New Engineering teenager people at construction site holding tablet in his hand.
NIBS recently launched the U.S. National Building Information Management Program, with the goal of achieving a higher level of efficiency through digitalization.
Low technology adoption remains a critical issue for the U.S. construction industry’s efficiency and resiliency, according to the National Institute of Building Sciences.
For that reason, NIBS has launched the U.S. National Building Information Management Program, with the goal of achieving a higher level of efficiency through digitalization.
Johnny Fortune will spearhead the program. Fortune, an engineering and construction expert, joined NIBS in June. He previously served as the BIM manager for Prime AE Group, a Baltimore-based engineering and architecture firm.
Here, Construction Dive talks with Fortune about BIM standards, adoption rates and digital transformation trends in the U.S. built environment.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity
CONSTRUCTION DIVE: Does the U.S. need a BIM standard as is common in European countries?
JOHNNY FORTUNE: The U.S. construction economy and marketplace are obviously different from other countries. We don’t have a single government agency focused entirely on construction but rather several agencies related to buildings and infrastructure.
Several agencies already require BIM on projects meeting certain criteria. I am familiar mostly with federal agencies requiring BIM and some have done so for quite some time now. Some states, like Wisconsin and Tennessee, have required BIM for public projects that meet certain criteria. Various local agencies, like New York City, have also created BIM standards or guidelines for use on projects.
We need an open and practice-oriented standard. We may not see a BIM mandate on all government projects, but we can still develop next-generation standards and processes that provide the array of federal agencies as well as private owners with an effective toolset to use within their project requirements that harnesses the potential of BIM to achieve desired outcomes.
NIBS provides an industry consensus standard for BIM in the National BIM Standard, or NBIMS. Version 3 has been out for a few years, and we expect to publish Version 4 early next year.
In addition, the National BIM Program will leverage the standards that are existing and under further development, but also will expand upon previous activities to accelerate adoption across a broader spectrum of building and infrastructure project stakeholders.
Has the adoption of BIM increased in recent years?
It is my sense that adoption has continued to increase steadily here in the U.S. I think a challenge is that the level of adoption varies greatly....
Read the full article at https://www.constructiondive.com/news/national-bim-program-aims-boost-digital-transformatio/633840/