Crew Production Rates for Contract Time Estimation: Beam Erection, Deck, and Rail of Highway Bridges
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 132, Issue 4
Abstract
Both the importance and process of estimating highway construction time have increased in significance as roadway user costs themselves have become more significant. In estimating construction time, few parameters are more significant than work item crew production rates and factors significantly affecting those rates. A standardized data collection tool was used to acquire a total of 67 data points from 25 ongoing Texas highway projects between February 2002 and May 2004, for three selected critical work items: beam erection, bridge deck, and bridge rail. With the data, several hypothesized drivers of the crew production rates were analyzed. While the factor of shape of deck (straight versus curved) was identified as a statistically significant driver of bridge deck crew production rate, no statistically significant drivers were found for work items of beam erection and bridge rail. The study also found that both formwork and rebarwork crew sizes have significant relationships with bridge deck production rate. Findings from this study will enable highway agencies to enhance accuracy of contract time estimation for highway bridge construction. The methodology for obtaining field-based production rates will also be beneficial for future researchers.
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Acknowledgments
This paper is written based on a research project sponsored by the Texas Department of Transportation, and special thanks are extended to the inspectors and contractors who helped with data collection for this study.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 132 • Issue 4 • April 2006
Pages: 408 - 415
Copyright
© 2006 ASCE.
History
Received: Aug 17, 2004
Accepted: Jul 1, 2005
Published online: Apr 1, 2006
Published in print: Apr 2006
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