The implementation of geotechnical data Into the BIM process

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a relatively new concept to the UK construction industry. With its inception in recent years, the industry is still coming to grips with its utilisation, with around 54% of projects utilising BIM as of 2014. Due to this, BIM has become an extremely relevant topic within the UK infrastructure and the government has instilled an initiative for all centrally-funded projects to utilise BIM as a design tool. However, an optimal BIM strategy has not yet been developed or utilised for transport infrastructure projects which was the primary rationale for this research project. This paper reviews the current BIM process and the limitations it has and how they can be mitigated and, in turn, the process ameliorated in terms of project cost and time. Geotechnical data integration has the potential to improve the BIM process since most projects do not take below-ground data into account. As a result the primary purpose of this study is specifically concerned with investigating how the integration of geotechnical data into the BIM strategy will be possible and how it can influence the process in a cost- and time-saving manner.