Infrastructure designers are increasingly turning to immersive digital twins and extended reality (XR) to close the gap between CAD abstractions and real-world performance, moving beyond static 2D and 3D screens. By integrating live sensor data, construction sequencing and asset operation scenarios into interactive models, project teams can virtually walk through stations, tunnels or bridges, test maintainability clearances and rehearse complex lifts before site work. This shift demands new workflows, with geotechnical, structural and M&E inputs federated in real time rather than exchanged as periodic drawing sets.

Dalux claims European BIM leadership after a decade of 40%+ annual growth, with its platform now on 7,800 UK projects, 1.7 million active accounts across Europe and 2024 revenues of about US $100m, all achieved debt-free and without external investment. Its SiteWalk tool in Dalux Field uses helmet-mounted 360° cameras to map images directly onto BIM models, enabling weekly visual progress tracking, integrated quality checklists and ITPs, and remote verification of works on projects such as Great Ormond Street Hospital. Usage has tripled in a year to over one million 360° images captured monthly across 38 countries, with contractors like Sisk reporting reduced reliance on third-party survey providers and wider rollout to smaller sites.

Road maintenance planning in the City of Bendigo has been overhauled using GBM Konect integrated directly with the council’s asset management system, linking live field data from graders, patching trucks and concreting crews to central asset records. Crews now capture condition data, photos and completed works on mobile devices in real time, feeding GIS-based maps that prioritise pavement interventions and reduce duplicated site visits. For contractors and councils, the approach shows how tighter integration between field data capture and asset registers can sharpen programming of resurfacing and rehabilitation works.