Russia following UK's lead with plans for BIM mandate

Dive Brief:

Russia will require contractors on government-funded projects to use building information modeling (BIM) starting in 2019, according to the Global Construction Review.
In his announcement, the head of the Russian Construction, Housing and Utilities ministry, Mikhail Menn, said the U.K.'s 30% BIM-related cost savings offer support to Russia's decision to require BIM.
Since May, all Russian government construction contracts have been drafted to include BIM, according to RussianConstruction.com.

Dive Insight:

While Menn just officially announced the government's move, Andrey Belyuchenko, director of the Ministry of Construction, Housing and Utilities, told Construction Dive in June of the country's plans to possibly implement a BIM mandate. He said Russian contractors are at various stages in the implementation of BIM, but that fact is not stopping the country from looking ahead and developing its own open BIM standard. Russian construction officials are so certain that they will become proficient at BIM that they plan to export their future expertise to other countries via private industry.

While the Russians have not provided details on exactly what their BIM program will entail, it will most likely follow the direction of the U.K., which enacted a Level 2 BIM mandate earlier this year. This is a minimal requirement, as it only necessitates similar files for data exchange, not 3-D modeling.

Of course, it is not just Russia, the U.K. and the U.S. seeing the benefits of BIM. In June, a Research and Markets study determined that the international BIM market will be worth $11.7 billion by 2020, growing at a compounded annual rate of 21.6% between 2016 and 2022. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to take off when it comes to the technology because of increased construction activity, as well as that region's desire for BIM mandates. A July Timetric Construction Intelligence Center survey also found that the majority of global construction industry players considered BIM the "future of the industry."

While there are some U.S. BIM requirements from agencies like the General Services Administration, Coast Guard, Army Corps of Engineers and Department of Veterans Affairs, experts agree that there likely is no U.K.-comparable mandate in the near future for the U.S., partly due to the fragmentation of the U.S. construction industry.