After the bombing campaign ceased in Kosovo in 1999, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) was called upon to design and build Camp Bondsteel and Camp Monteith from the ground up. David Rackmales, a structural engineer with the Corps’ New York District found himself working in a tent in the dead of winter in Kosovo designing the camps with a team of project managers and engineers. “We were working very closely in an intense, energized environment,” said Rackmales.

Left: David Rackmales (sitting), a structural engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District, works in an office tent with fellow New York District civil engineer, David Campbell. For six months, the New York team provided design, construction, and project management support in Kosovo. Photo: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Right: The "Office Tent" where the Corps' New York District Kosovo team performed its design work in the dead of winter. Photo: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Rackmales had the same feeling recently while taking part in a Building Information Modeling (BIM) workshop at the New York District facilitated by Bentley Systems, the Corps' primary vendor for BIM software. “We came together as a team,” said Rackmales, who served as the BIM manager.

The team includes structural engineers, architects, mechanical engineers, and electrical engineers who were anxious to learn the new software, BIM methods, and design processes. BIM teams work together side-by-side, with a focus on a single design project. The designs are completed at a rapid, intense pace and generally much sooner then it would normally take if they worked individually at their respective work stations, which can be in different geographical areas in the country.

The Corps' New York District BIM team attend a BIM workshop. Photo: Bentley Systems.

Each member is equipped with a state-of-the-art desktop computer, which is networked together, and contains BIM 3D modeling software with discipline-specific files for various design disciplines and a master file. The buildings they’re working on are projected on a large screen, enabling them to virtually walk through during the design process.

“There’s an old adage for designers that says, ‘build it on paper first,’” said Rackmales. “Now that we are in the 21st Century we are building things virtually in a 3D environment. That is, we’re building it in electrons first.”

The team has more than 20 years of experience using 2D CAD for creating 2D construction plans. They also have considerable experience with engineering analysis software. But the BIM software, especially the experience of working together was completely new to them. The major benefit of using BIM is the cost savings to the Corps and customers.

“The real serious money and scheduling savings with BIM comes during construction. When we build something virtually beforehand with BIM, we’ve already resolved 99.999 percent of any construction issues,” said Rackmales. “This seriously reduces the number of requests for information from the field offices during construction. Information requests can result in construction modifications, emergency redesigns, and work slowdowns which can cost us and our customer considerable money.”

The New York District BIM team used BIM on a current design project involving three buildings for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. While designing these buildings, the benefits of using this software as a team, including the savings in money and time, became more recognizable as the BIM Workshop progressed.

Benefits of BIM
It’s a living design — A BIM model is not just a computer model made up of lines and points, like a typical CAD model. In a BIM model, the lines, points, and other objects all contain design information that can be used and modified during the lifetime of the building — from initial concept design through construction and ultimately facility operations and maintenance.

For example, a drawing of a steel beam in a CAD design may just be a collection of lines and points, but in a BIM model, in addition to those lines and points this beam will have information linked to it such as the beam’s cross-sectional dimensions, weight per unit length, and other engineering properties.

This beam may also have information on its material make-up, pricing information, and possibly its manufacturer.

In the case of an entire building, the BIM model stores this and more information for every single element of the project, all of which can be extracted to generate plans, elevations, sections, schedules, material quantities, and cost estimates.

The BIM team's structural engineer and architect shared their BIM models and discovered that this staircase was leading to a wall instead of a door. This allowed the team to make the correction right away, in the early design stage, rather than during construction. Photo: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District.

Seeing in 3D — Not only do BIM models have information behind them, but they also allow for more detail then 2D drawings.

One of the buildings the New York District BIM team designed included a staircase leading to a door. They viewed the staircase in both 2D and 3D. In 2D, the staircase looks like it’s leading to a door, but in 3D, it was discovered that it really led right into a wall. The team’s architect and structural engineer were able to readily resolve this conflict that otherwise may not have been discovered until late into project construction.

Team effort
Rackmales said, “We’re working as a team, sharing our discipline-specific BIM files, through a master file, building virtually together. We can see each other’s work and spot problems and correct them right away. Any designer can point out that something either doesn’t look right or needs some clarification from a different design discipline. We’ll then investigate the issue as a team.”

While designing one of the West Point buildings, the team’s mechanical engineer realized that the ceiling height was higher then it had to be and quickly coordinated with one of the team’s architects to address this issue. “The customer would have been heating more room area then necessary and paying for it,” said Rackmales.

The team also made adjustments to the building heights. During the workshop, the team realized that the conceptual design plans, created prior to the BIM workshop, conflicted with building height requirements, almost leading each team member to design their part of the building at different heights!

If this wasn’t corrected, it would have resulted in wasted time, money, and untold confusion, not to mention the implications of addressing such a problem during construction.

The team also optimized the size of garage doors for the buildings. They realized that different sized doors were shown in the conceptual design plans for all of the buildings and agreed to use one size for all.

“BIM made our job easier because we were able to design one best-fitting garage door frame instead of several different ones, which would have added cost and confusion to those performing the construction. It’s easier for the contractor to purchase the same material and just repeat the same frame rather than worry about constructing several different frames.

The more building elements we reduce from unique to repetitive, the more we reduce any potential confusion during construction and right away we’ve eliminated a possible request for information or worse, a claim.”

After working as a BIM team for three weeks, they completed the same amount of design work which would normally take about three months or longer.

After the workshop, the team created the design plans in less then a week, which typically takes a month and requires extensive collaboration with team members from various locations.

The Corps’ headquarters is implementing BIM Corps-wide. Several Corps districts have used BIM successfully on their civil works and military projects.

The Corps also maintains an ever-increasing repository of collected BIM designs, providing Corps districts the tools to efficiently adapt any project to meet its customer’s demands.

Rackmales found his district’s BIM Workshop experience to be very rewarding and his team just as tight as the one in Kosovo, “It was the ultimate team-building experience. Our team came out of the workshop as a well-oiled BIM Machine!”

JoAnne Castagna, Ed.D., is a technical writer-editor for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District. She can be reached at joanne.castagna@usace.army.mil.