Construction Research Congress 2018: Construction Project Management

Updates on the assessment of the encroachment condition in large infrastructure assets are often missing. Such type of assessment is often neglected due to the extensive manual effort that requires. The article proposes an automated approach towards the assessment of the encroachment within the right of way of a canal infrastructure. The proposed approach combines 3D sensed data of the infrastructure and computational geometric analysis of such data. The original point cloud is segmented into meaningful sections of the canal infrastructure. Theoretical planes are computed for both the ground surface and boundary object, which is typically, but not always, a fence or wall. Due to occlusions (e.g., vegetation) between the boundary object and the roving sensor, the points in the theoretical vertical plane of the vertical boundary object are extruded as long as clusters of points fitting in the theoretical plane can be identified. The intersection between the vertical plane corresponding to the boundary object and the horizontal plane corresponding to the embankment results in the actual boundary intersection line. Currently, a computational solution for singularities in the encroachment condition is being investigated. Preliminary results show that: (1) the accuracy in the location of the actual presence of objects from adjacent properties with the proposed approach, and (2) the feasibility of such approach. The readers should notice that this study was preceded by numerous feasibility field tests with different data collection sensing technologies. In terms of transferring the research results to management, ArcGIS has been used to analyze data and mostly to generate results in the form of shapefiles that can be easily understood by those managing the infrastructure. If regularly used, the automated monitoring proposed in this study can prevent invasions of the right of way when there is still time for initiating legal actions.

General contractors (GCs) in the United States increasingly use building information modeling (BIM) in all phases of a construction project. Especially for the preconstruction phase, GCs aim to leverage BIM capabilities for quantity takeoff and cost estimation, also known as model-based estimating (MBE), to address the current gap between a project’s design and budget. However, the effectiveness of MBE has been limited mainly due to a lack of established MBE best practices and a lack of integration between design and estimation processes. This paper will report on an applied research project conducted by the research team for a large general contractor to develop a standard workflow and a collaboration framework to support the MBE in the preconstruction phase. For this purpose, the research team examined the benefits and challenges of current MBE practices and set criteria for selecting an appropriate workflow and toolset that fit project requirements. The main outcome of the research is a MBE workflow that explains the general process of model-based estimating, required activities, and suggested toolsets for successful implementation of MBE. In addition, this research presents a collaboration framework for owners, designers, and contractors that includes team members’ roles and responsibilities and a guide for integrating design and estimating processes. The results of this research help project teams to benefit from MBE-supported collaboration partnership, leading to efficient and accurate quantity takeoff and cost estimation in the early design stages, on-time value engineering, and effective management of design and cost changes.

This study examines the non-USA industry practitioner’s perspective on building information modeling maturity (BIMM). The purpose of this study is to get a more comprehensive understanding of the practitioner’s perspective on critical indicators of building information modeling (BIM), to better help academicians and the industry understand the current global status of BIM adoption. The findings of this study will better equip educators and industry practitioners in identifying BIM indicators that are important and therefore, help improve the future adoption and implementation of BIM in the Global context. Indicators in this study are grouped under four maturity factors: technology, information, process, and people. The methodology used was a survey deployed to industry practitioners with the purpose of conducting a quantitative study on the data collected by analyzing the mean and standard deviations to provide a ranking of the BIM indicators. The findings of the study revealed that indicators associated with the Information maturity factor, were of the greatest significance to non-USA practitioners.

Productivity improvement within the construction industry is a critical aspect of successful project implementation. Specific productivity practices have demonstrated improvements at the activity, trade, and project levels. However, results have been inconsistent and have not created significant productivity gains at the corporate or industry levels. This research studies the productivity challenge from the corporate level that influences entire project portfolios. The objective was to characterize and assess corporate productivity programs, which are comprised of the people, processes, and technologies that support an organization’s productivity improvement efforts. This study developed a framework to characterize corporate productivity programs centered on their elements and a method to evaluate programs based on the implementation of measurable Actions that lead to increased productivity practice utilization. Through improving the corporate productivity program, a company should have increased utilization and consistency with implementation of productivity practices. These systemic productivity improvements have the potential to improve performance and predictability for portfolio management in the multi-trillion-dollar construction industry.

