BIM adoption and implementation in the civil and transportation infrastructure sector: Analysis of governmental roadmaps and action plans

Doume Ekale, M; Pavard, A; Benabderrahmane, K A and Andrew Poirier, E (2026) BIM adoption and implementation in the civil and transportation infrastructure sector: Analysis of governmental roadmaps and action plans. International Journal of Construction Management, 26(6), pp. 925-943. ISSN 1562-3599

Abstract

The adoption of Building Information Modeling (BIM) is accelerating in the global transportation and civil infrastructure sector. This research aims to identify and prioritize essential strategic actions proposed by public agencies for successful BIM deployment within this sector. The results can guide organizations in developing strategic documents based on an in-depth analysis of governmental roadmaps for BIM adoption and implementation. A four-staged content analysis approach–data collection, processing, analysis, and synthesis–was used to identify common actions supporting BIM adoption. A corpus of BIM adoption or digital transformation roadmaps in transportation and civil infrastructure was compiled. Based on the analysis of 20 documents, 640 actions were identified, rationalized and categorized into six key areas: 1/Management and coordination, 2/Mobilizing and developing skills, 3/Policies, contracts & legislation, 4/Processes, methods & workflows, 5/Documentation and standardization, 6/Digital ecosystem. Each action was further categorized into 19 sub-categories, highlighting key actions areas for BIM adoption in the sector as well as global trends around specific types of actions undertaken. This research is one of few efforts to map and analyze government roadmaps for BIM implementation, emphasizing the specific actions required to achieve this goal.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: BIM; civil and transportation infrastructure; digital transformation; roadmap
Index terms: legislation, content analysis, documentation, documents, workflow, agency, infrastructure sector, key action, building information modelling, transformation, standardization, transportation infrastructure, implementation, coordination
Subjects: legal systems, contractual arrangements, data analysis and analytics, control systems, business, information systems, industry analysis, infrastructure and transport systems, sociology, professional development, management, performance measurement
Topics: Quality Management, Legal Issues, Procurement, Project Management, Engineering Principles, Organizational Design, Digital Applications, Research Practice, Information Management, Business Strategy
Descriptive scope: 4 PCTA

N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here