CONie is not COBie: Information exchange differences between network and building handover to asset management

This desktop review of road asset management information requirements at the handover phase of construction studies the different needs of vertical and horizontal infrastructure. The paper considers three specifications for construction information at handover to asset management. COBie (Construction to Operations for Building information exchange), and the proposed CONie (Construction to Operations for Network information exchange). COBie has been successfully used for vertical construction since 2007, but the specification was not intended for use in road construction. However, the UK drive to introduce digital information exchange for all new government projects resulted in in an attempt to development a hybrid COBie-for-All specification to include both vertical and horizontal infrastructure. However, differences in definitions and utilisation of data linked to specific attributes, such as location, cannot be force fitted into a dual-use information exchange specification. Thus, the development of a single-use specification intended for horizontal network assets is deemed the only logical option. That is the purpose of the CONie research project into the development of a handover specification to meet the needs of asset management of a number of road authorities from Australia and New Zealand.