From megaproject to standard: how Poland is advancing BIM

There is still little to see of the future airport on the site between Warsaw and Łódź. Currently, work is focused on the foundations. In September, 94 test piles for the future passenger terminal were completed. They are being loaded and tested before the actual foundation work begins. More than 8,000 piles and columns are expected to support the terminal later. Simultaneously, earthworks are underway, the site is being leveled, construction roads and technical facilities are being created.

The scale above ground is equally ambitious. The new airport is scheduled to open in 2032 and initially be able to handle 34 to 44 million passengers annually. However, the airport is only part of the "Port Polska" project. The entire state infrastructure project includes the airport, roads, logistics, and Airport City.  Simultaneously, the first section of the new high-speed rail Warsaw-Port Polska-Łódź is scheduled to open. The planned Y-route later connects Poznań and Wrocław over approximately 480 kilometers and is designed for speeds of up to 350 km/h. The complete connection is planned for 2035. Investments totaling 131.7 billion złoty are planned for the overall program by 2032. The state project company Centralny Port Komunikacyjny, or CPK for short, is responsible.

A megaproject as a digital laboratory

CPK has set up its own digital information management for the megaproject. Hundreds of planners, construction companies, and other project participants must work with the same up-to-date information over many years. For CPK, BIM is therefore less a 3D tool than a system that brings together data and processes from planning to construction and later operation. The organization is oriented, among other things, to the ISO 19650 standards series. BIM is mandatory in CPK projects and already part of information requirements and tenders.

The central working environment during the planning phase is primarily ProjectWise. Models, documents, comments, and approvals are managed together there. The CDE is not only a file repository but part of the collaboration between CPK and its contractors. According to CPK, more than ten million documents were already in the shared data environment by spring 2025.

Bringing BIM into public procurement

Port Polska exemplifies a path that Poland has been pursuing consistently in public procurement for years. The national procurement authority Urząd Zamówień Publicznych, or UZP, plays an important role. It publishes guidelines and work aids that allow public-sector clients to formulate BIM requirements more concretely in tenders.

In 2022, the UZP published a basic guide on BIM in public procurement. In 2023, a publication followed on client information requirements and thereby on the question of which models and data a public client should already specify in their tender documents. With the BIM Standard PL, a manual and document templates are also available. In June 2025, a guide followed that directly links information management according to ISO 19650 with Polish procurement law.

There is no general BIM obligation for public construction projects in Poland. However, the procurement law allows public clients to require BIM for construction services and competitions. When the method is used, not only can models be ordered, but also the rules for information exchange and collaboration can be established. ISO 19650 provides the process structure for this.

Open BIM instead of new data silos

The digital approach is particularly vivid in the new long-distance rail tunnel under Łódź. A tunnel boring machine is to bore a tunnel approximately 4.6 kilometres long beneath the city between the construction sites Retkinia and Fabryczna. With a diameter of nearly 14 meters, it will be the largest Polish railway tunnel built in one section with a tunnel boring machine. The route runs partially 25 to 35 meters under the city center. The approximately 2.2 billion złoty contract was awarded to the Austrian construction company PORR.

In the project, tunnel construction, geology, railway technology, and existing urban infrastructure come together. CPK and PORR rely on open IFC models and a shared data environment for digital collaboration. At openBIM Poland 2026, both companies presented this work process: IFC enables vendor-neutral model exchange, the CDE keeps models, documents, and revision statuses together for the participants. buildingSMART Polska supports the dissemination of such open BIM processes and brings together public clients, planners, construction companies, and software providers.

Poland and Germany face similar questions

BIM is still not yet standard practice nationwide in Poland. More interesting is the direction: major projects, public procurement, information management, and open standards are increasingly being interconnected.

Poland also brings these experiences into the European BIM debate. During the Polish EU Council Presidency 2025, CPK presented its BIM practice to the EU BIM Public Officers Group. The focus was not on theoretical modeling questions but on experiences from the ongoing large-scale project, including the number of active contracts, project teams, and partners in the shared data environment.

Poland exemplifies how the role of the public sector is changing. It is no longer just the client of a digital model. It defines itself which data it needs, how these should be delivered, and how they should remain usable later. For precisely this, structures are emerging in Poland on several levels: in major projects like Port Polska, at the procurement authority, and in the Open-BIM community.

Germany faces a similar challenge. After years of pilot projects, BIM must be more integrated into the regular processes of clients, tenders, and projects. Poland visibly relies on the connection of ISO 19650, public procurement, and Open BIM for this.

At BIM World MUNICH 2026, this comparison will have its own place. Poland is the official partner country of the event, and buildingSMART Poland is represented with its own stand at the trade fair and a lecture in the congress program.