UAE unveils national guide for smart construction

The UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure has unveiled the National Guide for Smart Construction as part of its celebrations of the Innovation Week which concludes on Sunday (February 28).

Suhail bin Mohammed Al Mazrouei, Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, said the guide aims to develop basic drivers of policies, flexible elements and targets that stimulate the development of the construction sector in a way that meets the aspirations of the UAE government, which supports the transition of the state for the next fifty years and enhance its global leadership by creating an incubating environment for innovative and qualitative projects that support the work system.

He pointed out that the guide contains key elements for smart construction, which are essential for all parties to improve the construction process.

These include benchmarking to qualify contractors' capabilities and enhance cooperation between architects, designers and contractors to improve the overall results of the construction project, which include the unified smart building index and building information modelling index.

In a related context, the minister launched the live monitoring system for bridges on federal roads, which is the system for assessing the condition of the existing bridges and planning their maintenance operations, in partnership with the University of Palermo in Italy.

"The university will analyse data to set up a mechanism for predicting the condition of the bridges and the quality of the necessary maintenance," remarked Al Mazrouei.

"We will work with innovative tools and methods to explore the future and develop our performance to keep pace with the directions of the UAE government," he added.