REVIEW article
Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Building Information Modelling (BIM)
This article is part of the Research TopicOptimization in Building Information Modeling (BIM)View all articles
A Critical Review of BIM Adoption in Public Infrastructure Projects: Global Trends and Lessons for South Africa
Provisionally accepted
- University of Johannesburg Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment, Johannesburg, South Africa
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Purpose: This review interrogates global Building Information Modelling (BIM) uptake in public-infrastructure programmes to distil evidence-based lessons and policy levers relevant to South Africa's Public–Private Partnership (PPP) pipeline. Findings: Statutory mandates aligned to ISO 19650, ministerial steering bodies and open-standard deliverables consistently accelerate BIM diffusion and generate cost-accuracy improvements of 5-10%, carbon savings of 15-20% and dispute reductions of up to 40%. Conversely, voluntarist policies, SME skills gaps and fragile digital infrastructure fragment value chains. South Africa exhibits all three weaknesses: only 15% of firms produce federated models, and no Treasury directive hard-codes IFC deliverables. Evidence indicates that regional BIM labs, grading-linked competence requirements and incentive-weighted procurement can close these gaps. Research limitations/implications: The study relies on published cases, grey literature and proprietary project data were excluded, potentially understating undocumented innovations. Future mixed-methods research on live South African PPPs is required to quantify policy impact. Practical implications: Recommendations include amending the PPP Manual to mandate ISO 19650/IFC models, establishing a Treasury-funded Digital Infrastructure Skills Fund, and integrating BIM metrics into CIDB grading and payment schedules. Originality/value: The paper synthesises heterogeneous global evidence into a coherent maturity framework and offers the first targeted, policy-ready road-map for BIM diffusion in South Africa's infrastructure sector.
Keywords: Building Information Modelling, public infrastructure, PPP, ISO 19650, South Africa
Received: 13 Aug 2025; Accepted: 10 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Mashinini, Mahachi, Gumbo and Mphambukeli. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Peter China Mashinini, 220167318@student.uj.ac.za
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.