Risk Information Management for Bridges by Integrating Risk Breakdown Structure into 3D/4D BIM

With the growing use and rapid development of Building Information Modelling (BIM), an emerging research trend is to adopt BIM to improve construction risk management. However, very few studies exist that can explain how risk information can be managed effectively within 3D/4D BIM environment. To overcome this knowledge gap, this paper focuses on bridge projects, and proposes a new method for risk visualisation and information management through integrating the bridge project’s Risk Breakdown Structure (RBS) into 3D/4D BIM and establishing a linkage between risk data and BIM. It introduces a new framework for the BIM based risk information management system and develops a prototype tool to support the implementation of the proposed approach. The prototype tool allows the identification and documentation of potential risks associated with their affected project construction activities within 3D BIM and the visualisation of identified risks in 4D BIM. A simulated case study taking a steel bridge as an example is provided to illustrate the implementation of the system. The results show that existing risk management techniques such as RBS can be integrated into BIM for risk identification, visualisation and information management and the proposed framework can support the development of BIM based risk management software.