Howard Russell has been certified as the second Building Information Modelling (BIM) level 2 contractor.

The company has been accredited ahead of the Government's 2016 deadline to make BIM mandatory on government projects.

So far, the only other contractor to be certified is Interserve.

BIM is a 3D model-based process for planning, design, construction and management of buildings.

Howard Russell's BIM management systems and processes were put under scrutiny over a period of 14 days by Ocean Certification, a UKAS certified accreditor.

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Craig Muldoon, pre-construction manager and BIM champion at Howard Russell said: "This is a fantastic achievement for the team at Howard Russell, we have made a considerable investment in training and resources to get to this level and we are very proud of the accreditation.

"This puts us at the forefront of the BIM working environment not only in the North East but on a national level."

John Nielsen, Chair of North East BIM Hub & CIC North East added: "A lot of contractors, designers and suppliers will have to work tremendously hard over the next six months to ramp up their BIM training if they are to meet the Government's 2016 deadline."

(LM/CD)