Implementing building information modeling in public works projects in Ireland

Abstract

The Irish State in recent years has suffered huge financial losses in the public works sector, which has now pushed the Irish Government to explore new ways of controlling cost. This background lead to the introduction of the Capital Works Management Framework in 2007 which aimed to support the certainty of outcome in terms of cost and quality, as well as improved risk management, through the implementation of fixed price contracts. In order to successfully compete within this framework it is recommended by the authors, that Irish Government moves towards the legal mandating of BIM. This can ensure a greater cost certainty for the Irish Government on recent investments that include a €1.5 billion programme to provide new schools across the country. In an attempt to promote BIM within Ireland a recent pilot workshop and a further ten BIM workshops where commissioned, in which served as the main primary research tool for this paper. Despite the success of these workshops, Ireland is still a long way from embracing BIM and would require the commissioning of a pilot project, from a sceptical Irish Government, to see its true value. In order for the Irish Government to successfully guarantee a more reliable method of cost certainty and greater value, it is recommended by the authors, that the Irish Government move towards the mandatory use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) on public works projects by following a similar methodology to that adopted in the UK. There is a plan for a phased five-year development within the UK that public works projects will be required to use BIM techniques from 2016. This plan was devised around a hypothesis which defined a scenario in which the Government client would have an estate that was smarter and better equipped to face a low carbon economy, with associated reductions in delivery and carbon emissions. This paper will set about investigation how BIM can address the following specific goals of the CWMF, namely:  Move towards greater cost certainty at contract award stage and ensure, as far as practicable, that the accepted tender prices and the final cost are the same.  Award contracts on the basis of a lump-sum fixed-price to the greatest extent possible.  Rebalance risk, so that there is optimal allocation of risk.  Achieve value for money.  Achieve more efficient delivery of the projects.