A conference on The implementation of BIM at building sites: Analysis of challenges and advantages was held last Monday, 20th November, at Ferrovial Agroman’s head office, evidencing the fact that the BIM methodology is already a part of the building process in a substantial number of Ferrovial Agroman’s projects in Spain and Portugal.
After welcoming the 125 participants and explaining the aims of the session, Juan Elízaga, Corporate Relations and R&D+I manager at Ferrovial Agroman, introduced Rosana Navarro, Undersecretary at the Ministry for Infrastructure and Transportation, who officially opened the conference and renewed the Ministry’s commitment to BIM implementation. She confirmed the Ministry’s objective of making such implementation compulsory from the end of 2018 in building projects and from mid-2019 in public infrastructure contracts. In her speech, she also pointed out that, for the first time, a specific reference to the BIM methodology had been included in the recently approved Law on Public Sector Contracts (Law 9/2017 of 8th November).
Following Ms Navarro’s speech, the conversation between Jorge Torrico, Secretary of the esBIM Commission, and Juan Elízaga provided an overview of the current situation of BIM implementation in Spain, as well as of the role of the esBIM Commission in achieving the targets set by the Ministry, with cooperation from private companies a key factor of success.
Juan Magín Lozano, Civil Works Director, and Juan Ramón Pérez, Building Director, acted as facilitators at public and private client roundtables, respectively, which centred on the efforts of the public administration to implement this methodology, as well as the challenges encountered at the different stages of implementation. Such challenges are also relevant for private clients, and there were differing views on the benefits of BIM in their various business areas. An analysis of implementation costs vs advantages in the different stages of the life cycle of buildings and infrastructures was carried out.
The experience of Ferrovial works and site managers on the application of the BIM methodology in Ferrovial Agroman projects was of particular interest for those attending, as was their unanimous recommendation of applying BIM as soon as possible in projects where it was not yet being used, based on criteria of efficiency and added value applied to all our projects.
The new functions associated with the implementation of BIM, and the role of universities and professional associations in the development of such functions, were explained in the last of the roundtables, with representatives from professional schools and associations of architects and civil engineers.
This session is further evidence of Ferrovial Agroman’s commitment to BIM implementation, as well as of the need for cooperation between different departments, clients, universities and professional associations in order to fully understand the possibilities for sector improvement through innovation and the continuous adoption of new processes and procedures to generate added value in the management of our projects.
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