Reported in Maine Biz by Robert Cook, and brought to my attention by John Stebbins (@johnstebbins), this article shows the full black bear hug Maine contractors are putting on BIM.
Denis St. Pierre knew sooner or later E.S. Boulos Co. would need to add Building Information Modeling technology to its skill set if it, the largest electrical contractor in northern New England, wanted to remain competitive on large-scale projects.
The nudge came sooner, says St. Pierre, the company’s director of estimating and project management, when in June the Westbrook contractor won a bid linked to the $75 million terminal expansion at Portland International Jetport. The project’s lead contractor, Turner Construction of Boston, requires all companies involved in the jetport project to use BIM, a 3-D hardware and software tool that allows multiple contractors to see the location and status of all project components.
John O’Dea, CEO of the Associated General Contractors of Maine in Augusta, says BIM technology is not new, but it is just starting to find its way into some of the state’s smaller and mid-sized construction firms, usually as the need presents itself.
“It’s heavily dependent on the market and the size of the project,” he says.
Many small construction firms still rely on AutoCAD drawings and more traditional planning tools for smaller-scale projects, says O’Dea, but they would be wise to adopt the BIM technology — the 21st century version of a blueprint — because demand is increasing.
“The genie’s never going back into the bottle,” says O’Dea, whose organization represents 250 members.
Recently we’re seeing reports from Maine to Malaysia on BIM adoption…fire up the bandwagon.
