Underground Pipeline Management Based on Road Information Modeling to Assist in Road Management

The excavation of underground pipelines in Taiwan has led to widespread complaints and, in some cases, claims for national compensation. This issue has also caused significant challenges for road authorities, directly impacting the citizens' satisfaction with the government's policy of the so-called Smooth Roads Project. This study interviewed executives from road authorities, pipeline agencies, and engineering consulting companies to obtain a thorough understanding of current underground pipeline management, public utility databases, and common duct policies in Taiwan. In addition, building information modeling (BIM) is currently applied mostly to buildings, rarely to road infrastructure. Therefore, in this study, BIM was used as a basis for developing the concept of road information modeling (RIM). According to the interview surveys, respondents generally agreed that RIM would be tremendously beneficial to underground pipeline management. This study examined frameworks and strategies for the promotion of RIM from policy, legal, technical, implementation, and application viewpoints and developed an implementable example of RIM. This study presents a significant contribution to underground pipeline management, and its findings provide a basis for improvements in road maintenance and management.