An Infrastructure for Geotechnical Building Information Modeling (BIM)

Building information modeling (BIM) has been immensely used in both research and practical purposes of construction field. The accuracy of details in BIM is also continuously enhanced through these endeavors. However, main application area of BIM is typically limited to superstructure issues, yet the application to substructure problem is highly uncommon. In this study, the possibility of using BIM for underground case is explored based on a case in Peoria County, IL. To do so, boring logs are composed from various locations within the county and used to identify the soil characteristics. The preliminary model gives 3D visualization of the modeled area and still carries all of the original information from the boring logs. Adding more boring logs can be easily done by using the spreadsheet format of the logs. Also, the model can be transferred to the IFC format, which enables 4D and 5D BIM analyses possible in the future works.