# Integration of BIM Tools for the Facility Management of Railway Bridges
## 1 Introduction
Moreover, facility management allows incorporating these technologies, as it is a branch defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Facility Management Association (IFMA), which aims to manage and improve the performance of buildings or civil works by integrating people, space, processes, and technologies [33; 40; 41; 53], resulting in a considerable improvement in preventive asset monitoring management [33; 40; 41]. Given the panorama of difficulties and problems exhibited by railway infrastructure monitoring activities, which stem from difficult access to bridge elements and the bridge itself, time limitations to perform tasks without affecting daily rail traffic, loss of information due to large amounts of unclassified, unstructured documents being difficult to manage, the subjectivity of inspections that directly depend on the criteria of the workers in charge, and the reactive approach when tangible emergencies occur [20; 21; 22; 23; 24; 26; 28; 29; 32; 33; 40; 43], novel methodologies and technologies that have been generalized in the architecture, engineering, construction, and operations (AECO) industry stand out, improving inspection processes of structures by better consolidating and managing information, with BIM being the most influential methodology in this context [33; 41; 44; 45]. Even for digital twins, BIM methodology and models become indispensable, as they aid in providing an updated digital replica of the physical asset throughout its life cycle by connecting all its parameterized elements, improving inspection processes through their interoperability [42; 52; 54]. Furthermore, this digital or virtual replica is connected to a database for storage and to see how the digital twin evolves over time through its representation, allowing reducing the time and costs of updating facility management database systems in the operation and maintenance phase of structures [33; 41; 42; 43; 52]. The development and application of BIM and digital twin technology for the management of vehicular bridges offer significant advantages in the field of infrastructure monitoring and maintenance because having a digital replica allows visualizing and evaluating the variable performance of the asset over time, capturing its physical and functional attributes [3; 33; 44]. This study aims to address the significant challenges in the monitoring and maintenance of railway bridges by leveraging BIM and digital twin technologies. Despite the advancements in design and construction, the operation and maintenance stages of infrastructure management remain underdeveloped, often relying on subjective visual inspections and outdated methods. This research identifies a critical gap in the integration and interoperability of emerging digital technologies for infrastructure management applied in railway bridges, which are vital for transportation systems yet suffer from issues like difficult access, unstructured data, and the need for timely interventions. This research contributes to filling this gap by developing a BIM-based tool for generating digital twins, facilitating real-time data integration, and improving the decision-making process in the maintenance of railway bridges. This BIM-based tool is created from the integration of a parameterized BIM model and an automated data spreadsheet, along with a workflow that enables and facilitates interoperability from the BIM model and the automated data spreadsheet, establishing a bidirectional workflow, which allows the automatic import/export of information, thereby constituting the desired BIM tool, which can be used in the field for monitoring railway infrastructures. The developed methodology was implemented on a railway bridge, as a case study, where the BIM model was parameterized to be applied in a real infrastructure inspection assessing the level of damage severity of the inspected elements.