An investigation into the improvement of the contract preparation phase of the BIM-based construction

Abstract

Building information modeling (BIM) is gaining its importance through the advantages it can provide to the project stakeholders. It has the potential to support competitiveness of the construction companies through enhanced and lean processes contributing to the cost and time effectiveness and customer satisfaction. Regulating the relationships of stakeholders throughout the entire building life cycle can become, however, a challenge as all stakeholders in various phases of the project share information through the common BIM model. Stakeholders in the construction industry can experience concerns in BIM processes due to legal difficulties as well as difficulties, claims, and disputes in the contract execution phase. Consequently, this situation can obstacle the spread of BIM integration into projects. This research aims to contribute to the improvement of the contract preparation phase of the BIM-based construction projects through a preliminary checklist template proposal which can be considered as a potential input in the contract preparation phase of these projects. With this aim, the following objectives have been addressed: to review the BIM guidelines, standard contracts, and protocols; to determine the critical aspects and issues to be considered in the BIM-based construction contracts; and to propose a preliminary checklist template which can be considered as a potential input in the contract preparation phase of the BIM-based construction projects. The first objective has been achieved through literature review and review of relevant international guidelines, standard contracts, and protocols. The second objective has been achieved through analyses of legal issues and causes of disputes related with BIM-based construction projects based on the litigation awards and case-law research conducted in national and international databases. Furthermore, for the accomplishment of the second objective, interviews have been performed with professionals working in the BIM-based construction projects who are experienced in and having expertise in BIM. Additionally, to achieve the second objective, an online questionnaire survey has been applied to professionals and academics who have expertise in BIM and/or experience in working in BIM-based construction projects. The third objective has been achieved through the preparation of the preliminary checklist template based on the findings obtained through literature review, interviews, and online questionnaire.