UK government mandating BIM on all public building projects beginning in 2016 (?)

From the web-site known as “ConstructionInformer.com”

This article is almost 16 months old, but, even though this is dated news, there was one sentence in this article that I thought I’d bring to the attention of the UK-based reprographers who visit Reprographics 101.  (see sentence, below, highlighted in red type.)

Autodesk Deal Expands Balfour Beatty’s BIM Adoption

BY: DUANE CRAIG - MARCH 22ND, 2012  

Building information modeling, or BIM, offers construction an intelligent model–based process for creating and managing building and infrastructure projects faster, more economically, and with less environmental impact, according to a joint press release from Balfour Beatty and Autodesk.

BIM appears to be getting great traction in Europe with the UK government mandating it on all public building projects beginning in 2016. For some time now, Balfour Beatty, an international infrastructure group, has used Autodesk BIM on a number of high profile projects including the San Francisco Bay Bridge, the widening of the M25 outside London, and design and construction for the replacement of Terminal 2 at London Heathrow International Airport. For the new Terminal 2B, the largest ever airside project at Heathrow, using BIM helped the company coordinate over 30 active stakeholders through 13 interfacing projects and enabled a peak workforce of 1600 to complete work, including a 2K diaphragm wall, the largest in Europe, ahead of schedule.

Now, Balfour Beatty and Autodesk have signed a three year, $12 million dollar contract that will expand Beatty’s adoption of BIM.

Ian Tyler, Chief Executive of Balfour Beatty, said: Innovation and efficiency are at the heart of our strategy and this agreement sets Balfour Beatty apart from its competitors. It extends across all of our capabilities and markets, from infrastructure investment and professional services to construction and on-going built asset management. We will be able to provide our clients with a wealth of new information about the infrastructure we are building and managing on their behalf.

Autodesk will provide training, support and strategic consultancy through Autodesk Consulting on its Autodesk BIM solutions including Autodesk Revit software products, AutoCAD Civil 3D software, Autodesk Navisworks software products, AutoCAD software and Autodesk 3ds Max Design software.