Yesterday, 27 June 2023, the Council of Ministers approved the Plan for the incorporation of the BIM methodology in public construction contracts of the General State Administration (AGE) and the state public sector between 2024 and 2030.

The use of BIM in public procurement pursues a twofold objective: to improve the efficiency of public spending and to serve as a lever for the digital transformation of the construction sector.

BIM methodology

BIM (Building Information Modelling) is a collaborative work methodology based on digitalisation and collaboration between agents throughout the entire life cycle of a building or infrastructure, which seeks greater economic and environmental efficiency in investment, which also allows for the reduction of risks and uncertainties and an increase in quality.

The advantages of carrying out comprehensive projects in BIM compared to traditional engineering lie mainly in the fact that we have the precise geometric representation of all project components in a digital, integrated and coherent environment, which facilitates more efficient management in the processes of design, construction and operation of the assets, providing a reliable basis for decision making.

Undoubtedly, the benefits of BIM are multiple: it allows savings in costs and execution time, it improves the detection of interferences and errors, it improves processes and allows the sharing of information in real time between all the agents involved in the project, it is compatible with other technologies, it allows integration with databases for its exploitation in the maintenance and operations phase and its use contributes to reducing the impact of construction on the environment by reducing the volume of waste and the costs of its management..

Target scope of application of the BIM Plan

The provisions of the BIM implementation Plan shall apply to the following public sector contracts:

a) Works contracts.
b) Works concession contracts.
c) Service concession contracts, where they involve the execution of works.
d) Service contracts linked to works contracts or works concession contracts, such as project management services, technical assistance to project management, technical assistance for the supervision, control and coordination of health and safety.
e) Service contracts prior to the tendering of works contracts or works concessions, such as design services.
f) Mixed contracts combining elements of the contracts referred to in the preceding subparagraphs.
g) Contracts based on framework agreements or dynamic purchasing systems, the typology of which corresponds to those referred to in the preceding points.
h) Design contests organised as part of a procedure for the award of a service contract, which may include the award of prizes or payments; or design contests with prizes or payments to participants.

Timeframe and thresholds for implementation of the BIM Plan

The BIM Plan sets out a progressive timetable for the mandatory or recommended requirement of BIM by contracting authorities, starting from 1 April 2024, from an initial level, to an integrated level, requiring more complex requirements, to be reached by April 2030.

The IDP engineering Group is a leader in Spain in the development of projects using BIM methodology.

For more than 12 years we have been using BIM for the entire life cycle of a project, from conceptual design, basic design and detailed engineering, through site supervision, to the corresponding asset management and operation via Digital Twin.

The IDP Group is made up of more than 500 multidisciplinary technicians, 82% of whom have university degrees and cover all specialties in the engineering, architecture and environment sectors, and who manage the use of BIM methodology at levels of excellence.