BIMForum Bringing BIM to the job site: Solving connection challenges Florida Construction News special feature ne of the biggest challenges in im- plementing Building Information Modeling (BIM) is bringing the tech- nology to the job site’s last mile – or more accurately – the last feet. Conventional handheld mobile devices lack the depth, scale and data storage ca- pacities for proper BIM work-stations, yet there is much inconvenience in locating this equipment at the main trailer rather than the immediate work area, as superintendents need to travel back and forth to access in- formation. One solution, reported in a Chicago case study, involves specialized job site storage data equipment such as KNAACK’s “first fully protected digital storage plan solution for onsite job management.” The KNAACK DataVault, described in the case study as “a complete storage solution that safely hosts the hardware and software all in one place,” has been custom-designed for onsite BIM and “includes a 40-inch mon- itor, a color-laser printer, retractable key- board, whiteboards, back-up battery power and the technology components necessary to run any project,” the case study reported. Chicago contractor Pepper Construction integrated this equipment with StratusVue’s cloud-based project and document manage- ment software for a time-sensitive major corporation headquarters expansion project. Pepper reported that superintendents saved about 50 percent of their time in ac- cessing BIM materials and documentation, and workers and subcontractors at all levels could easily interconnect and communicate through their mobile devices. There were some connectivity chal- lenges. “Because they were working on a remote job site with extremely thick con- crete walls, Pepper would occasionally lose their wireless signal and have difficulty ac- cessing the Internet,” the case study said. “It’s important to have a connectivity strat- egy in place, especially if there are multiple DataVaults that are implemented on the project.” O 10 – SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 — Florida Construction News