A Relational Database Schema of Construction Costs Tracking from BIM Model to Final Costs

Advanced conceptual cost estimation is based on historical project data. Cost estimators are still experiencing the difficulty of obtaining supportive information because most of the raw data is stored separately and cannot be easily traced. Previously proposed building information modeling (BIM)-based database did not produce cross-project historical data and also required extra effort in the design phase. To address the limitations, this paper considers building an independent relational database (RDB) as a data tracking tool. A preliminary RDB schema for conceptual estimating was developed in this paper. This RDB extracted and fused data from BIM models, bill of quantities (BoQs), and payment records using open tool MySQL. Simulated cost data of VDC Research Center was used as a case study. Three queries were coded and tested as validation. It can be concluded that BIM and cross-project RDB integrated data tracking method is helpful in conceptual cost estimating. It fills the current gap between the project-level BIM implementation and the enterprise-level database evolution by interoperating data of domain-oriented specifications.