Applications of Civil Information Modeling (CIM) for constructability review in railway construction projects

Usually, constructability analysis usually be reviewed and applied using 2D CAD drawings for railway construction. The constructability analysis using 2D CAD drawings usually cause time-consuming problems and problem misunderstandings. Furthermore, this situation always makes the inconvenient of engineer and managers and also decreases the efficiency in constructability work. Civil information modeling (CIM) is the latest concept and technology in construction engineering. The main function of CIM includes presenting and simulating construction operations by 3D model, and making constructability analysis by 3D CIM models. In order to enhance the performance of constructability analysis, this study proposes a CIM-based constructability analysis approach for general contractors during the construction phase. The proposed approach is then applied in the Taiwan railway construction projects to demonstrate the effectiveness of CIM-based constructability analysis in practice. Finally, this study identifies the benefits, limitations, and facing problems through the real case study. Finally, conclusion and suggestion are summarized for further applications.