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Out-Law News 2 min. read

Construction industry’s BIM adoption stalls ahead of UK government deadline


Less than one third of construction firms to date have adopted building information modelling (BIM) to the standard that will be expected of projects procured by central government from next year, according to an industry survey.

Only 32% of those surveyed as part of Building magazine’s annual BIM survey said that they were already using ‘Level 2’ 3D collaborative BIM as part of their projects, a slight increase on the 31% of respondents who had done so the year before. However, the survey also found an increasing number of users of any sort of BIM system, while more than half of respondents said that they did not think that the benefits of BIM were “over-hyped”.

The survey’s findings reflect those of research conducted by Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, earlier this year. The number of respondents to the Pinsent Masons survey who did not believe that the industry would be ready to meet the government’s April 2016 target increased to 71%, up from 63% of respondents to the same survey the year before.

Respondents to the Pinsent Masons survey said that lack of understanding of BIM further down the supply chain was the greatest barrier to their own ambitions. However, the survey also found that an increasing number of firms felt that the construction industry was becoming more collaborative due to the effects of BIM.

"The Building magazine survey is very much in line with our own survey of earlier this year, and highlights the gap between ambition and reality," said BIM expert Martin Roberts of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com.

"Most construction businesses understand the benefits of BIM and are well aware of the challenges. However, whilst a number of early adopters are already well up the curve, significant further investment, training and experience is still required in order to place many businesses in a position where they can deliver to BIM Level 2," he said.

A BIM system uses a computer-generated model to collect and manage information about the design, construction and operation of a project centrally. Any changes to the design of a project made during its construction are automatically applied to the model, making it especially useful when many parties such as different subcontractors provide input on the same project.

BIM is used to different levels of sophistication. ‘Level 2’ BIM broadly refers to a fully collaborative 3D environment where all project information, documents and data are electronic and where software and interfaces allow for the management and integration of that material. The UK government has committed to the use of Level 2 BIM on all centrally-procured projects by 4 April 2016. The next stage, Level 3 BIM, will involve full collaboration between all parties on a single, shared project model held in a centralised repository.

Building surveyed 190 construction professionals as part of its research from a range of disciplines, including consultants, architects, engineers, contractors and clients. It found that the proportion of respondents that had worked with BIM increased significantly to 66%, up from 52% in 2014.

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