Content Analysis for BIM Adoption in Construction Contracts

Abstract

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is rapidly restructuring the construction industry offering major enhancements in project outcomes. Although the emerging demands for BIM adoption is developing to become an industry norm, yet there are uncertainties concerning the ability of the existing legal paradigm to fully incubate and promote BIM. The basis of construction contracts which rely on definite and single point responsibilities, did not cope with the collaborative approach of BIM causing potential contractual aspects to arise. These contractual aspects may become obstacles in the sufficient implementation of BIM and achieving anticipated productivity gains. This research aims to identify the core provisions in the contract that should be addressed when BIM is utilized in the project. The research highlights the main contractual issues associated with BIM and explains the current treatment of BIM in contractual documents from standard form of contracts and BIM Protocols. Content analysis method is used to analyze three main standard forms of contracts that adopts BIM and are of different approach of drafting, covering multiparty agreement, partnering agreement and standard bi-party agreement. A comparative study is held between the contracts under investigation, which are PPC2000: Project Partnering Contract, NEC4 ECC: Engineering and Construction Contract and JCT CE: Constructing Excellence Contract. The research presents and assesses the extent to which these standard forms of contracts deal with the contractual issues identified and accordingly the research proposes a drafting structure and framework for core provisions that should be included in a BIM based contract.