Strategies of BIM Application with Traditional Project Delivery Method: A Case of Building Construction Industry in Pakistan

The availability of current and accurate data has been recognized as a key to improving productivity in construction. Building information modeling (BIM) is expected to meet this need. Public-sector organizations procure construction projects, mostly using the traditional project delivery method (the lowest responsible and responsive bidder approach) that hinders the early collaboration of the designers and contractors, and hence the use of BIM. This lack of communication often results in adversely affecting the accuracy and completeness of scope, schedule, and cost of the project. This paper explores the opportunities and challenges of using BIM on projects procured using design-bid-build (DBB) delivery method in Pakistan. The issue of BIM model development and its ownership were investigated. A survey and a case study were carried out to explore this topic. Of 60 respondents, 70 percent of respondents agreed that BIM could contribute to improved constructability, 70 percent thought that the primary designers should develop the model, and 63 percent of the total respondents felt that the BIM model should be updated by the contractor during project execution. Conversely, only 14 percent of the respondents thought that the contractor should create a three-dimensional (3D) model based on two dimensional (2D) traditional blueprints (in order to gain the benefits of BIM on-site). The experts who were interviewed mentioned that the cost of implementation and shortage of BIM trained professionals are significant barriers. Moreover, existing contract conditions do not accommodate BIM usage, and hence, the contractual obligations of each stakeholder need to be spelled out to facilitate the use of BIM. In the case study, a significant discrepancy of material quantities was found when a BIM model was retroactively created; for example, 20 percent more square footage for the ceiling systems, while 20 percent less in reinforcing steel quantity mostly due to missing information, errors in 2D plans, and errors in quantity calculations. Based on the survey results and interviews, this paper presents a path forward for benefitting from this technology with DBB contracts.