The American Subcontractors Association (ASA) announced its endorsement of the addition of a building information modeling (BIM) addendum to the ConsensusDOCS family of model contract documents. Approved by the ASA board of directors during its March 9 meeting at the ASA Business Forum & Convention 2008, in Charleston, S.C., the ConsensusDOCS BIM Addendum is the first and only industry standard document to globally address the legal uncertainties associated with using BIM.
“From its inception, building information modeling has sought to foster the productive collaboration of multiple parties across a variety of disciplines, and this new addendum will be no different,” said 2007-08 ASA President David H. Bradbury, Precision Concrete Construction Inc., Alpharetta, Ga.
“The new ConsensusDOCS BIM Addendum will help to further establish more fair and innovative contract documents that all parties can agree on — and will enhance ConsensusDOCS’ reputation as a leader in innovative construction contracts.”
BIM is the process of generating and managing computerized, multidimensional models linked to databases that house the design specifications, schedules and other documents related to a construction project. BIM provides all parties involved on a project with shared, up-to-date project data, subsequently allowing for a richer design process, increased budget control through predictions about the project’s construction process, and fewer surprises with respect to potential design and scheduling conflicts among trades — long before ground is even broken.
The ConsensusDOCS BIM Addendum will be published in the first half of 2008 as part of the ConsensusDOCS comprehensive catalog of contracts and forms, which address all project delivery methods. The BIM Addendum provides a tool to use BIM from start to finish, thereby allowing contractors to more closely integrate project delivery with owners and design professionals. It also is flexible enough to be used as an addendum in more traditional contracting methods.
On Sept. 28, 2007, ASA, in conjunction with 20 other construction associations representing owners, contractors, subcontractors, design professionals and sureties launched the groundbreaking ConsensusDOCS, a set of more than 70 collaboratively drafted model contract documents. The release represented the first time that broad industry representation has had an equal voice in collaboratively drafting construction contracts.
For more information, call 703/684-3450 or visit www.asaonline.com or www.consensusdocs.org.
