Water and Effluent Treatment Magazine
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/516873
""...it's a real mixed bag in terms of progress within the water sector. There's two maybe three clients who really stand out at the moment as having pushed BIM within their own organisations" Jon De Souza Embarking on the journey towards BIM • The use of building information modelling in the industry is gathering pace, but there are still companies sitting on the sidelines waiting to see what others do. Maureen Gaines reports. T he adoption of building information modelling is being driven by capital delivery rather than asset management, according to Jon De Souza, chair of BIM4Water and business improvement manager at Galliford Try's water division. Speaking at Utility Week Live recently, De Souza said this was "disappointing" as it should be the other way round. BIM was being used for above ground assets, and less so on networks, he said. Four or five water companies are looking to pilot BIM on projects over the next five years. However, some companies are waiting "to see what others do and then hope to catch up", adding that it was the supply chain's role to educate the water utilities. De Souza said a lack of understanding about BIM in the industry is a key challenge going forward. There is also the perception that BIM is a technology and not a process. In the wider arena there has been an increased push to BIM largely because of the previous government's doing. Two years ago, the coalition government published several documents that led into BIM, firstly a low carbon action plan. Next came a construction strategy, and finally a BIM strategy. The documents provided a mandate for central government projects to adopt BIM by 2016. De Souza says that while this mandate does not apply to the UK utilities sector, Scotland is applying its own mandate from April 2017 to which Scottish Water will have to comply. "Generally, though, the water companies in England aren't required to meet that mandate. They don't have a burning platform necessarily on the journey towards BIM," said De Souza. Data-rich That government mandate looks for the central government compliance to achieve Level 2 BIM by 2016. Level 2 comprises a number of BIM standards to create a digital asset that is a data-rich representation of the real asset. De Souza said that currently the water companies do not have the mandate but they potentially see some value in their own journey towards BIM adoption. "But it's a real mixed bag in terms of progress within the water sector. There's two maybe three clients who really stand out at the moment as having pushed BIM within their own organisations." He said one water company has worked very c o l l a b o r a t i v e l y within its own alliance to try and develop its own standards, although it has not necessarily been a contractual requirement to deliver BIM. Another, United Utilities, has put in a requirement for BIM as part of A M P 6 contracts to its alliance partners. Most water companies view BIM as being something that can be used for above ground assets, such as large scale treatment works, and less so on the networks. "Disappointingly, BIM is being driven within the water sector on capital delivery rather than on asset management. Most clients outside the water sector have engaged with the real value in a BIM process as having the output which provides that data and allows better asset management over the life of the asset. "Speaking to one client in the water sector, talking to them about BIM for asset management their response was 'if you guys News+ There are concerns about the implications for modelling the existing asset base, to input that information into models JUNE 2015 weT News 7 on the supply side can prove it works and demonstrate a saving for us on the capital delivery process maybe we'll start thinking about it for asset management'. Maybe that's the wrong way round." De Souza said there is a long way to go in educating companies in the UK water sector on their BIM journeys of compliance. "I would say that four or five are looking at pilot projects over the current regulatory cycle and others are just waiting to see what everyone else does and hope to catch up towards the end." Barrier Another concern is the shi™ towards much smaller capital maintenance type projects, rather than large-scale schemes, being delivered through frameworks. "There are concerns about the implications for modelling the existing asset base to input that information into models." De Souza emphasised that the technology exists to do this. He cited a £180M wastewater treatment project that Galliford Try is involved with for United Utilities, and where there has been a huge interface with existing assets. "The only way we could deliver that project in a BIM environment is by modelling that existing asset base, which is something we were able to do with laser scanning et cetera. It wasn't any sort of barrier to BIM adoption on the project." Most of the organisations working on the supply side for central government are working within the water sector and the wider utilities sector. Where BIM is being delivered on projects for water sector clients it is also tending to be supplier led. De Souza explained "We've seen a number of companies on the supply side potentially make a commitment that they are going to do BIM whether they are asked for it or not. My own organisation, Galliford Try, recently said that the default position for all projects that we deliver will be to BIM Level 1. He said the lack of knowledge and understanding is the "main challenge that we face as a sector at the moment". There is still a perception still in some cases that BIM is about technology and not about process, with companies not necessarily understanding how BIM will affect capital delivery asset management or operational maintenance type processes. n