Dive Brief:

• The U.K. will require all government construction contractors to use Building Information Modeling (BIM) beginning in 2016, but only 16% of contractors are completely ready, according to a U.K. industry association survey.
• The Electrical Contractors' Association survey also revealed that another 57% of contractors were not completely ready to implement BIM, and 27% were not ready at all.
• The U.K. will require contractors to use Level 2 BIM, which allows for the sharing of digital files in a common format between all the participants in a construction project.

Dive Insight:

Although the U.S. does not have a similar BIM mandate, the technology is a major trend in the industry across the globe, as it takes construction out of the realm of two-dimensional plans and drawings and allows owners, contractors, architects and engineers to collaborate using 3-D images of floor plans, site plans or entire buildings.

BIM saves money on design costs, scheduling and overall project management by reducing duplication of effort — as long as everyone is BIM-capable and working from the same model version, which is what U.K. officials are trying to accomplish with its mandatory BIM rules.

In response to the ECA survey results, Cooling Post reported, ECA director of business services Paul Reeve said the survey shows that "'BIM awareness' is generally high across building services, but many contractors, and others associated with our sector, still have a long way to go to be ready for the government’s 2016 BIM deadline."