The Application and Development of BIM Technology in

Transportation Industry in Guangdong Province

Shuangke Gou

1,a

, Zhaohui Tang

2,b

, Xinyi Zhao

3,c

, Guozhu Li

2,d

, Cheng Liu

2,e

and Ling Yang

2,f

Research Institute of Highway (RIOH), Ministry of Transport, Beijing, China

China-Road Transportation Verification & Inspection, Hi-Tech Co.,Ltd.(CTVIC), Beijing, China

Central Research Institute of Building and Construction Co., Ltd, MCC Group, Beijing, China

18810603169@163.com

Keywords

: BIM Technology, Transportation Industry, Policies, Typical Projects, Development.

Abstract

: In recent years, Building Information Modelling (BIM) technology has been widely used in the civil

engineering industry, and the benefits of BIM technology are gradually brought out. This paper introduces

the development and application of BIM technology in transportation industry in Guangdong Province. The

relevant industry policies of BIM in Guangdong Province are introduced. Then, three typical BIM technology

application cases, including the Nansha Bridge, the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link, and the Huangmaohai Link,

are analyzed and exhibited. Finally, the experiences of BIM technology development in the transportation

industry in Guangdong Province are summarized.

1 INTRODUCTION

As the second revolution of the engineering

construction industry under the background of the

information age, BIM technology has attracted

widespread attention from governments, scholars and

practitioners in the engineering industry around the

world (Costin, Adibfar, Hu, and Chen 2018, Zhao

2017). In recent years, China has successively

introduced policies to increase the promotion of BIM

technology (Lin and Zhang 2018). General Secretary

Xi Jinping pointed out that it is necessary to

accelerate the promotion of digital industrialization

and rely on information technology innovation. The

Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development

issued the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the

Coordinated Development of Intelligent Construction

and Building Industrialization in 2020, focusing on

increasing building information Model (BIM),

Internet of Things and other technology applications

throughout the construction process (Liao 2020).

Local provinces and cities have successively issued

BIM promotion and application policies, aiming to

promote the further application of BIM technology

(Yang, Zhang, Yuan, and Iop 2019).

Since the reform and opening up, the Guangdong-

Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has fully

carried forward the opening and developing spirit,

and has gradually become one of the most open and

economically vigorous regions in China (Cai 2017).

It has an important strategic position in the overall

situation of the country’s development, and it also

laid a good foundation for the development of digital

transportation. The Department of Transportation of

Guangdong Province follows the strategies of

"Digital China" and "Building a Country with Strong

Transportation Network". Important local policies

such as the Three-year implementation plan for

Guangdong Province to promote the construction of

new infrastructure (2020-2022) and the Guangdong

Province Digital Transportation Strategic Plan

actively promote the application of digital technology

in the transportation industry (Ren 2019). These

policies point out the direction for the development of

digital transportation. In addition, the rapid

development of a new generation of information

technology has paved the way for the application of

digital transportation (Ghaffarianhoseini et al. 2017).

Driven by economy, policy and technology, the

transportation industry in Guangdong Province is

about to usher in a wave of digital transformation.

This paper focuses on three typical BIM technology

application cases in Guangdong Province, including

the Nansha Bridge, the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link,

and the Huangmaohai Link. Started in 2015, 2017 and

2020 respectively, these three projects represented the

Gou, S., Tang, Z., Zhao, X., Li, G., Liu, C. and Yang, L.

The Application and Development of BIM Technology in Transportation Industry in Guangdong Province.

DOI: 10.5220/0011149300003437

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Public Management and Big Data Analysis (PMBDA 2021), pages 11-15

ISBN: 978-989-758-589-0

development of BIM technology in the transportation

industry in Guangdong Province. This article

summarizes the overview and highlights of these

projects, analyzes the application and promotion of

BIM technology in Guangdong Province.

2 OVER VIEW OF TYPICAL BIM

APPLICATIONS IN

GUANGDONG PROVINCE

As one of the most open and developed urban clusters

in China, Guangdong Province has always been in a

leading position in BIM applications in the

transportation industry. At the beginning of 2015, the

BIM work of the Nansha Bridge was officially

launched during the construction period, marking the

first application of BIM technology in the industry.

This project has created several key technologies such

as the BIM standardized application mode of super-

large highway bridges, the integration of BIM design

and fabrication of steel box girder, and the

management of short-term assembled segment beams

through BIM and IoT. The first application of BIM

technology in a mega bridge project has achieved

good results.

In October 2017, the application of BIM

technology for the life cycle management of the

Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link was officially launched.

Based on the work in Nansha Bridge, the Shenzhen-

Zhongshan Link has taken a big step forward in

informatization. The project has realized the business

collaboration of project construction-quality

inspection-metered payment process. The project

established a big data display system for real-time

monitoring of key project data. Through the

development of mobile APP, business management

has been mobilized. Through the introduction of

digital signatures, the electronic engineering

documents have been realized. The application of

BIM technology in this project has solved several key

problems.

In March 2020, the BIM and informatization work

of the Huangmaohai Cross-sea Link was officially

launched. The project fully inherited the technical

foundation of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link and

Nansha Bridge, pushing BIM and informatization

application to a new level. The project focused on

optimizing the coding collaboration system in depth,

and improved the application level of project

construction-quality inspection-metered payment

collaboration. The project has developed an

integrated BIM platform, carried out in-depth mining

and analysis of multi-dimensional data, and

introduced mobile digital signatures to push the

informatization of engineering construction and

management to a new level.

