Three prison projects and a court scheme are to trial the use of new build BIM in in the Ministry of Justice as part of the government’s exercise to reduce construction costs, Construction News reported.
Speaking at the RICS BIM conference 2012 this morning, chairman of the government’s BIM working group, Mark Bew, revealed that of the four, a new build project for a 180-cell extension at Cookham Wood prison in Kent will go to tender on February 28. The remaining projects are for refurbishment at Chelmsford Prison and applying BIM to existing projects at the £150m Oakwood Featherstone Prison being built by Kier and the £5m Aberystwyth Law Court. Mr Bew added that the government wanted to get a trial civils project underway by the time of the budget next month.
Meanwhile, a survey from National Building Specification shows almost a third of professionals are now using BIM, according to a report in Building.
The annual survey from NBS found that 31% of professionals are now using BIM compared with 13% in 2010, with three quarters of those aware of BIM predicting they will be using it in 2012.
However, the survey also indicated that BIM remains poorly defined and understood with four out of five of those questioned agreeing that the industry is not yet clear on what BIM is.
Dr Stephen Hamil, RIBA Enterprises head of BIM, said: “The survey clearly shows that in the UK the question is no longer will BIM be adopted but how quickly?
