Measuring the Impact of VDC

After nearly 10 years of VDC development and deployment on our projects, Mortenson was measuring substantial cost and schedule savings but wanted to partner with an academic institution to provide a rigorous view of the results of our efforts. In 2008, we partnered with the University of Colorado to measure the results of Mortenson's use of VDC on the $201 million Research 2 laboratory at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. The team measured the impact of the use of full project integrated VDC on the Research 2 project as compared to the limited use of models on the very similar Research 1 project.

This study provided a rare opportunity to measure the benefit of the use of full VDC between two projects. Using VDC resulted in an overall reduction of RFI's when compared to the Research 1 project. The resulting reduction in RFI and change order administration costs offset the cost of BIM/VDC. Specifically, an independent research student from the University of Colorado found that:

An increase in RFIs during preconstruction due to VDC review of design resulted in the reduction of construction RFIs by 74% during the foundation phase, and by 47% during the steel erection phase. Research 2 experienced a 37% reduction in coordination RFIs and a 32% reduction in coordination change orders. The mechanical subcontractor estimated a 50% reduction in labor and a 50% reduction in schedule from the use of VDC.