Figure 1: Over view of typical BIM applications in Guangdong Province.

PMBDA 2021 - International Conference on Public Management and Big Data Analysis

3 THE APLLICATION AND

DEVELOPMENT OF BIM

TECHNOLOGY

3.1 First Application in Nansha Bridge

Nansha Bridge is an east-west cross-river passage

project connecting Nansha District of Guangzhou and

Shatian Town of Dongguan. Located in the

Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area,

this project is the western end of the Guangzhou-

Longchuan Expressway. The project has a total

length of 12.9km and a total investment of 11.2

billion yuan, including two kilometer-class

suspension bridges. At the beginning of 2015, the

BIM application during the construction period of

Nansha Bridge was officially launched. The project

aims at digital design, digital construction and

intelligent management. Five key technologies,

including the BIM standard application mode for

super-large highway bridges, the integration of BIM

in steel girder design and fabrication, management of

short-term assembly segment beams with IOT

technology, BIM platform for collaborative

management, and application guidelines of BIM

technology in mega bridge construction projects,

have been developed.

Figure 2: Over view of the Nansah Bridge Project.

However, there are still some aspects to be

improved in the application of BIM technology in

Nansha Bridge. The information management system

of Nansha Bridge lacks a unified management

platform and full life cycle planning. It needs to

switch between different systems, thus the user

experience is not good. Data between different

technical service providers cannot be shared and

transferred, which results in poor interoperability.

These problems reduce the application efficiency of

BIM and information systems.

3.2 Development in

Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link

The Shenzhen-Zhongshan Crossing Sea Channel

Project (referred to as the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link)

is another world-class sea-crossing cluster project

integrating bridges, islands, tunnels, and underwater

intercommunication after the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-

Macao Bridge. It is one of the major engineering

projects in the national 13th five-year plan. In

October 2017, the full life cycle BIM technology

application of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link was

officially launched. The project is guided by the goal

to improve quality, increase efficiency, and reduce

costs. The project has developed several key

technologies, including 3D digital design and

delivery, steel shell intelligent manufacturing, smart

beam factory application, collaboration management

platform, and smart construction. This project

achieved the unification of management systems, the

integration of design-manufacture-inspection

process, paperless management, key processes

collaboration, and site visualization, which solves

some of the key problems in construction

management.

The Application and Development of BIM Technology in Transportation Industry in Guangdong Province

Figure 3: The BIM platform for Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link.

Based on the work of the Nansha Bridge, the

Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link has taken a big step

forward in BIM application. However, in the actual

application process of the project, there are still

insufficient user habits and insufficient information

system assessment and reward mechanisms, which

affects the enthusiasm of some participants in using

the system. The mobile terminal has been able to

achieve some basic functions, but the ability of

approval management is not strong enough.

3.3 Improvement in Huangmaohai

Link

The Huangmaohai Link Project starts in Zhuhai,

which connects to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao

Bridge. The project starts at Gaolangang Interchange,

crosses the Huangmao Sea with a length of 14 km,

and ends in Taishan, Jiangmen. The total length of the

road is about 31 km, including a 700-meter-span

cable-stayed bridge and a 720-meter-span double

tower cable-stayed bridge. At the beginning of 2020,

the BIM application and informatization of the

Huangmaohai Link was officially launched. The

Huangmaohai Link Management Center optimized

the division of WBS and bill of quantities. A standard

mapping relationship between WBS and bill of

quantities is established. Based on the unified project

management code system, each business system

establishes a connection with each other. A

collaborative management of process inspection-

progress control-quality supervision-measurement

payment-file management is achieved. The current

3D graphics technology has high requirements on

computers and networks, which greatly affects the

value of BIM technology. The BIM platform of

Huangmaohai Link was comprehensively upgraded.

The operation speed was improved and the display

details was enriched. New platform reduces computer

performance requirements and improves the

application of 3D models. Finally, the Huangmaohai

Link adopts mobile KEY technology, which realizes

signature approval on the mobile phone. The legality

and convenience of electronic files are effectively

balanced.

Figure 4: Improved BIM platform in Huangmaohai Link.

PMBDA 2021 - International Conference on Public Management and Big Data Analysis

4 CONCLUSION

Informatization is an inevitable demand for the

development of the transportation industry. In recent

years, with the support of national and local policies,

the digitization level of the highway industry in

Guangdong Province has gradually improved. The

Nansha Bridge Project introduced BIM technology in

transportation construction industry in 2015. Several

key technologies were developed in Nansha Bridge.

The Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link Project has taken a

big step forward in informatization in 2017. This

project has established a unified project management

platform, which solves some of the key problems in

construction management. The Huangmaohai Link

Project focused on optimizing the coding

collaboration system in depth, and improved the

application level of project construction-quality

inspection-metered payment collaboration.

Huangmaohai Link pushed the informatization of

engineering construction and management to a new

level. Guangdong Province has made bold attempts in

the digitalization of highway projects. By actively

establishing demonstration projects and continuously

iterating and upgrading, the scale benefits of

digitalization have gradually emerged. Nowadays,

there are many applications of BIM and

informatization in highway engineering. In order to

ensure the unity and compatibility of the application

of BIM technology, an application standard for BIM

in highway engineering projects should be

established in the future.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding

provided by

China-Road Transportation

Verification & Inspection Hi-Tech Co., Ltd. (No.

0293E521089800)

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The Application and Development of BIM Technology in Transportation Industry in Guangdong Province