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BC Semantic BIM: delivering decision support for rail asset managers
Use of BIM is growing in the UK rail sector, but how do you make sure BIM is relevant to your asset management needs?
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Overview
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3. Is BIM relevant to the rail industry? A quick look at how BIM is relevant to the rail industry and not just new projects.
4. BIM is just modelling - right? A break down of why the B in BIM should be for Better not Building.
6. From analogue to digital working An example of moving from the traditional to modern practices.
7. Ensuring compliance A reflection on industry standards and how to be compliant
8. Creating shared intelligence A glance at the wider application of BIM
9. BIM is only part of the bigger data opportunity The changing face of rail
10. References
Is BIM relevant to the rail industry?
Use of BIM is growing in the UK rail sector, but how do you make sure BIM is relevant to your asset management needs?
To some in the rail industry, building information modelling (BIM) may seem irrelevant.
For a start, the term itself seems associated with buildings (many rail projects don’t involve any buildings, of course) – but use ‘building’ as a verb and it clearly applies to any project involving some kind of construction.
Others, particularly in the operations side of existing rail infrastructure, may think of BIM as mainly being used to deliver new projects and so not relevant to their day-to-day activities. However, this perception is also being eroded. BIM and related data-capture technologies are increasingly being used to help in replacing, repairing, or refurbishing existing rail assets.
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Another issue is the focus on modelling, which many people mainly associate with 3D models, both physical and digital. While BIM incorporates geometric information and is widely used for visualisation of built assets, it also extends to include information about time (4D) – helping project teams sequence construction activities, for example – about cost (5D) – supporting detailed project cost plans and forecasts – and about future asset management (6D).
All are important elements of BIM. But when looking at the upkeep and improvement of existing rail assets, perhaps 4D stands out; being able to simulate and visualise how a project will be delivered while maintaining key rail operations around it can help ensure safe processes, avoid or minimise service interruptions and help maintain customer satisfaction. A longer-term view might see 6D as key: safe and efficient whole-life management of an asset will be critical to the future profitability of a train operating company.
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BIM is just modelling - right?
However, BIM is just part of a much bigger data picture, particularly when it comes to decision support for managers of large infrastructure. For a start, you will have huge archives of analogue legacy information gathered over decades of infrastructure provision.
Second, you will need to ensure continued compliance with the rigorous regime enforced by the Office of Rail and Road.
And third, large infrastructure projects spanning entire regions bring particular geospatial data challenges and interface risks.
Let’s look at each of these….
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From analogue to digital working
Rail assets are designed for decades of safe and efficient operation. They are subject to frequent checks, to regular repair and maintenance work, and to periodic upgrades or replacement. The resulting projects, therefore, have to combine information about the original assets, operational information, and data about the work to be undertaken.
For example, key sections of the existing UK network are being electrified. Rail electrification projects require accuracy in both the fabrication of the gantries supporting the overhead lines and their accurate positioning alongside the track. To aid this process, laser scanning and photogrammetry are increasingly being used to capture detailed topographical information (‘point clouds’) which can be used to create a three-dimensional model of the track and its immediate surroundings. (The same tools can also be used to scan completed works for as-built records purposes.)
At GroupBC, we have seen this at first hand. We have been working with ABC Electrification (a joint venture by Alstom, Babcock and Costain), providing our BC CDE (Common Data Environment) to support the consortium’s work on the Great Western electrification project.
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Ensuring compliance
Network Rail’s engineering assurance processes have long required submission of 2D drawings to prescribed CAD standards, not models. Engineers may base their designs on 3D models, but required outputs are still 2D PDF drawings and associated documents and specifications.
This is a reflection that industry standards, processes and classifications covering BIM and other more data-centric approaches to rail infrastructure provision and to asset management and operation are still in development.
Standards development has gathered momentum since the UK Government first mandated BIM for centrally procured projects in 2011, but the provisions relating to infrastructure assets and to geospatial information – critical for linear infrastructure projects – remain work in progress.
