Digital engineer in a brave new world
- September 26, 2022
The 4D coordination of the UK’s largest stadium, the £1.3 billion Everton Stadium, is shared with us by a digital engineer.
A digital engineer who was modeling and tracking the construction of the stadium’s BIM model in a construction management software called Synchro, day by day.
It would be so lovely to live in an ideal world where the client understands that there is such a thing as a digital engineer. That there is such a thing as a coordinated BIM model and that it is not just 3D.
Where the contractor does not automatically put his signature on the letter saying that the design is flawed, and further correspondence is not about where to find what you don’t understand.
Where the stakeholders understand that such a simulation is feasible and that although it is a lot of work – and therefore costly – it is still 100x more worthwhile to try to build the house virtually than to find out in reality, after weeks of financing a tower crane or a penalty period, the mistake and how we should have done it instead.
And then we would finally see that it is becoming more widespread in the West or Asia not just because the video looks good.


It is because they will save about 20% of the cost
by eliminating errors and
extra works.
Deadline slips are also eliminated, 70% of conflicts disappear, and there is no shouting, no testosterone, instead, there is constructive dialogue and a common purpose.
We already offer 4D BIM coordination among our BIM services and also use it regularly in our projects. In the video below, for example, you can follow the refurbishment of the iconic Tuskecsarnok (Spike Hall) service walkway and light sources.
And now let’s have a little introspection.
If you’ve read this and like it, two things are possible. Either you’re a senior manager and confident of a better future, or you work in construction and are an incorrigible optimist like me.
If, on the other hand, you’ve got “the problem is that”, you either don’t know enough about this way of thinking, or you’ve fallen victim to a project gone wrong. There are many of these in real life.
Either way, I ask you to try to improve. Look outside your box and see the world. Look at how they did it where it worked.
And if you’re not in the right environment, don’t give up. Find a new one and switch. That’s what we are working on and if many of us do it, sooner or later we will have a breakthrough.
(Photo credit: MEIS)