Building Information Modeling (BIM) partnering framework for public construction projects

Organizational and people centered issues pose the greatest challenge for Building Information Modeling (BIM) implementation. Studies showed that BIM implementation is still a challenge for the North American construction industry. The Canadian construction industry, in contrast, is well behind that of the U.S. in its BIM adoption rate. Maturity and adoption of BIM depends mainly on the client or the owner in construction projects. Public sector clients often think that the market is not ready for BIM and are afraid to increase project costs by limiting competition. Moreover, if the contractor is not integrated in the project in the design phase, BIM has limited power. This paper proposes a ‘BIM partnering’ based public procurement framework to ensure ‘best value’ in construction projects. The case study presented in the paper proved the feasibility of proposed BIM based procurement in publicly-funded construction projects. The suggested contractual arrangement for the project resulted in improved productivity, better coordination, and reduced error, and rework.

► This paper presents a public construction procurement framework through BIM-Partnering.
► This framework aligns with current contractual and project delivery methods.
► It proposes a virtual design environment with an unprecedented level of collaboration.