The implementation of the B.I.M. model was previewed most significant of our Group. In addition to the representatives of the various functions involved, the meeting was attended by Giovanni Proietti, director of the Directorate General for Motorway Concessions (DGVCA), and Jordi Camprubi Mateo, Planning and Technical Office Manager of Abertis.

But what is B.I.M.? Building Information Modeling, in Italian Building Information Model, is a descriptive term for a collaborative process of development, growth and analysis of virtual multi-dimensional models of digitally generated works by means of computer programs. In other words, B.I.M. is not a tool or a software but a model for the construction of infrastructures and buildings containing all the information concerning the entire life cycle of a work, from design to construction and maintenance, up to its demolition and decommissioning.

An engineer would say it like this:

The B.I.M. is characterized by the creation and use of geometrically and spatially coordinated "objects", enhanced by data of all kinds (computational, temporal, certifications and documents in general, control deadlines, etc.) which are used to describe a work in many ways.

The B.I.M. is a collaborative method precisely because it allows you to integrate information from all the actors involved in the design, construction, management and maintenance of the infrastructure into a single model. In summary the B.I.M. is based on the concept of "single source of truth", ie the information is all in the same place, all collected and coded in a homogeneous way with very precise rules, and everyone takes them (and puts them) there.

In Italy the adoption of the B.I.M. is a mandatory step foreseen in the Code of Contracts starting from 1 January 2019.

Key element of the B.I.M. is the drafting of the information specifications for the contracting station and above all the definition of a data sharing environment, where they are produced, collected and shared according to contractual criteria, to legal principles on the protection of intellectual property, as well as protected by data security protection devices.

Our team of BIM specialists, of the A31 Valdastico Nord and Highway Construction functions and of the external design companies, has worked ceaselessly in these months to transfer the Final Project of the A31 Nord Lot 1 from paper, so to speak, to the digital dimensions of modeling BIM: the classic geometric 3Ds plus the dimensions of times and quantities / costs have currently been developed. Subsequently, the construction and use phases of the work will also allow the 2 dimensions of management and sustainability to be implemented, of a total of 7.

It was a significant investment in terms of resources, time and complexity of management, but strongly desired to express and strengthen our leadership and excellence both nationally and within the Abertis Group. During the meeting, in fact, the DGVCA manager also confirmed that in Italy there is no precedent for B.I.M. referable to a work of such complexity and size.

Today, thanks to the BIM methodology, the A31 Nord Lot 1 is a reality, a digital model with a level of detail unthinkable before (with a work calendar that updates and feeds to any small variation of the data, a material schedule that identifies for detail the single component ...) which definitively changes the entire design and construction process through its intrinsic ability to guarantee the validity of the data entered in the product at all times of its life cycle, allowing an integrated realization of the order impossible before from now.

Congratulations to the B.I.M. team!