Impact of CIM Technologies and Agency Policies on Performance for Highway Infrastructure Projects

Abstract

The digital tools and practices that facilitate the collection, organization, and use of accurate data and information throughout the life cycle of a highway infrastructure asset are referred to as civil integrated management (CIM). The collective impact of CIM practices and agency policies on project and asset performance has yet to be established by data-driven research. This paper empirically models the effect of CIM practices on the resulting reduction in change orders, savings in the schedule, improvements in quality of work, and safety benefits. The modeling framework in this study also incorporates suitable constructs to study the influence of agency approaches such as financial resources, team alignment, information management policies, standards, and contract specifications. Through case studies, CIM implementation and performance data were compiled in detail across 12 highway projects in the United States and a megaproject in the United Kingdom. Cross-case comparisons were then carried out using qualitative comparative analysis to extract the causal conditions for outcome measures. Results indicated the presence of multiple solution pathways for explaining performance benefits. The solution pathways that include the CIM attribute sufficiently explained the reported performance benefits for the projects. However, lower necessity scores of this attribute (below .6) showed that CIM as an enabling ingredient is not always necessary. As such, alternate solutions that exclude CIM in causal pathways do exist and they reiterate that technology is just a supportive tool. Information management strategies and contract standards and specifications recorded high sufficiency and necessity scores (above .8), indicating their significance to performance. The findings from this empirical research underscore the multidimensional nature of CIM implementation, ascertain the associated agency factors, and demonstrate a novel performance framework for agencies investing in the integration of digital practices.