For example, Uniclass 2015 extended the scope of previous versions to allow consistent classification of all kinds of built assets, and is compatible with BIM Level 2, but work continues to create detailed classifications for many linear asset features (embankments, flood barriers, etc).
GroupBC has extensive experience of supporting compliance requirements with its BC Assure process management system, while the BC Semantic BIM platform supports projects’ use of the BIM Toolkit and verifies that submitted data meets clients’ information requirements.
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Creating shared intelligence
Infrastructure projects also demand accurate geospatial data - as was highlighted in the recent Foresight 2020 report from the Association for Geographic Information (AGI). Its authors argue for greater convergence between BIM and geospatial; a paper by Arup’s Andy Kervell looks at the use of BIM for risk mitigation in Network Rail Infrastructure Projects (NRIP), helping identify where the use of BIM and/or GIS can help projects meet maintainer/operator asset information delivery obligations.
This wider application of data around BIM is particularly relevant to GroupBC because it fits with our ‘Semantic BIM’ vision. The technology underpinning our data engine lets you extract rich asset information from a model and slice it an any number of ways. While the advantages of BIM are well-known (visualisation, clash detection, construction sequencing, etc), a semantic approach additionally enables access to a huge web of linked data.
This means rail project information, for example, might be rapidly queried, analysed and combined with both internal and external data sources. Rail operators could link to operational data held in internal financial or HR systems, or to live feeds from sensors; externally, with GIS as the location ‘glue’, they might link to relevant meteorological data, planning systems, even data provided by other infrastructure providers. The AGI report’s chief author Dr Anne Kemp describes how, at Dawlish during the 2014 winter floods, Network Rail and the Environment Agency had competing flood strategies which could have effectively cancelled each other out; open data sharing helped prevent this.
Semantic Data ServerBC Semantic Web
EXTERNAL LINKED DATA
e.g. Ordnance Survey
INTERNAL SYSTEMS e.g. ERP
COMMON DATA ENVIRONMENT
BC BIM Viewer BC Assure
BC CDEfor Documents and Data
BC Tendering
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BIM is only part of the bigger data opportunity
Adoption and use of BIM, of digital data capture technologies, and of GIS by the rail industry will grow. It is already being used extensively by Crossrail and its delivery partners; Network Rail’s London Bridge redevelopment has seen contractor Costain deploy laser scanning, BIM, augmented reality and other 21st century technologies; and HS2’s chief engineer Professor Andrew McNaughton has declared: “We’ve decided to bet the shop on building information modelling (BIM).” Other large infrastructure providers – Highways England, Environment Agency, Tideway, among them – are also helping develop the necessary standards governing effective use of BIM and other data.
Such steps will also help change the image of the rail industry. Professor McNaughton wrote in the Daily Telegraph recently:
“too many people still see rail as being a difficult, dirty and relatively crude industry. HS2 will be the project that changes those perceptions and helps to inspire the next generation of rail engineers.”
Sophisticated use of data connecting the rail system to other transport and communication networks will be vital to that transformation.
BIM is only part of the journey.
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References, resources and further reading
Industrial strategy: Government and Industry in Partnership; HM Government, Crown Copyright 2012 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/34710/12-1327-building-information-modelling.pdf
Building Information Modelling (BIM) Working Party Strategy Paper; Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, July 2011 http://www.bimtaskgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/BIS-BIM-strategy-Report.pdf
Semantic BIM Platform; GroupBC Website, Business Collaborator Ltd, 2016 http://www.groupbc.com/products/semantic-bim/ http://www.groupbc.com/products/bc-cde/ http://www.groupbc.com/products/bc-assure/ http://www.groupbc.com/products/bc-bim-viewer/
Semantic BIM Video; GroupBC Website, Business Collaborator Ltd, 2016 http://www.groupbc.com/resources/videos/
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