BIM and safety in road maintenance-buildSmart Spain

The road is the transport infrastructure that provides the most mobility to society (91% of people’s journeys and 84% of goods use this mode of transport). To offer a correct service to citizens through this type of transport, the development of road maintenance, maintenance and operation operations is essential.

If we analyze road transport from the perspective of safety we find two certainly complex aspects, on the one hand, road safety, that is, everything that is related to traffic accidents, and, on the other hand, the prevention of risks of the infrastructure conservation operators themselves. In some cases both may have a direct relationship (traffic accidents that affect conservation operators in the performance of their work) and, in general, may be related, either directly or indirectly, to the quality of the conservation service offered to users.

Therefore, in the development of the service of conservation and operation of the different sections of the road networks it is necessary to record, manage and manage information related to these aspects. The organization and analysis of all this information in a practical, fast and flexible way using new technologies associated with Industry 4.0 could suppose, from our point of view, a disruptive phenomenon in the way of addressing its problems.

The contribution of BIM to the management of this problem

BIM (Building Information Modeling) as a collaborative work methodology for the creation and management of infrastructure assets, allows centralizing information in a digital model operated by all the agents related to them throughout their entire life cycle, which, obviously, is of total application for the management of Safety in Road Conservation especially understood, in general, associated with the set of digital tools for the development of the methodology during, in this case, the operation of a road.

The application of these principles in a certain stretch of road or highway focused on the management of both road safety and the prevention of occupational risks of operators has great potential with the added value of the visualization of the distribution of accidents on the infrastructure model that facilitates both the rapid recognition of those places where they are concentrated and the detailed analysis of the three-dimensional model ( such as the elements of signaling, beaconing and defenses that are available in the area and all the information collected at the time of the accident). It is also evident the potential of the possibility of the reproduction of a sinister in a virtual environment to analyze its causes and singularities.

Comparison between images taken “in situ” and images taken from a 3D model of roads
Comparison between images taken “in situ” and images taken from a 3D model of roads
Therefore, we can conclude that the processing and analysis of data and information in a fluid way through digital management modules and 3D visualization tools can facilitate the early detection of problems, risks and dangers and an improvement in the quality of service and working conditions that will indirectly have an impact on the reduction of accidents and, by extension, to save economic, personal and social costs.

The BIMSAFETY – ROADS project, COPASA’s experience in the integration of bim methodology in Road Conservation Safety Management

This R&D&I project developed by COPASA with the aim of improving conservation safety in a global way implements a platform that integrates bim methodology, data processing through artificial intelligence and virtual reality applications so that all these digital technologies are taken advantage of for the effective management of road safety, the prevention of occupational risks and the quality of the service provided to the user in the operations of conservation, maintenance and operation of roads.

The idea was to generate an intelligent information management tool taking advantage of the potential of both interactive data analysis and visual representation in three dimensions, facilitating the evaluation of security from multiple perspectives practically in real time.

For the development of this digital tool, the following basic lines of action were established according to which the implementation was built:

• Research and practical experimentation for BIM implementation in road conservation.
• Development of an accident management module, which includes two aspects: a submodule related to road safety and another related to the prevention of occupational risks.
• Development of a module for the management of service quality indicators.
• Implementation of data processing and artificial intelligence tools for the development of control panels that allow analyzing the information contained in the accident management and quality of service modules.
• Application of the BIM methodology for the study of specific prototype accidents using virtual reality.