BIM Assessment for State Departments of Transportation

Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been used by the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry to enhance the efficiency and quality of work across various stages, including planning, design, construction, and operation and maintenance (OM) of projects. Despite widespread adoption in vertical construction, BIM implementation in infrastructure projects is still falling behind. This disparity can be attributed to several factors, including the complexity and scale of infrastructure projects and varying levels of BIM adoption and integration within organizations. Efforts to standardize BIM practices and enhance the digital capabilities of infrastructure projects are essential to bridge this gap and ensure the industry can benefit from the efficiencies and improvements that BIM offers. This study aims to assess BIM maturity at the organizational level for transportation agencies. The BIM Maturity Index (BMI) sub-elements were grouped based on existing literature and mapped to the National Strategic Roadmap published by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to standardize the terms used in evaluating BIM maturity. A survey questionnaire and BIM maturity tool was developed and administered to several state departments of transportation to assess the current state of BIM implementation in those states. The results indicate that BIM use is still in the initial stages for many of the sub-elements of the BIM Maturity Index and that a lack of standardization of terms remains the most significant challenge among transportation agencies.