The applications of BIM/IIM data models for railway, road and energy infrastructure in existing buildings, planning, construction and maintenance were the focus of the BIM in Infrastructure Transport & Energy 2023 congress on 22/23 March. The organisers were TU Dresden, the Association of German Railway Engineers (VDEI) and buildingSMART Germany.

Nearly 400 participants gathered in the Historic Goods Floor Radebeul near Dresden, the Conference Centre of the Saxon Economy. The record number shows that there is a great need for joint discussion among the various players in order to apply and fully exploit the advantages of BIM in practice.

The exchange between business and politics on the topic of digitalisation and BIM was particularly important. Questions such as common standards for BIM, acceleration of approval procedures, digitalisation of analogue processes as well as recruitment and increasing the attractiveness for the engineering professions became the common thread of the event.

Ines Fröhlich, State Secretary of the Saxon State Ministry of Economics, Labour and Transport, opened the congress; she was followed by Ingrid Felipe from the board of DB Netz AG and Dr Frank Golletz, CTO of 50Hertz Transmission GmbH. On behalf of the organisers, the participants were welcomed by VDEI President Prof. Birgit Milius and Prof. Jens Otto, Faculty of Civil Engineering/TU Dresden, as well as by Gunther Wölfle, Managing Director of buildingSMART.

Strategy lecture on BIM education in Germany and internationally

Dr. Veit Appelt, BIM lecturer at the "Friedrich List" Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences at TU Dresden, gave a strategy lecture on BIM education in Germany and internationally. He presented trends and perspectives and took part in the lively discussion on how to make the engineering profession more attractive for young people, also through increased digitalisation.

Dr. Veit Appelt, BIM-Lehrbeauftragter an der Fakultät Verkehrswissenschaften „Friedrich List“ der TU Dresden, bei seinem Strategievortrag zur BIM-Ausbildung in Deutschland und international.

© VDEI

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Record: Almost 400 participants gathered in the Historic Goods Floor Radebeul near Dresden, the Conference Centre of Saxon Business.

© VDEI

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The programme of the two-day congress included numerous expert presentations on the planning and maintenance of infrastructure as well as the opportunity for a direct exchange with experts and partners from Deutsche Bahn AG, the Autobahn GmbH of the federal government, universities and operators of energy distribution networks. 

In the afternoon of the first day of the congress, the political discussion round "How does politics support digitalisation in Germany?" Stefan Schnorr, State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Digital and Transport, delivered a statement from the headquarters of German transport policy and invited everyone to the subsequent discussion round. Other participants were:

• Ines Fröhlich, State Secretary, Saxon State Ministry for Economic Affairs, Labour and Transport
• Stephan Krenz, Chairman of the Management Board of the Autobahn GmbH of the Federal Government
• Tim-Oliver Müller, Chief Executive of the German Construction Industry Association
• Torsten Herbst, Member of the Bundestag, Parliamentary Director of the FDP Parliamentary Group in the Bundestag
• Florian Böhm, Ministerialrat, Head of the Office of the Federal Government Commissioner for Rail Transport at the BMDV

The second day of the congress was divided into three parallel workshops on the following topics:

• Basics BIM, Digital Twin and Existing Buildings
• Workshop Planning and Approval with BIM
• Workshop Construction and Maintenance with BIM