Balfour Beatty, the international infrastructure group, and Autodesk, a world leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software, have signed a three year, $12 million agreement that will help Balfour Beatty expand its adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM).

The agreement, one of the first of its kind and size in the infrastructure industry, will enable Balfour Beatty to better serve customers across the world through increased use of BIM, an intelligent model–based process that provides insight for creating and managing building and infrastructure projects faster, more economically, and with less environmental impact. The UK Government will mandate the use of BIM on public building projects beginning in 2016.

-- Advertisement --

Ian Tyler, Chief Executive of Balfour Beatty, commented: "Innovation and efficiency are at the heart of our strategy and this agreement sets Balfour Beatty apart from its competitors. It extends across all of our capabilities and markets, from infrastructure investment and professional services to construction and on-going built asset management. We will be able to provide our clients with a wealth of new information about the infrastructure we are building and managing on their behalf."

Balfour Beatty has already used Autodesk BIM on a number of high profile projects including the San Francisco Bay Bridge, the widening of the M25 outside London, and design and construction for the replacement of Terminal 2 at London Heathrow International Airport. For the new Terminal 2B, the largest ever airside project at Heathrow, the use of BIM helped the company coordinate over 30 active stakeholders through 13 interfacing projects and enabled a peak workforce of 1,600 to complete work, including a 2 km diaphragm wall, the largest in Europe, ahead of schedule.

(CD)