Today, more than 85% of firms engaged in high levels of model-based engineering and construction have a positive perception of the value they receive for the time, money, and efforts they have expended on their modeling programs. Nevertheless, there are no established processes and metrics for measuring the progress of a model-driven engineering process, as particularly the deliverable type, schedule reporting, and their impacts have changed. A key underlying challenge is how progress and level of effort in a model-driven engineering process can be measured and reported. Definitions such as level of development (LOD) have been established in the commercial building sector for tracking completeness in modeling work, yet there are no established processes and metrics that can reliably measure the progress of a model-driven engineering process as a function of the maturity of the model and the data that supports the engineering process. To address this gap in knowledge, this paper presents a new framework based on a new set of model maturity index (MMI) definitions that measures maturity and progress in engineering work; based on factors that provide insight, manage, control opportunities, and accounts for the unavailability of vendor data, design changes, re-work and design development, model review comments, operability reviews, hazard and operability studies, among other factors. The MMI definitions were validated via charrettes with engineering and project controls experts from the process industrial sector.

The U.S. infrastructure system is deteriorating at a rate that is outpacing its available public financing, an obvious debilitating combination. One solution to “tip the scales” and ease agencies’ financial burdens is the use of public-private partnerships (P3) for public infrastructure projects. Performance management is an important tool to help P3s deliver value for money. It relies on key performance indicators (KPIs) to indicate progress toward achieving outcomes. Developing KPIs is challenging as they must remain valid and pertinent throughout the term of a P3 program, which can range from 25 to 50 years and beyond. Existing literature on KPIs focuses on general indicators of successful projects, the most important KPIs for differing project stakeholders, and best practices. What the literature lacks is how to incorporate KPIs into contracts that are quantifiable, enforceable, and realistic in their execution while dynamic enough to be effective over time. This paper uses a combination of flexibility in legal contract theory and international agency guidelines for performance specification writing to present guidelines that will assist agencies and inform researchers on formulating KPI contract language to reach agency goals throughout the duration of the project.

The building construction sector has historically procured contractors through price-driven methods. Yet the increased use of alternative project delivery methods, along with owner-perceived concerns over construction project performance, has led many construction owners to consider introducing qualifications-based criteria within their procurement systems. The fundamental premise of such best-value (BV) procurement methods is that by considering contractor qualifications during the bidding phase, owners can achieve a more effective and efficient construction process. However, many public and private organizations are deterred from adopting BV procurement due to fears it will result in the selection of higher-cost bidders. In response to this perception, the objective of this study is to perform a “total project cost” analysis of BV procured construction projects to identify the premiums (awarded bid versus lowest bid) during bidding phase as well as cost growth in the construction phase. Total project cost can be interpreted as the total construction cost of the project which is the sum of the awarded bid and cost overruns. Financial data was collected for a sample of 118 vertical construction projects, including the full range of cost proposals submitted during the bidding period as well as the final cost growth achieved by the awarded contractor. These two points of the construction project lifecycle establish a linkage between bid price premium (selected BV bidder versus lowest bid) and project closeout performance. The study contributes an understanding of the total cost impact of BV procurement relative to traditional low bid and potential cost savings in terms of cost performance upon project completion that can be realized through effective BV procurement methods.

Previous studies have shown the potential of integrated project delivery (IPD). They demonstrated its superiority to other delivery methods in terms of exhibiting enhanced productivity, cost, schedule, quality, and risk performances. It achieves so through cooperative collaboration, open information sharing, risk and reward sharing, and early involvement. Yet, voids have been identified in current IPD agreements that hinder them from attaining their full potential. This research proposes a contractual framework that fills these voids by utilizing the lessons learned from prior IPD projects and building on the strengths of relevant partnering contracts from the United Kingdom (U.K). In other words, this research presents a relational contract framework that integrates the strengths of the U.S. IPD with the U.K. partnering agreements. A three-step methodology was utilized. First, the authors reviewed the available standard forms of IPD and partnering contracts in the U.S. and the U.K. markets. Second, the authors investigated past IPD projects to analyze their faced contract-based problems and lessons learned. Third, the authors developed a contractual framework that addresses the critical contractual aspects. The developed framework should be useful to contract drafters as it promotes a more efficient and effective contracting environment throughout improved cooperation, risk sharing, incentives, and conflict mitigation. The authors encourage legal professionals to utilize the proposed framework in the process of updating and further enhancing the IPD standard forms of contract.

