BIM gathers pace

One of the main future topics in railway infrastructure is the model-based process of planning, building and management with BIM (Building Information Modelling). If you’ve been following our Journey through the Year of Rail, then you’ve probably seen our interview with Ralf Sommer, head of our BIM implementation project, and are already familiar with the topic.

Now we want to hear from someone directly involved. Marcel Nolte is in charge of the BIM team in Zurich and has successfully executed the first use cases. In this interview, we discuss how it all started, what issues those involved in the pilot projects had to grapple with, but most importantly, what opportunities are presented by the digitally based building and planning process.

We’ve divided this interview into three parts due to its length.

Initial pilot projects in collaboration with the SBB

Seek and find: two strong companies are pursuing the same goal and working together. With respect to BIM, both the SBB and the RSRG were prepared to take part in pilot projects and learn and grow from their experiences. Significant improvements in efficiency and quality were already achieved by the end of the second joint project.

BIM in practice – initial impressions

Where exactly can time and costs be saved with BIM? How much preparation time is required and is the digitalisation investment worth it? The results are in: we’re not only on a positive and right path, we’re also experiencing general acceptance both from project participants and employees at the construction site.

BIM – new projects and future prospects

The initial pilot projects have been successfully executed. Our task now is to continue to implement the knowledge gained in a targeted manner. We need to keep our focus and will use our synergies for new major projects so that we can offer planning, work preparation and execution from a single source.

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