The ever-increasing complexity of the AEC industry requires a collaborative environment for the efficient implementation of construction projects. Building Information Modeling (BIM), with its cooperative nature, has shifted the fragmented construction transactions to information sharing, common goals, and communication between the stakeholders. However, BIM adoption has not gained its decent place. It is primarily due to the barriers in BIM implementation, including its legal aspects. Various existing BIM appendixes do not satisfy the expectations. On the other hand, trust as a complementary mechanism plays a pivotal role in the BIM processes. While previous studies have investigated legal BIM barriers and the role of trust, the importance of contractual functions in relation to contractual language and trust elements in improving the efficiency of contracts and the success of BIM implementation has remained debatable. This study, therefore, aims at studying contractual functions, their instantiation within BIM contractual language and trust, and their potential impact on BIM projects’ success. Investigation of current contractual mechanisms and their limitations in Canada is another research objective. Moreover, this study proposes a conceptual contracting framework. To achieve these objectives, a content analysis approach was applied, during which a coding system was developed. The data collected from literature review and semistructured interviews with BIM professionals were analyzed to identify the success elements of projects as well as BIM-related legal issues and trust-building factors. According to the results, some recommendations to amend the contractual language of construction agreements were presented. Moreover, a conceptual trust framework was proposed, which then was utilized to provide a contractual framework. Furthermore, the outcomes of exploring CCDCs and BIM appendixes depicted some gaps regarding the BIM legal aspects. Therefore, suggestions to introduce BIM into the CCDCs and to update the IBC contract were provided. While the reliability of the coding system was tested by a validator, further studies could validate the trust framework and the contractual framework put forward by this research.
Mahbod, S. (Author),
Iordanova (Supervisor) &
Poirier (Co-supervisor),
Oct 2021Student thesis: Master's thesis › Master in Engineering: Construction Engineering