Carmen Librero, president of Ineco and the engineering department of the Fomento Group presented a ground-breaking project with BIM - GIS integration on the A-76 Ponferrada - Ourense expressway, at the 5th edition of Innovacarretera 2019, the biannual technological demonstration trade fair for the road infrastructure sector.

Drafted for the Directorate General of Roads of the Ministry of Public Works, this project connects, for the first time in Spain, the world BIM with geographic information systems (GIS) for the first of the interchanges in the Villamartín de la Abadía - Requejo section, the connection between the future A-76 expressway and the A-6 expressway. To do this, a three-dimensional scenario was constructed, put together like a puzzle in which the models provided by the disciplines of layout, road surfaces, earth, drainage, structures, affected services, and signs, markings and defences are added, using interoperable formats that made it possible to integrate digital information into a GIS environment. A living virtual twin that has grown over the course of the design process, and which will grow even more with the construction and subsequent maintenance and operation of the infrastructure.

This made it possible to complement the BIM methodology with the information provided by GIS, helping to improve the assessment of the impacts thanks to the integration with the surrounding environment and improved decision-making.

In addition, an on-line 3D GIS viewer was developed so that all of the agents participating in the infrastructure can intuitively consult all of the project information, capturing the generated BIDI code using a mobile phone, or accessing the URL with an internet connection through a mobile device or computer. Thanks to this universal accessibility, the viewer has become a new tool in decision-making and a communication tool used throughout the different phases of the project, democratizing and increasing accessibility to the project in a simple, transparent way, and without the need for training or knowledge of specific software.

This innovative solution makes it possible to improve the technical quality of the solution as a whole, as well as the environmental integration of the project; to explore the potential advantages of consultation and visualisation of the results to provide a better understanding of the project; and to optimise coordination between the different disciplines involved through a common information environment in which all of them coexist. Another step towards digital transformation in the drafting of Spanish engineering projects.

For more information, click here to see a video summary of the project.

You can download images of the project by clicking here.