Construction company “VEIKME” has been operating as a general construction contracting company for more than 60 years, implementing the largest construction projects of administrative buildings and residential districts.
BIM coordinator Gytis Jurgelevicius, who has been responsible for BIM coordination, process creation and standardization in this company for the last 5 years, shares about BIM processes and project quality assurance in projects.
Gytis Jurgelevicius, LLC “VEIKME” BIM manager
Importance of BIM model quality “Quality is the most important aspect in the project” – says Gytis Jurgelevicius.Lack of quality costs a lot of time and labor.The most frequent reasons for low-quality projects observed by the BIM coordinator are: too little attention to detailed project planning, intermediate result checking and evaluation, and communication.
Gytis notices that not everyone understands the importance of creating a model and the possibilities of its use.Companies still lacks BIM specialists who would develop the company’s BIM processes and search for the best way to fulfill the client’s requirements.
“BIM requirements are often unclear, undefined, leaving a lot of room for interpretation” – adds G. Jurgelevicius.
Logistics and retail center BIM model by VEIKME.
However, the BIM manager sees a trend towards an increasing need for correct model information. The information provided in the project documents is compared with the information contained in the model, increasingly the model is treated as a task or reference point for monitoring changes.
“In the beginning, we used the models for a visual inspection of the project, later there was a need to obtain quantities and other information. Finally, we started checking the quality of the project, looking for intersections and errors.” – Gytis tells about the evolution of BIM in the company “VEIKME”.
Now the goal is not only to look for new opportunities for improving the quality of the project, but also to maximize the use of the model in all stages and processes of the construction project.
SOLIBRI software for quality assurance
VEIKME uses SOLIBRI software to ensure the quality of its projects. Gytis Jurgelevicius names the main advantages of the software as a wide selection of model options and connections between elements – this allows for better model analyzes and obtaining quantities.
“When choosing the software, it was important that SOLIBRI not only performs a simple intersection search, but also has its own set of rules.
Another important aspect is that SOLIBRI is the only one capable of presenting relationships between elements in tables in ITO – this is often very useful. As far as I know, it is the best tool on the market” – assures the BIM specialist.
Administrative complex CYBER CITY
VEIKME carries out general contracting works in Cyber City, a town dedicated to the technology community, which is being developed on the territory of the former SPARTA factory in Vilnius. About 35,000 m2 of office space, co-operatives and commercial space have been expanded in the area of almost 2ha.
The project consists of four different types of buildings, the chimney of the former SPARTA factory has been preserved, and recreational spaces have been designed.
According to Gytis, the biggest challenge in this project was the large scope of the project:
“We had to look for a way to properly divide the model, how to present it understandably to the site, when and what analyzes to perform”
SOLIBRI was used for model analysis and error checking, as well as for information and quantity retrieval, model and model comparison. At the site, these models were used for model inspection and recording of work done. Currently, the models are being improved in order to use them for the warranty phase.
“The biggest benefit of using SOLIBRI is finding inconsistencies and errors that will be resolved at the design stage without causing uncertainty on the construction site,” says Gytis Jurgelevicius.