The contractor selected to build the first Level 2 BIM government project for the Ministry of Justice has described the project – to extend an existing young offender’s institution in Kent – as an investment in the company’s future.
Interserve was selected from the Ministry of Justice’s southern Strategic Alliance framework for the project, which was tendered using a BIM model and the new Employers Information Requirements (EIR).
But Ian Renhard, managing director of Interserve Building, does not anticipate that Interserve itself will achieve any cost savings on the project. Instead, it will be investing resources in new IT hardware and Citrix networking technology. “And we’re investing time and intellectual capital. The learning we get out of this we’ll be able to build on,” he predicted
Asked if he thought that BIM would deliver cost-savings for the MOJ, he said: “ask me at the end of the project”.
Renhard said that Cookham Wood YOI extension, comprising a new three-storey houseblock, an education facility and external works, would force the company to reengineer its internal processes.
“From bidding and pricing work then designing, building and maintaining it, we’ve got to make sure we’ve got integrated processes.
“It will certainly change how we develop the information and integrate it into our proposals – it can be fragmented so we’ll get a more integrated approach on drawings and detailing to take us right the way through.”
He also highlighted the importance of the client’s role in driving efficiency through BIM. “We’re lucky with the MOJ, who are intelligent clients that understand their own internal processes and where they need to create data for the model. They’re made their own investments in how it can make them efficient.
But even though the first government pilot is only now getting underway, Renhard says that Interserve – and other contractors – are already facing rising expectations on BIM from public sector clients.
“I can see a change in some of the approaches to tendering, in terms of creating BIM models from the outset. There’s a range of [client] expectations on projects, on some of the more complex projects we’re seeing a range of requirements coming through.”
The job is the first of four MOJ trial projects to be tendered, and will be followed by Chelmsford Prison, Oakwood Featherstone Prison, and Aberystwyth Law Court.
Cookham Wood will also use a Project Bank Account system, to ensure efficiency of payments through to the supply chain and SMEs, and trial ‘soft landings’.
