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Building Information Models in the Corps of Engineers

Nov 6, 2009

By Rachel Goodspeed (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Europe District)

WIESBADEN, Germany - With the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers implementing building information modeling systems - better known as BIM - across the divisions, the Europe District is beginning to require German government construction agencies, or bauämter, to use the system on a limited basis.

However, as with any technology adoption process, the District has to take the implementation slower than its counterparts due to its physical location in Germany.

"It isn't really correct to say that BIM is completely new to Europe," said Jim Noble, Engineering Branch chief for the District. "There are many German firms in private industry that are on board with BIM. The challenge for us is that many architects the bauämter uses do not have much experience with BIM."

Right now, the District has two trial projects requiring the use of BIM - a child development center at Landstuhl and a youth services center at Katterbach. The simplicity of these buildings' structure make them good pilot projects, said Joseph McKenna, Europe District BIM manager.

"They are one-story buildings with fairly standard systems and project scope is fixed. As the Bauämter and designers become more familiar with BIM, the projects selected will be progressively more complicated leading up to medical facilities - one of the most complex types of buildings," he said. "The more complicated the building, the more important it is to use BIM."

Two clinics - one in Vilseck and one in Katterbach - are also using BIM by customer request. The expectation from the customer is savings in time and effort during design and construction, and after completion, utilize the BIM model for facility maintenance, McKenna said.

It will take time to fully incorporate BIM into the Europe District construction process due to the legal process outlined in ABG 75, an agreement between the U.S. and German governments that defines how construction works are accomplished in Germany.

"Our job now is to get together with our partners, agree on some parameters, starting points and interpretations and move forward. We're doing just that," Noble said.

Additionally, District employees are receiving training on the new system. A recent five-week training session included architects and mechanical, electrical and structural engineers, and District officials plan on having more training in the near future.

"Right now we're focusing on getting the designers up to speed before we move on to reviewers, who will eventually see BIM models as part of package submittals," McKenna said. "There is a common misconception that BIM is just a computer program - BIM is a process. The program doesn't just show a 3-D model - we've had that capability with CAD - this is smart 3-D. It's a composition now. It shows exactly what a wall is made of and the volume of material."

McKenna said the real benefit of incorporating BIM into the District is more than just money savings. Not only does BIM give designers a direct translation into the construction contract, the building owners have all of that information electronically rather than in stacks of manuals making easier to access.

"The real benefit is that customers will be able to maintain their buildings more efficiently," he said. "Now you can tie BIM into other databases that will tell the building manager when maintenance needs to occur, rather than letting problems happen first and then fixing it. It allows for preventative maintenance which translates into cost and labor savings."

For now, McKenna said he and other BIM managers around the District are tracking the pilot projects closely through design, construction and completion to ensure the information is being input correctly.

"The whole process saves money. Now we just have to get everyone in the District up to speed with the system so we can continue to integrate more parts of the process into our projects," he said. "It won't be an easy transition, but we were able to make the transition from drawing on paper to CAD, so I think we'll be able to make this transition."