The government will discuss support for the digitalization of construction on Monday

Prague - The government will discuss support for the digitalization of construction and the introduction of the BIM (Building Information Modeling) method in the Czech Republic on Monday. The goal of Construction 4.0 is to achieve higher productivity, innovation, and competitiveness in the sector. BIM is intended to reduce costs for building renovations and to decrease the risk of cost overruns in public contracts.

"The introduction of the BIM method will save costs on the acquisition and renovation of buildings as well as their operation. Thanks to the implementation of the BIM method in the currently non-digitalized construction sector, the state will be able to build and maintain more buildings for the same amount of money," the document states.

The introduction of the BIM method has a similar significance for construction as the Industry 4.0 initiative does for industrial sectors. BIM can sometimes be simplistically understood as 'digitalization'. The implementation of the BIM method is a fundamental prerequisite for the digitalization of construction, known as Construction 4.0.

According to the report, the innovation for public sector contracting authorities means that the construction and management of buildings should be more efficient, the risk of cost overruns on projects, especially public infrastructure, should be lower, and the transparency of the use of public funds should be higher. Savings resulting from the use of the BIM method are reported to be 20 percent of the total costs over the entire life cycle of the building.

Within the BIM system, a digital multidimensional model of the building is created, which contains geometric and descriptive information and serves as an open database of information about the building for its design, execution, operation, and the interconnection of these phases.

The BIM model is thus a digital counterpart of the actual building. "BIM combines the use of computer 3D modeling with information about buildings to improve collaboration, coordination, and the decision-making process in construction and their operation," the document states. The model also includes non-geometric data. This includes a wide range of management and supporting documents for the building, such as construction diaries, schedules, outputs from the decision-making processes of building authorities, and others.