In the construction industry, it is crucial for owners to select the appropriate contract delivery method in order to achieve best performance on their projects. The low bid method has been the most common competitive bid selection approach used for public projects in the U.S. construction industry. Although the latter method ensures transparency in the selection process through considering only one objective criterion which is the bid price, it often leads to adversarial relationships, less cooperation among different parties involved in the project, and potential compromise on the project quality. Furthermore, it is often accompanied with a significant number of claims and disputes that often result in cost overruns and schedule delays. Thus, there is a need to explore alternative competitive price-driven bidding methods which can preserve the transparency of the low bid method and at the same time remedy the inconvenience of unrealistic low bids. This paper uses agent based modelling to simulate the interactions among contractors with varying risk behaviour under different competitive tendering approaches including the second low, average, and below-average bidding methods. The conducted simulations revealed that under low competition, the below-average bid method is recommended to owners whereas the second low bid method is more adequate under high competition. The developed platform allows the observation of emergent market patterns such as the evolution of bid prices and capital growth of contractors under each of the simulated bidding methods, which helps owners choose the most suitable method for their current project and market conditions.

With an estimated 10-year funding gap of $2-trillion required to repair and maintain U.S. infrastructure, governing agencies are forced to explore alternative contracting approaches to the traditional, high first-cost method of design-bid-build (DBB). One such approach is the public-private partnership (P3). While not new in concept, P3s facilitate a shared risk and reward environment that removes the initial financial burden of capital improvement from the governing agency. This arrangement encourages the private sector to develop public projects by providing long-term profit potential over the operational life of the project. However, most alternative contracting approaches, including P3s, are difficult to procure and more susceptible to problems and failures due to a lack of established laws and procedures. This paper reviews and compares state and federal laws that helped mold the current adoption of transportation related P3 in the U.S., from its initial enabling legislation to present day usage at the federal level. The growth of state legislation is examined both from the perspective of allowable P3 project types and the relative value of work put in-place by P3 contracts over time. By considering a time component, we review the directionality of federal legislation and how project initiation is affected. This paper recognizes the benefits of enabling legislation for P3s that have led to its current status in the U.S. today and provides direction regarding the driving force behind P3 policy change for future growth in the transportation industry.

Trust from contractors is important for subcontractors in the construction industry. However, trust is vulnerable and fragile. After contractors’ trust is violated, it is essential for subcontractors to repair trust in an effective and timely manner in order to sustain the role of trust. Thus this study is aimed to compare the effectiveness of three trust repair strategies in eight different contexts after subcontractors violate competence-based trust in China. Scenario-based experiments are utilized. This study finds that in most cases, when subcontractors have mild competence-based violations, show of positive attitude is the most effective trust repair strategy. When subcontractors have severe competence-based violations, immediate action is the most effective trust repair strategy. And in most cases, self-justification is not the optimal trust repair strategy. This study provides information to help subcontractors comprehensively understand and apply the most effective trust repair strategies in different contexts to repair violated competence-based trust in China.

Recent advancements in construction management research portray evidence that project teams associate with social and psychological theories of team formation and management. One such theory, social network theory, has been used in different topical areas of construction management research. The objective of this paper is to investigate through literature review the trends in the use of social network analysis in construction management research. The findings of the study show a growing number of studies and associated publications that apply social network theory and analysis, particularly on the topics of team interaction, communication, knowledge sharing, and team characteristics, in which these topics demonstrate the highest number of published papers related to social networks and construction management. There is then strong evidence from the literature that there is a connection between social relations and team interaction, communication, knowledge sharing, and team characteristics. However, there is limited knowledge related to the social factors and human behaviors of the construction project team under the social network theory. Therefore, this paper provides a comprehensive literature review to make inquiries on the social and human factors that can influence interactions and interpersonal relationships between the construction team.

The construction industry has used best-value (BV) in traditional design-bid-build (D-B-B) projects, and this raises questions regarding the influence of qualifications-based evaluation criteria on the outcomes of BV awarded contractors. The main objective of this study was to examine the consequences of contractor selections using BV for D-B-B projects. This study focused on the characteristics of selected contractors and identification of which evaluation criteria (cost, schedule, and several qualifications-based criteria) that have the greatest differentiation among competing bidders. The data sample consists of 171 D-B-B projects procured using BV; the majority of projects are vertical construction projects located in the institutional sector. The owner’s evaluation matrix was compiled for each project, including the owner evaluation committee’s scoring for each competing contractor. Descriptive statistics were used to identify the characteristics of selected contractors in terms of their ranking relative to competing bidders on both cost and qualifications-based evaluation criteria. Results show that in BV procurement, the lowest bidders were selected 42% of the time with 14.8% in the average cost differential versus low-bid options. Certain qualifications-based criteria, such as technical proposal, interview, past performance, and safety, were found to have a greater variance than cost submission among competing contractors. The finding from this study refutes the perception that there is minimal variation in contractor qualifications. It also contributes to the body of knowledge by providing an empirical data set across numerous BV D-B-B projects and considering all competing bids for each project.

