Sub and specialty contractors are at the workplace every day, so many practical benefits that proponents of BIM claim will arise from its use should translate directly into cost and time savings for them, and they do, but not always, and not to the same degree as advertised. One concrete subcontractor who has spent four years and “invested millions” in developing his own system for producing construction BIM for process planning, and then purchased display technology for taking BIM to the jobsite to prep his crews, has decided the exercise hasn’t been worth it. Related Links: Building Team Views Technological

Kimon Onuma keeps whipping up  BIMStorms, his Web-based planning charrettes that can involve hundreds of building team members. The next BIMStorm will be live at the AECST Conference in Washington, D.C., from Dec. 8-11. Onuma, who uses the Onuma Planning System software to en-able the charrettes, plans to have a theater on the AECST show floor. There will be live interactions with teams involved in earlier BIMStorms—a word coined in 2007. For all of 2009, Onuma Inc., Pasadena, Calif., is planning an ongoing “low-carbon collaboration” BIMStorm. Photo: Onuma, Inc. Related Links: Building Team Views Technological Tools as Best Chance For

Startup advice to designers about to launch into building information modeling: “Jump in with both feet; halfway measures do not work best. Use BIM on an actual project with a technology-savvy team that won’t be intimidated by the software. Training works best if it is used it right away, so apply it as you go. Set up training sessions that use the actual project for work samples. Get outside help from a knowledgeable and effective trainer, perhaps found through your software vendor. Once started, stick with it. There will be some frustrations at first, but you’ll work through them. Set

The legal community is struggling to assist in developing meaningful contract terms relating to the use of technology in design. That’s not surprising given the speed with which building information modeling has appeared on the construction scene, say lawyers. Further complicating the legal scene is a lack of industry standards covering what BIM is and does. There also is disagreement about the best process to generate model design and which deliverables should be derived from the completed model. Related Links: Building Team Views Technological Tools as Best Chance For Change Virtual Collaborative Charrettes Give Glimpse of Future Forum Tackles Teamwork

Constructors, some of whom have been using building information models to help them build faster, better and for less money for several years, are still grappling with many of the same BIM challenges facing designers: software immaturity, hardware costs, training, reworking of traditional relationships and habits, and especially interoperability. Though contractors don’t have the same concerns about intellectual property, they have other issues. One big one is field acceptance of, and reliance on, BIM-enabled construction. Builders report resistance from their superintendents down the supply chain to tradespeople. Related Links: Building Team Views Technological Tools as Best Chance For Change Virtual

The world is changing for owners of all sizes as they venture into virtual design and construction. A few years ago software developers were the ones pushing building information modeling, but owners now see themselves advocating for the tool that can lead to project collaboration. Few have even tried, much less embraced, multiparty contracts, however, where core members of the team share in project risks and rewards. Rendering: Vico Software Source: McGraw-Hill Construction, 2008, Building Information Modeling Study Related Links: Building Team Views Technological Tools as Best Chance For Change Virtual Collaborative Charrettes Give Glimpse of Future Forum Tackles Teamwork

As Americans drove less, federal gas taxes and other revenue flowing into the Highway Trust Fund fell by $3 billion in fiscal year 2008, compared with the sum collected the year before, the Dept. of Transportation reported. DOT said on Nov. 19 that the trust fund took in $31 billion in fiscal 2008, down 8.8% from the $34 billion collected in the previous year. As income dropped, 2008 spending from the trust fund on highway and transit projects rose by $2 billion, compared with 2007's level. DOT also said that vehicle miles traveled continued to fall, declining 4.4% in September,

A near failure of Arthur V. Watkins Dam, a leaking U-shaped earth-fill levee structure located 10 miles northwest of Ogden, Utah, is prompting a compressed-schedule repair, squeezing two years of work into one. The dam was within a few days of failure, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials say, threatening lives and major flood damage to surrounding property. General contractor Geo-Solutions Inc., New Kensington, Pa., is consequently running double shifts and using specially modified equipment to speed up repair work. It designed a 150-cu-yd-per-hour slurry plant fed by twin 60-ton silos for three times the output of a typical facility. Geo-Solutions

Just when the nation’s airports thought their post-9/11 recovery challenges were behind them, upheaval in the nation’s airline industry has clouded the future of many facility and airside construction programs. Months of surging oil prices, volatile credit markets, and sagging U.S. economic fortunes culminated in a summertime string of drastic service cutbacks, steep fare hikes, and other measures aimed at staunching the flow of red ink from the airlines’ balance sheets. Clark County, Nev., Department of Aviation Scheduled for completion in 2012, the 1.87-million-sq-ft Terminal 3 will enable McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas to handle an additional five million

Ohio Dept. of Transportation officials and Cleveland May­or Frank Jackson are locked in discussion over whether ODOT should close one of the city’s major bridges that is rapidly deteriorating. The 5,078-ft-long Inner Belt Bridge, a canti­levered steel-truss structure similar in design to Min­neapolis’ Interstate 35W bridge, was scheduled for rehabilitation until recent inspections prompted the state to propose closing it and building a replacement over two years. Jack­son says closing the bridge, which carries I-90 through downtown, would choke off a needed economic lifeline. It carries nearly 120,000 cars per day. Photo: Donald Bowen Corroded steel chords compromise Inner Belt