Building Bridges with BIM #tbim2015

Almost six months ago we held our GreenBIM half-day conference in which I sat in on a round table discussion themed around BIM and Infrastructure. The overriding feeling was that infrastructure in the UK was poor, underfunded and with too strong a focus on glory projects rather than the local investment required to help businesses (SMEs in particular) to function more efficiently. The group agreed that BIM and digital solutions provided an answer but not until current BIM technologies can serve infrastructure as well as buildings.

Six months on and with the Level 2 BIM deadline vastly approaching, where does BIM and Infrastructure stand now? On Wednesday 7^th October, for the first in our thinkBIM Autumn series, we welcomed five members of the AECOM Mott MacDonald Joint Venture engineering team to Old Broadcasting to talk about their work on the technically challenging Ordsall Chord railway improvement project from a BIM perspective.

The multi-disciplinary project team delivered an excellent ‘warts and all’ case study presentation which addressed specific complexities of the scheme including the widening of existing brick arch viaducts, design of both precasts and insitu concrete elements and detailing of steel structures using fabrication software whilst finding innovative ways of providing the key deliverables to the client.

Due to the confidential nature of the scheme we are unable to share the full set of slides and presentation notes with you (all the more reason for you to be in the thinkBIM audience next time!), however check out our storify below with the best tweets and images from the event for a summary of what was discussed.

Don’t forget to join us for our next event on 4^th November where we will be discussing risk-free BIM. Holy Grail or closer than you think? Be part of the audience and have your say (details and booking here).