U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000
Once considered just for buildings, Building Information Modeling (BIM) is gaining rapid acceptance in several infrastructure industries, including highway transportation. BIM, as applied to highway infrastructure (referred to in this report as BIM for infrastructure), involves delivering capital projects collaboratively (through the planning, design, and construction phases) and managing services the built infrastructure is expected to provide efficiently using digital processes rather than traditional paper-based processes.
The movement toward BIM for infrastructure has been growing in the United States (U.S.) and is becoming more widely used by industry, including engineers, planners, contractors, and owners. Despite these developments, progress related to BIM implementation in the highway infrastructure arena has been slow in the U.S. compared to other industries (e.g., buildings). This study was conducted on behalf of FHWA’s Global Benchmarking Program (GBP) to document evolving trends in BIM implementations in BIM-mature nations and their public highway infrastructure agencies, with a focus on understanding how other countries are using BIM for infrastructure to better deliver transportation projects, manage assets, and provide related services with a view to benchmark and advance U.S. practice.
