BIM News

The infrastructure industry is one of the biggest driving forces behind the global economy. That shouldn’t be such a surprise since “the built environment” encompasses all facets of urban life ranging from utilities like electricity and water to railways, telecommunication, buildings, and roads.

If we look at the cold numbers, we can see that through the NIP projects alone, the US government issued billions of dollars into infrastructure development programs. 

The sheer magnitude of these numbers puts all developments and tech improvements, even when they are incremental, under very close scrutiny. Let us take a look then at some of the key strategic tech trends that will shape the infrastructure sector in 2022 and drive this incredible financial behemoth.

BIM – The key for handling infrastructure project

Having any serious conversation about the tech improvements in the infrastructure sector without even mentioning Building Information Modeling wouldn’t be impossible. The BIM methodology that now carries the 5G moniker (information about the energy consumption) has become the key for handling the infrastructure projects and is gradually transitioning from useful novelty to becoming mandatory. At this moment, the USA, Singapore, the United Kingdom, various EU members, and numerous other countries are making a BIM required prerequisite for all government-funded infrastructure projects and the list will expand in 2022.

The ongoing growth of AI/ML

For a couple of years now, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have been cited as some of the most transformative technologies across the entire business world, infrastructure sector included. Still, the number of explored use cases was up until now somewhat limited. In the year 2022, AI/ML are expected to reach their full potential and make a stronger impact on transportation, urban planning, and, of course, BIM as we have already mentioned above. The technology will also have a profound impact on corporate processes like win-loss analysis, contract workflows, order tracking, and similar.

Workflow automation for construction fleet management

The efficiency of the entire infrastructure industry greatly depends on the construction fleets used in the process. Up until recently, the workflows of these fleets were managed by the human factor which made them slow and prone to mistakes. These days, however, we are experiencing the surge of commercially available professional construction equipment fleet management software that makes the process much faster and more streamlined. Since these cutting-edge tools are becoming increasingly available in the SMB sectors, we can expect to see their further expansion and bigger effect on the entire industry.

The steady rise of Hyper Automation

Hyper Automation is slowly but steadily becoming the only way for delivering construction projects on time which, keeping in mind the very competitive state of the global economy, is a fact that shouldn’t be so easily overlooked. To put it simply, the infrastructure is based on extensive sets of data that are much more efficiently utilized in automated systems. According to a recent prediction by Gartner, the companies that will utilize hyper-automation on the internal and delivery levels will be in a position to cut operational costs by 30% by 2025 which is a tempting financial incentive for everyone involved.

Now focus on the worksite safety

Although it wouldn't be entirely fair to say that the infrastructure industry ever lost the grasp of on-site safety, the latest security strategies and tech innovations are giving these tendencies a completely new momentum. For instance, the latest-gen commercial drones allow for a much more price survey and monitoring than the previous generations, BIM sets up the foundation for effortless and automated risk management, while the sensor-equipped helmets, goggles, and other wearables are providing workers with detailed info about their surroundings. All these independent tools are capable of interacting with each other making the whole system much more than the sum of its parts.

Big steps towards sustainability

Sustainability is quickly becoming one of the hottest topics in the business world and the infrastructure industry is not left out of the conversation. On the contrary, the latest infrastructure projects are marked by the inclusion of green tech concepts like wind power, urban regeneration, and even smaller-scale mentions like solar-powered road studs. But all these concepts and efforts are making steps in the right direction and painting the entire infrastructure industry much greener and eco-friendly. However, for these efforts to take roots, they need to be accompanied by efficient energy and transport systems.

Wrapping up

We hope these few examples gave you an idea about the general direction the infrastructure industry is heading in the year 2022. Much like all other industries, the development of the infrastructure sector is dictated by the fruits of the technological landscape. The difference here is the scale of this sector. Because of it every new tech innovation leaves a mark and draws much-deserved attention. Now, all we can do is wait for the results.