IFC for Infrastructure: New Concepts and Entities for Bridges

The industry foundation classes (IFCs) data model is a neutral and open data format defined by an international standard (ISO 16739), which allows the description of a construction as a collection of standard objects. These objects are quite well defined for describing a building, but their use is still far from being adapted (and then adopted) for infrastructure. The article presents a new methodology to enrich the IFC model for an infrastructure, in particular, for the scope of bridges, based on a system approach. The first step is to identify all the absent concepts and classes in the current IFC definition, procedural geometry, coordinate systems, etc., and then proposes “bridge oriented” new entities in order to enrich the current IFC model. The next IFC development phases, dedicated to other infrastructure domains, will be based on this experienced methodology.