Editor’s Note

“Warranty Bonds from the Perspective of Surety Companies”: Contractors are currently facing a more comprehensive list of questions in the underwriting process and a reluctance of surety companies to increase bonding capacity. Bayraktar, Cui, Hastak, and Minkarah state that concerns in the surety industry are not limited to the unexpected losses, but include the requirement by the state Departments of Transportation on warranted highway projects.

“Testing Vickery’s Revenue Equivalence Theory in Construction Auctions”: Construction work is often allocated to contractors via first-price sealed-bid auctions (FPA). American Nobel Prize winner and Economist William Vickery, however, suggested that the second-price auctions (SPA) may be more beneficial, due to the revenue equivalence theory. Drew and Skitmore investigate the possibility that the clients can expect to pay approximately the same to contractors irrespective of whether contracts are awarded according to a FPA or SPA.

“Lessons Learned from an Emergency Bridge Replacement”: Recent terrorist attacks and subsequent potential threats to the United States transportation systems have presented an urgent need to develop emergency response plans to quickly react to the possible consequences of extreme events. Bai, Burkett, and Nash present research to identify strategies and technologies to quickly restore the use of highway bridges in case of damage or destruction by extreme events. By studying past bridge replacements following such events, the authors identify and expand on lessons learned, address which actions did and did not work well given the specific circumstances of the incident, and incorporate lessons into the emergency response plan for highway bridges.

“Key Performance Indicators for Strategic Healthcare Facilities Maintenance”: By means of field surveys and statistical analyses validated by means of case studies, Igal Shohet develops Key Performance Indicators for improving Facilities Management. Shohet notes that preliminary design, construction, and maintenance are all important decisive phases with regard to effective Facilities Management. The research results in a series of 11 KPIs for strategic Healthcare Facilities Management, which can be classified into 4 main categories.

“Constructability Analysis of the Bridge Superstructure Rotation Construction Method in China”: Zhang and El-Diraby present a constructability analysis of the superstructure rotation method for bridge construction. The method involved building the bridge parallel to the obstacle being crossed and then rotating the superstructure into place. The method has been most commonly used in China. The authors document two case studies in which this method was used, analyzing its feasibility based on reduction of impacts on traffic, safety, and overall project budget and duration.

“Sequence Planning for Electrical Construction”: When project work sequences are poorly planned or poorly executed, electrician constructors often must contend with compressed schedules, trade stacking, and out-of-sequence work to ensure timely completion of a project. Horman, Orosz, and Riley analytically evaluate the importance of sequence planning in allowing efficient electrical work. Principles of sound sequences and guidelines for sequence planning are captured from the analysis in addition to the discovery of a strong correlation between crew planning performance one week and crew productivity performance the following week.

“Constructability State of Practice Report”: Pocock, Kuennen, Gambatese, and Rauschkolb review the responses from approximately 100 owners, architects, engineers, consultants, contractors, and construction managers to a 10-question survey regarding constructability. The responses are used to provide a picture of current constructability practices and to indicate the level of progress in recent years. Conclusions are drawn and recommendations are provided based on areas where constructability practice can still be improved.

“Examining the Business Impact of Owner Commitment to Sustainability”: Beheiry, Chong, and Haas conduct a study to establish a research mechanism to investigate the impact of corporate commitment to sustainability on capital project planning and capital project performance. The authors hypothesize that increasing commitment to sustainability leads to increasing sustainable project planning and better cost and schedule performances in large projects. The authors use two sustainability indices to determine the impacts of the aforementioned commitment and project planning on cost and schedule performances, design changes, and safety compliances.

“Developing a Resource Supply Chain Planning System for Construction Projects”: Inadequate project planning may cause material shortages that delay the project schedule or cause a substantial increase in inventory costs by producing or supplying materials earlier than they are needed at the construction site due to the high variation in material costs. Tserng, Yin, and Li study steel rebar production and supply operations and establish an optimal model that minimizes the integrated inventory cost of the supply chain to solve the above-presented problems. Based on the optimal model, the authors develop a decision support system to generate a production and supply plan for a supplier and buyers of steel rebar.

“Crew Production Rates for Contract Time Estimation: Beam Erection, Deck, and Rail of Highway Bridges”: In estimating construction time, few parameters are more significant than work item crew production rates and factors significantly affecting the rates. Using data collected from 25 ongoing Texas highway projects between February 2002 and May 2002, O’Connor and Huh analyze several hypothesized drivers of the crew production rates. The authors’ findings are presented regarding three selected critical work items: beam erection, bridge deck, and bridge rail.

“Contractor Key Competitiveness Indicators (KCIs): A China Study”: While previous studies have identified various indicators for assessing contractor competitiveness, most have not described what indicators are more important in various market environments. Shen, Lu, and Yam present an identification of the key competitiveness indicators for assessing contractor competitiveness in the Chinese construction market. An index value is used to indicate the relative significance among various competitiveness indicators, based on which KCIs are identified.