As of April 4, 2016, all government contractors had to be compliant with Level 2 Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the United Kingdom.
The requirement aims to provide government officials with as much information about their construction projects as possible so that they can manage the resulting assets—chiefly "maintainable assets" like electrical and mechanical—effectively. Major contractors were prepared for this mandate, but some subcontractors are not, and will need assistance to comply.
Observers say a similar requirement is unlikely in the U.S., as the domestic industry is further along in adopting BIM. U.S. contractors have adopted modeling faster than many European counterparts, and BIM is regarded as an expected business practice here.
The U.K. may up the ante on BIM rules. Government and industry are jointly preparing to raise the BIM requirement to Level 3, which would require all parties on a government construction projects to work from one common BIM model.
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Nestled deep in the Napa Valley, the city of American Canyon is one of a number of new communities in Northern California that have experienced tremendous growth in the last five years. Located 42 miles northeast of San Francisco, American Canyon had a population of just over 9,000 in 2000; by 2008, that figure stood at 15,276, with 28% of the population under age 18.
