Driving Multidisciplinary Change in Tunnelling through a BIM Open Standard

Abstract: Tunnelling industry is currently in a phase of deep change of paradigm thanks to widespread use of BIM digital twins, from design to Operations & Maintenance phases. This transition has to be intended as the fundamental step to achieve the complete digital integrated design of infrastructures. Authors propose a structured and coordinated design framework, covering all the involved specialties and including a wide variety of interdisciplinary case-studies for the digital management of a tunnel project. This framework is focused on the Building Information Modeling (BIM) approach to project management, based on open standards: the authors, together with worldwide known professionals and companies, are involved in the development of an open format tailored around tunnel industry. The result is a systematic approach to digital underground projects based on international standards of information management, like the ISO 19650, and valid during the whole lifecycle of a project. This approach shows how IFC can be used as a key tool to implement digital transformation and change management into companies of AEC industry.