In 2012, Dodge Data & Analytics partnered with Autodesk on the publication of the first Business Value of BIM for Infrastructure SmartMarket Report. The most striking conclusions of that study were twofold: Building Information Modeling (BIM) in infrastructure appeared to lag about three years behind the building sector, but there were many positive signs that the use of BIM in this sector was poised to become more widespread.
The findings of this 2017 update on the business value of BIM for infrastructure clearly demonstrate the fulfillment of that promise. This study demonstrates the value BIM provides for owners, engineers and contractors in the infrastructure sector in the US, UK, France and Germany. In addition to the data on a study of BIM for transportation infrastructure, it provides a more comprehensive view of BIM for infrastructure through articles describing BIM use on specific road, airport and rail projects, and on the use of BIM across and beyond the lifecycle of the asset, including creating models of existing assets for planning and using data from models for operations and asset management.
Data from the study of transportation infrastructure in the US, UK, France and Germany includes:
- The increasing rates of implementation among BIM users
- The benefits of using BIM, the investments they are making to enhance those benefits, and its perceived ROI
- The perspective of non-users, including their attitudes toward BIM and factors that could drive adoption
- Individual profiles of the top findings in the four countries featured
The levels of growth in all four European countries are relatively consistent despite numerous differences between the markets. BIM users in the United States have a longer history with using BIM for transportation infrastructure, but the European countries are rapidly maturing, with the BIM mandate in the United Kingdom and the upcoming German mandate likely driving adoption in the entire region.