BrIM for project delivery and the life-cycle: state of the art

Abstract

Bridge Information Modelling (BrIM) was introduced to bridge enterprise stakeholders in design, construction, operations and management. These stakeholders are increasingly realizing that a well thought out leveraging of bridge data for multiple purposes through the entire bridge life cycle is important. This paper surveys the genesis and development of BrIM supported by NSBA, NCHRP, AASHTO, and FHWA. This includes aspects that distinguish it from its close cousin, Building Information Modeling (BIM). Principal questions, issues, and challenges that have been raised by various stakeholders about BrIM are summarized in this paper to help clarify the way forward to increased industry acceptance and deployment of BrIM-enabled workflow.

Keywords:

• BrIM
• workflow
• life-cycle
• IPD
• data
• XML

Acknowledgements

Funding support Federal Highway Administration and assistance from its Contracting Officer's Technical Representative, Mr Krishna Verma, is gratefully acknowledged, as is earlier support from the National Cooperative Highway Research Program and technical advice from their oversight panels. The opinions and conclusions expressed or implied in the report are those of the authors. They are not necessarily those of the Transportation Research Board, the National Research Council, the Federal Highway Administration, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, or the individual states participating in the National Cooperative Highway Research Program. The contributions of current and former graduate students I. Ahn, J. Li, R. Srikonda, V. Tangirala, R. Patil, N. Kannan, and K. Potturi are gratefully acknowledged.