EXPLORING BIM FOR OPERATIONAL INTEGRATED ASSET MANAGEMENT – A PRELIMINARY STUDY UTILISING REAL-WORLD INFRASTRUCTURE DATA

Abstract

The use of 3D information models within collaborative working environments and the practice of Building Information Modelling (BIM) are becoming more commonplace within infrastructure projects. Currently used predominantly during the design and construction phase, the use of BIM is capable in theory of providing the information at handover that will satisfy the Asset Information Requirements (AIRs) of the future Infrastructure Manager (IM). One particular challenge is establishing a link between existing construction-centric information and the asset-centric information needed for future operations. Crossrail, a project to build a new high-frequency railway underneath London, is handling many such challenges as they prepare to handover their digital information to the future operator, in particular the need to provide a two-way link between a federated 3D CAD model and an object-relational Asset Information Management System (AIMS). This paper focusses on the potential for improved Asset Management (AM) by integrating BIM and GIS systems and practices, and makes a preliminary report on how 3D spatial queries can be used to establish a two-way relational link between two information systems (3D geometry and asset lists), as well as the challenges being overcome to transform the data to be suitable for AM.