environment where structured data can be shared based on COBie UK 2012.

The Government's BIM roadmap is aggressive.  In 2012 it focussed on discovery through pilot projects, notably the Ministry of Justice Cookham Wood project, a £20 mllion project where it is estimated that BIM saved hundreds of thousands of pounds in CAPEX costs.   In 2013 BIM uptake is expected to accelerate so that by 2015 all government departments will be fully BIM Level 2 enabled.  In the initial phases the UK Government is taking the leadership role, but it is encouraging industry to take an increasingly more important role in leading the initiative.

Dr. Philp annouced a number of supporting documents and collateral wil be available by Feb 28, 2013, most notably PAS 1192 Part 2.  PAS 1192/2 supports the Construction BIM Strategy to achieve Level 2 compliance.  It specifies requirements for achieving BIM Level 2, sets set out the framework for collaborative working on BIM enabled projects and provides specific guidance for the information management requirements associated with projects delivered using BIM.  The intended audience for the PAS includes organizations and individuals responsible for the procurement, design, construction, and delivery of buildings and infrastructure assets:owners, managers, designers, and contractors.

It was interesting to hear that the EU seems to be investigating following the UK and Dutch BIM initiatives in mandating BIM for public construction projects.