Ontario Electrical Contractor 13 trades are enabled and producing well-coordinated models is probably closer to 25 to 50 per cent participation.” Calgary Cancer Centre Modern Niagara is handling the mechanical components of the new Calgary Cancer Centre, currently under construction. Little says, “On this project, the consultants have their BIM models and we have our own, and when you overlay them you see the differences. So then you discuss, refine and make revisions wherever necessary. We have our own databases that we manage and control and every other participating company has theirs. Because of the scale of this project, there are currently 30 separate BIM layers but all are intertwined. There are tools available that can data-mine all 30.” The new Calgary Cancer Centre is being built at the northeast corner of the Foothills Hospital campus in northwest Calgary, currently with an anticipated opening of 2023. The new facility boasts 160 inpatient beds, 12 radiation vaults, more than 100 patient exam rooms and more than 100 chemotherapy chairs. It will span more than one million square feet and include a 1,650-stall underground parking garage. Communication skills Good communication skills, of course, are often the very essence of successful construction projects. Little agrees: “What our BIM team is always trying to do is get our models to talk to the other members of the construction team (and their models) to make sense of the big picture. We want the people running the software to become friends and teammates with their lead foreman. We’re all here to get the foreman’s intent into the model so that he or she can see the value of the technology. A big mistake is to just hire a junior “tech-savvy” person to do the modelling. The model should represent both construction site experience and the required skill set with the software. To grow a team at Modern Niagara, we place a senior person running the software with a junior person learning and acting as apprentice.” Little concludes, “Sometimes new technologies like this have an overrated reputation. There’s always a few people who think BIM can solve everything on a project. But as I’ve stated throughout, it’s only as good as the users who apply their own information. And sometimes it’s not taken seriously enough by some people on a construction project because of the technology’s history of having an undefined premise. “My reply is always the same: ‘why wouldn’t you embrace a new tool?’” BIM software, when executed properly, greatly improves the efficiency of “running interference.” Interference drawings help translate a building’s design concepts to real world installations and are specific to each trade.