Challenge
With the implementation of Construction Information Management (BIM), which (generally) relates to virtual construction and digital collaboration between all project partners within a construction project, the Roads and Traffic Agency (AWV) of the Flemish government is fully committed to the evolution towards a data-driven organization. AWV makes maximum use of the possibilities of modern digital methods and technologies to collect, manage and use correct, complete and up-to-date information about its assets. The 'assets' are the road infrastructure objects that AWV manages, maintains and operates: roads, cycle paths, tunnels, bridges and all peripheral infrastructure. With BIM, AWV can efficiently collect and manage all available information about its assets during their entire life cycle (study and design phase / construction and installation / management and maintenance / replacement or removal) in a central database. By collecting the asset data once and exchanging it in a standardized manner, this data can be made uniformly available to all parties involved at any time during the life cycle of the assets.
BIM is already widespread and well established in the buildings sector. Through 'BIM 4 Infra', AWV now also wants to further roll out BIM in (road) infrastructure projects. As a contracting authority, AWV does this, among other things, by developing standardized specifications documents, including BIM requirements in tendered contracts, and the development of a (public) data standard: the Object Type Library (OTL).
The OTL consists of three basic components: object types: the 'virtual' counterparts of the assets in the 'real' environment; attributes: the properties of the object types; relations: relations between object types.
During the (further) development of the OTL information model, correctly characterizing the objects and adding properties to each object type poses few practical problems. However, establishing relationships between object types is a lot more complex. In the context of this PIO project, AWV is looking for a broadly applicable relationship tool for creating and managing semantic relationships between assets, in accordance with the OTL. In this way, better and more complex analyzes can be carried out on the asset data in the 'virtual' copy, which should allow AWV to 'real' manage its assets more efficiently, operate them more smoothly and (also) maintain them predictively.
The intended relationship tool is not a separate goal in itself, but is an important link in the broader BIM and OTL story of AWV as an infrastructure manager and builder. The information needs of AWV, of which relationships between assets (as object types defined in the OTL) are an essential part, are strongly focused on being able to (re)use all collected information during the entire life cycle of an asset. This should enable AWV to better maintain the road infrastructure and to manage and operate it more efficiently, with all the associated benefits: more safety, less unexpected damage, better traffic flow, better and more well-founded multi-year plans for maintenance and investments, etc. That is all part of to the mission and vision of AWV: committed to smooth, safe and sustainable mobility for all road users.
