ABSTRACT
Karavanke tunnel is considered the most challenging tunneling project in recent time in Slovenian area. Nowadays the project execution design is prepared for the eastern tube and the construction phase will take place in the following years. One of the bigger challenges for tunnel designers was the client requirement for implementation of building information modelling (BIM). The present article discusses the implementation of BIM in tunnel excavation and primary support in the case of Karavanke tunnel project. Because of the uncertainties in tunnel construction, some different approaches had to be taken compared to standard BIM. In fact, lining deformation tolerance is expected to be up to 50 cm, which directly affect the changing of primary lining geometry during the construction phase. The article also compares two different modelling approaches. One approach emphasizes on tunnel support geometry, the other focuses on smart attribute/property attribution with less element modeled in 3D space.
