In order to improve current work processes for managing risk when developing major public rail and road projects, it is essential that risk management is effectively integrated with, and utilize the platform that is used to develop and express the solutions, the applied Building Information Modeling (BIM) tools. New ways of working with risk in BIM environments are part of the research focus in an ongoing (2019-2022) research project named “Risk management in BIM-driven public transport projects” (RiskBIM). Partners are SVV and Bane NOR, the main government agencies owning and developing the road and rail infrastructure in Norway respectively, as well as two of the leading Norwegian consultancy firms COWI and Multiconsult and two research institutions IFE and NTNU. The main objective of the project is to improve current work-processes, methods and visualization for a better risk management in the model-based environments.
This paper addresses the state-of-practice on risk management and the use of BIM as support in the development of major rail and road projects in Norway and presents the results of a set of interviews and a survey conducted with professionals. 10 professionals working with Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety (RAMS), Health, Safety and Environment (HSE), BIM, and project management in major rail and road projects were interviewed. The interviews were followed up with a survey to a larger group of professionals and recruited 68 respondents. The main findings from the data gathering can be summarized as follows: The respondents generally agree that their risk processes are well defined, integrated with their development processes, and have the necessary support from laws and standards as well as within their own company guidelines and quality system to support a holistic approach to risk management. However, the respondents also indicate that there is a lack of software support for effective risk management, especially supporting their specific tasks. There is also a lack of graphical visualization facilitating risk overview and awareness, and also a lack of tools facilitating effective communication and information sharing of findings from risk assessments.