The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has one of the top 20 economies in the world and the largest economy in the Arab world and the Middle East [1]. The country has experienced a high level of economic growth; as a result, urban development excessively increased over the past few years [2]. Construction is one of the largest industries in Saudi Arabia and plays an important role in sustaining the economic growth and in improving people’s quality of life. The Kingdom’s construction market is expected to grow more than double and reach a record high of $96.52 billion in 2025 from $45.33 billion in 2016 [3]. Furthermore, the government has established its 2030 vision plan and encouraged all sectors to be creative, efficient, and environmentally responsible. A huge budget is dedicated to investments and encouragements in construction projects. However, the Saudi Arabian construction industry still faces critical problems such as poor planning, delays in project delivery, lack of communication, errors and changes in design, cash flow problems, and increased maintenance costs [4]. In 2017, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs [5] reported that approximately 75% of public construction projects have exceeded their planned time and are delayed [6].

As a new phenomenon, Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology can provide solutions for problems in the Saudi Arabian construction industry and improve its final outcomes. BIM is an advanced process and tools with combined virtual aspects, systems, and concepts facilitated within a unified environment [7]. The active role of this technology improves collaboration and communication among different project stakeholders. However, unfortunately, BIM implementation in Saudi Arabia has neither been made mandatory by the Saudi Arabian government nor has been widely adopted by construction organizations [8].

On such bases, investigating the current and the potential challenges of BIM technology utilization in Saudi Arabia is necessary. Therefore, this study expands the relevant literature to determine the scientific developments in the field. In the long term, this study can also certainly clarify further research to be developed and conducted on construction projects in Saudi Arabia.

BIM has become an essential part of the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industries in the world [9]. The successful implementation of BIM technology has allowed project stakeholders to capture its full advantages. BIM is considered a significant digital technology undergoing rapid growth in the construction industry for drawing, modeling, simulation, and management. This technology is recommended as the most effective tool in numerous advanced countries such as Australia, Singapore, Denmark, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States [10]. However, developing countries such as Saudi Arabia and those in the Middle East still face several limitations that hinder BIM integration [11].

The multiple benefits of BIM technology have been extensively studied [7, 12-16], including 3D visualization, cost estimation for all stages of the project, construction planning, clash detection, reduction of design errors and rework, enhanced project communication, and reduction of the overall project duration [17]. Though the significant benefits of solving most of the construction problems that planners, managers, designers, and other stakeholders face in the projects’ lifecycle stages, BIM implementation is also still subject to several challenges and limitations hindering its applications and slowing the implementation process.

Compiled from a comprehensive literature review of previous studies related to BIM through journal papers, books, articles, and websites, the barriers to BIM implementation are classified into 17, in some cases by including two or more sub-barriers within one barrier. The challenges and barriers are summarized in Table 1.

The collected data were analyzed using the Statistical Packaging for Social Science (SPSS) software. The statistical analysis included descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. The relative importance index ranking (RII) for each item was also analyzed.

4.1. General Information for Respondents

Table 4 shows the engineering specializations and academic qualifications of the respondents, classified in two dimensions and illustrated in percentages in Figs. (1 and 2), respectively.

Respondents from the working sectors were classified into three categories, namely, Private, Public, and Public-Private sectors, as shown in Fig. (3). The majority of respondents were site and designer engineers, with percentages of 48.9% and 12.6%, respectively, as illustrated in Fig. (4).

Table 1. Barriers of BIM adoption.

Reference	Barriers oF BIM Adoption	NO
[18, 19]	Construction market is not ready for BIM technology	B1
[20-23]	Legal issues	B2
[20-24]	High cost of BIM	B3
[21, 22, 25]	Lack of government support	B4
[24-26]	Lack of BIM training	B5
[20-24]	Resistance to change	B6
[20-24]	Poor awareness of BIM benefits	7B
[27-29]	Sufficient current technology	B8
[30, 31]	Difficulty of learning BIM	B9
[20-25]	Lack of demand by owners	B10
[24, 32]	Unspecified data responsibilities	B11
[20, 21, 33]	Lack of BIM experts	B12
[20, 25, 34]	Need for special BIM contracts	B13
[32, 35]	Lack of support from top managers	B14
[24, 32]	Lack of data sharing	B15
[26, 32, 34]	Long time required for training the current employees	B16
[20-23]	High cost of training current staff	B17

Table 2. Correlational validity by pearson coefficient.

Item	Correlation Coefficient	p-value	Item	Correlation Coefficient	p-value	Item	Correlation Coefficient	p-value
1	0.478**	0.000	7	0.464**	0.000	13	0.340**	0.002
2	0.581**	0.000	8	0.360**	0.003	14	0.475**	0.002
3	0.425**	0.001	9	0.404**	0.001	15	0.509**	0.001
4	0.468**	0.000	10	0.412**	0.001	16	0.347**	0.004
5	0.406**	0.001	11	0.474**	0.000	17	0.358**	0.003
6	0.379**	0.002	12	0.405**	0.000	-	-	-

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

Table 3. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient adequacy.

Adequacy	Cronbach’s Alpha Value
Excellent	0.9 and above
Good	0.89- 0.8
Acceptable	0.79- 0.7
Questionable	0.69 0 - 0.6
Poor	0.59 and below

Fig. (1). Engineering specialization.

Fig. (2). Qualifications.

Fig. (3). Working sector.

Fig. (4). Job description.

Fig. (5). Years of experience of the respondents.

Table 4. Engineering specialization and academic qualification.

Specializations Engineering
Academic Qualification		Civil	Architecture	Mechanical	Electrical	Total
	Diploma	5	1	1	0	7
	Bachelors	110	37	10	1	158
	Masters	23	18	3	0	44
	PhD	7	7	0	0	14
	Total	145	63	14	1	223

Fig. (6). BIM awareness among the respondents.

Fig. (7). BIM knowledge in the firms of respondents.

In terms of years of experience, majority (33.18%) of the overall respondents in this survey fell under the category [10-15] Years, while (24.22%) have less than five years’ experience in construction firms, see Fig. (5).

This study successfully investigated the critical challenges and barriers to BIM technology implementation. The results showed that “ Lack of demand by owners” ranked first among the barriers. The second barrier was “Lack of experts”, while “Poor awareness of BIM benefits” came in third. On the other hand, the lowest-ranking barriers were “Unspecified data responsibilities”, “Difficulty of learning BIM”, “Lack of data sharing”, and “Sufficient current technology”. To increase the level of awareness and knowledge in BIM, government centers and universities in Saudi Arabia must play an important role by providing training programs and workshops, and strongly encourage researchers and professionals in related fields to achieve better integration of BIM technology into the construction industry.