Data Drops for Tunnel Information Modelling

Abstract

In the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry, as well as in the tunnelling domain, inter‐company processes between partners in different roles in large‐scale construction projects still exhibit great potential towards digitalisation. Thereby, information should be seamlessly shared between partners according to the Building Information Modelling (BIM) paradigm. Today, different types of artefacts (e.g., models, plans, documents, etc.) are shared at different points in time, which differ in terms of requirements, information content, as well as data formats. In this article, we extend and prototypically implement the concept of Data Drops to provide those artefacts in a digitalised form via a shared Data Drop management platform. For this purpose, we have developed a formal, well‐defined indexed data structure on a metadata level. This not only facilitates traceability, but also enables searching for specific meta‐information and provides a common view on Data Drops. In addition, a networked view between different drops can be provided. The approach is being evaluated on the use case of a real tunnel construction project.

Digital Transformation in Tunneling – A Project Report on TransIT

“…Over the long course of large projects, these documents are continuously updated and extended by individual project partners but often need to be reviewed and agreed upon by a consortium. In practice, the so-called data drop concept (Figure 2) emerged as a best practice of document management, where each data drop represents a snapshot of an updated, reviewed, and accepted version of all (or a large set of) managed documents (PASKALEVA, NIEDERMOSER, VIERHAUSER et al, 2022).…”