BIM stretch targets

Following a meeting of the Construction Leadership Council (CLC), a series of announcements about building information modelling (BIM) were made by BIM Task Group member Terry Stocks and BIM Task Group chair Mark Bew at the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) BIM conference in October 2015.

In 2011 the government announced that it would require fully-collaborative 3D BIM with all project and asset information, documentation and data being electronic as a minimum on centrally-procured public projects from April 2016. This represents Level 2 BIM.

In the run up to this deadline, the latest announcement gave further clarity and introduced new 'stretch targets':

• By 4 April 2016, centrally-funded government departments had to provide clear and complete Employer's Information Requirements (EIR) for all contracts.
• The ongoing reviews of the PAS 1192 BIM standards and BS 1192:2007 will be accompanied by the transition of BS 1192:2007 to ISO 19650-2 Organization of information about construction works -- Information management using building information modelling -- Part 2: Delivery phase of assets.
• A new website, http://www.level2bim.org was to provide a single source for all BIM reference documentation by April 2016.
• By 3 October 2016, centrally-funded government departments will be required to be able to electronically validate BIM information delivered from the supply chain and to make progressively more use of supply chain BIM data for their business activities.

The new website was welcomed by the industry, but the announcement that EIR's would be required by April came as little surprise. EIRs define the information about the built asset that the employer requires to ensure that the design is developed in accordance with their needs and that they are able to operate the completed development effectively and efficiently. It is not clear how BIM level 2 could be implemented without EIRs.

There was some concern about what the proposed electronic validation process, would entail and how the industry could be expected to prepare for it in the absence of detailed information.

It is expected that a further announcement will be made once the decisions of the CLC have been formally signed off.