Integrating BIM and Blockchain across construction lifecycle and supply chains

The Construction industry has a complex structure with multiple parties involved, which often leads to “adversarial relationships”, “risk avoidance”, and a “lack of trust” among the different actors. This culture is further compounded by a “linear workflow” that often results in low efficiency, delays, rework and unnecessary waste. Blockchain technology can help to mitigate these issues by creating a decentralised and transparent system, where all the actors can have access to a shared database, it allows tracking and monitors the different stages of the project, and even automate some processes increasing efficiency and reducing delays and rework. This study highlights the advantages of Blockchain technology, particularly how it can provide a single source of truth for project data while allowing multiple parties to access and share data in a secure and transparent way, improving the workflow of BIM projects and decreasing the likelihood of errors, mistakes, or fraudulent activities. The paper explores the integration of BIM and Blockchain across life cycle and supply chains based on the RIBA plan of work, with the objective to streamline collaboration while improving process efficiency and resource traceability in projects. The study proposes a roadmap performing a detailed literature survey for Blockchain adoption in the construction industry, and validated on a real-world Bridge project. Furthermore, this study is innovative since it examines the integration of BIM and Blockchain throughout the entire project lifecycle by simulating the smart contract implementation based on the RIBA plan of work, thus providing an in-depth examination of the potential benefits of this integration.