Trams to Newhaven (Edinburgh, UK) = BIM CASE STUDY
Location: Edinburgh, UK (York Place to Newhaven)
Client: Edinburgh City of Council
Value: £208m
Duration: 2020 - 2021
Role: Task Team’s Information & Interface Manager
Responsibility: Ensure BIM compliance & manage underground service coordination
Challenges:
- Coordinating complex underground utility diversions, while maintaining public safety and minimising disruption.
- Identifying and resolving underground clashes early to avoid costly construction delays.
- Ensuring all BIM deliverables met UK BIM Level 2 standards, including structured model delivery, COBie outputs, and digital handover requirements.
- Navigating differing levels of BIM maturity across project stakeholders with the contractor preferring traditional 2D outputs over models, which required additional coordination to ensure consistency & data integrity.
Solutions:
- Karolina led Task Team clash detection and coordination, conducting weekly model reviews to identify and resolve underground service conflicts before they reached site.
- Developed and implemented a tailored BIM Execution Plan (BEP), ensuring alignment with COBie, LOD, and LOI requirements, and maintained delivery against BIM Level 2 expectations.
- Carried out regular BIM Quality Assurance reviews, collaborated with design teams and the client, and adapted workflows to suit both model-based and drawing-based deliverables.
- Recognised early that some contractors were not yet engaging with the federated models, which limited the impact of coordination efforts. Adjusted support accordingly while maintaining compliance.
End Result:
BIM workflows were fully established, but model engagement across the full project team varied, which ultimately impacted implementation.
Early clash detection allowed for effective internal resolution within the Task Team, but reduced model use downstream limited wider project benefits.
All deliverables were completed to BIM Level 2 standards, with structured COBie data and documented workflows ready for future reuse.
The project highlighted the need for stronger BIM adoption strategies across construction teams, which was a valuable insight for future engagements.