Automating Compliance: Advanced Verification Techniques for Information Requirements in BIM Railway Projects

Since BIM (building information modelling) emerged as the standard for project preparation, there has been a demand for rapid compliance-checking. This article explains this issue in railway building projects; it focuses on establishing a common ground for the creation, verification, and management of EIR (exchange information requirements). Using examples from European railway projects, the authors illustrate how EIR structures and standards can vary. The paper demonstrates basic requirements to ensure BIM models comply with contracting authorities’ requirements thus supporting effective planning for the design, construction, and operation phases. The study also reviews existing requirements, engineering processes, and testing methods, creating a link between BIM and software-engineering practices such as unit testing, system testing, and integration testing to ensure comprehensive model validation. By highlighting the use of buildingSMART Open BIM standard, such as information delivery specifications (IDS) and industry foundation classes (IFC), the study illustrates their role in the automated or semi-automated compliance verification. The research results showed the limitations of the verification tools and methods that are currently being used in the industry, emphasizing the need for further advancements in computer-aided verification. Presented coverage percentages are based on a limited set of EIR documents and tool assessments; these values should be considered to be estimates based on specific assumptions and not definitive generalizable results.