Analyzing Scaffolding Needs for Industrial Construction Sites Using Historical Data

Industrial construction includes a wide range of construction projects, such as petroleum refineries and chemical plants. These involve several trades, such as civil, mechanical, and electrical. Different trades carry out different tasks on these projects, and often depend on scaffolds to access their work areas. Quantification of scaffold requirements of large projects is difficult because of variability in work area heights and congestion and the multiple trades that need to be serviced by the scaffold system. Traditional estimating methods rely on percentages of direct trade hours or volume of work area and usually result in significant deviation from real scaffold costs. The study presented in this paper aims to develop better understanding and estimates of scaffold needs for industrial construction sites, based on analysis of data collected from a mega-project over the course of two and a half years by a major contractor. The study seeks to discover patterns and reliable correlations that may exist between required scaffold hours and other work attributes that can allow for development of a reliable estimation model. The paper presents the results of initial analysis and exploration of data mining experiments, in addition to the challenges faced and future research recommendations.