BIM-based collaboration platform for the management of EPC projects in hydropower engineering

Engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contracts are becoming the most common form of contracting in the hydropower trade for large-scale hydropower projects. Because of an increase in the complexity, variability, and uncertainty in hydropower engineering, project participants and stakeholders are increasingly cooperating in a collaboration network, which enables them to share risks, information, and resources as well as explore new experiences to jointly participate in the management of large-scale projects. Thus, this paper proposes a new methodology for the collaborative management of hydropower EPC (hydroEPC) projects using building information modeling (BIM) technology. In this paper, a work model of collaborative management using BIM technology for hydroEPC projects is introduced, and a BIM-based collaboration platform for the management of hydroEPC projects is developed using a three-tier architecture and web technologies, whose functions are implemented in five modules, including a model creation module, model management module, collaboration management module, workflow management module, and system administration module. The prototype system is applied in a selected case study of an ongoing project in southwest China to demonstrate the effectiveness of collaboration in a BIM environment. The results demonstrate that the prototype system can be used as a visual BIM-based collaborative management platform using BIM technology.