Civil Integrated Management, (CIM) A New Acronym

Written by Marco Cecala

Created on Saturday, 04 September 2010 22:37

For some time now the “vertical” or architectural building community has been using the acronym, BIM, (Building Information Model). The building information model provides a true 3-D look into how the job will be put together. Some of the benefits of this include routing utilities such as electrical, water and ventilating pipes so they do not interfere with each other during installation. As you might guess the process has been a bit slow to take hold. There were problems such as getting various brands of software to talk to each other, but the growing pains are about gone and building information models are reaching a state of maturity and their use is a definite benefit and time saver in any vertical construction job.

It would have been too easy to just make new acronym and let it be called civil information model, so I have had ideas on what really happens with a civil job site. All the data we build and the varied information that we provide becomes an integral part of the process. This includes surfaces, points, progress takeoffs and as-builts among other items.

 I have been asked to present a program at the Associated General Contractors (AGC) annual convention that runs concurrently with ConExpo in Las Vegas, March 2011. The topic of my presentation will be “The Profitable Implementation of CIM, Civil Integrated Management”.

My reasons for changing the acronym are numerous; one reason is because a civil construction site whether it is a basic drive-through restaurant or a heavy highway job, becomes a living breathing thing. This dynamic job site would only be hobbled by the use of a single model built prior to the beginning of construction and expected to be a viable throughout the entire process. I'm not saying that there are always substantial changes to the job, it is the small things that are found in adjusted prior to being produced in reality, that make the integration of a civil site an advantage. For instance, while constructing a building it is known about the height of each floor before construction begins. All related mechanicals must fit within a defined space. On a civil job site, because of unknown subterranean conditions, it may be necessary to reroute utilities because of existing structures or digging conditions that would be cost prohibitive. This is just one of many reasons the civil job site needs to stay fluid.

Our development of integrating civil jobs up and down the chain of responsibility has enabled us to provide a better service, and a more complete initial model. We actually produce our data in a way that makes it easy to disassemble the different pieces of any given site and make changes as required to meet dynamic conditions that are found during construction. I am not saying that every job is riddled with problems and pitfalls, but when the need arises we have to be able to act fast and accurately because there are crews on the job site and they need to keep working. The sound of heavy equipment idling on the site makes an expensive noise.

Currently building information models are used for larger more complex construction jobs, we find the need for integrating civil jobs limited to larger more complex sites as well. I don't know if the day will come when it is required for everyone from the design engineer to the owner to be involved with changes along the way for any given project. Time will tell.

Here is a link to the convention, http://convention.agc.org/ 

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