Owner organizations are increasingly using alternative project delivery methods of design-build (DB) and construction manager at risk (CMAR). Documented advantages of these delivery methods include the opportunity to improve project constructability, value engineering, innovativeness, and collaboration. The experience, qualifications, and technical expertise of construction managers and design-build team are of immense importance to achieve these performance improvements. The procurement methods used in alternate project delivery are therefore heavily focused on best value (BV) and qualifications-based system (QBS) evaluation criteria. Substantial research has been conducted on the performances of alternate project delivery, yet little research has been conducted to describe the merits of various evaluation criteria in differentiating the qualification and expertise of the selected bidder. The objective of this study was to document the selection outcomes of the selected bidder and identify which evaluation criteria achieves the greatest differentiation among competing bidders for alternative project delivery. A data sample of 63 alternate project delivery across North America was compiled. The sample mainly consisted of vertical building projects, with a few horizontal utility and park projects. The research analyses empirical data of BV and QBS procured projects. The results showed that in a BV procurement, half the time the selected bidder was the lowest bid. Also, almost all the time the lowest bidder was selected, they were also the best qualifications. The results also revealed that schedule, technical proposal, and interview achieved the greatest differentiation among competing bidders, whereas cost and related experience (RE) achieved a moderate differentiation. The evaluation criteria which required past performance information from the bidders achieved the least differentiation. The research contributes by analyzing the evaluation team scores for selected bidder and effectiveness of different evaluation criteria. It also contributes practical guidance to both owners and DB/CMAR firms. Owners can optimize the inclusion and weighting of their evaluation criteria in order to ensure the selection of qualified bidders. Conversely, DB and CMAR firms can strategize their business development efforts to emphasize evaluation criteria which can have the greatest differentiation from competitors, thereby increasing the chance of being selected.

Construction contracts play a vital role in construction projects and, in many ways, have the power to: promote and reward behaviors that support the delivery of successful projects; engage participants in the pursuit of what is best for the project and not only for individual parties; and even define how projects will be run and which tools will be used from an operational standpoint to run the design and construction processes. In some of the new forms of contracts, like integrated project delivery (IPD) and its variations (IPDish and IPD-lite contracts), due to a demand for more innovative solutions and techniques to be incorporated in projects, there is a strong need for collaboration to satisfy owners’ needs. This study contributes to the discussion on how contracts might promote collaboration based on how they are drafted to support relationships and working practices in construction projects. The following question was used to start the analysis: do contracts that are considered to be more collaborative display a higher number of mentions of words relating to collaboration when compared to traditional contracts? Construction contract language was analyzed by searching for specific words and terms used to promote collaboration in construction projects. Various contracts used in different delivery methods, and drafted by different organizations, in public and private settings were analyzed. Clauses involving various words that are related to collaboration and collaborative practices have been identified, and the contracts compared and contrasted to understand how these contracts are similar or different from a collaboration standpoint. The analysis revealed that IPD types of contracts have more instances where collaboration-related words and practices are indicated. The language of these contracts has words and terms related to collaboration suggesting different ways people can organize to collaborate, whereas more traditional contracts have their language drafted mostly around compliance.

Team assignment within design and construction largely occurs following notice of selection to the winning firm. Upon notification, most firms use informal methods based primarily on qualifications and availability as the key factors in team assignment. Past experience with the client, current geographic location, and other variables may also be considered. Regardless of the specific considerations, team assignment mechanics within the built environment lack a sophistication consistent with the known importance of the project team to achieving successful project outcomes. One of the most overlooked components of team assignment mechanics is the significance of the “personality traits” in building teams and ensuring the various members have a high probability of being able to work and communicate effectively with each other. This paper studied the effect of honesty/humility and extraversion (from HEXACO PI-R test), and overall emotional intelligence (from emotional intelligence test, version 2.0) on team performance. A case study of 102 AEC industry professionals working in teams to complete similar project management tasks is presented. In the case study, teams specifically aligned considering these personality traits are compared to teams of random formation. Teams that were formed considering personality traits outperformed teams that were randomly formed by 68%. The findings of this study can be used to strategically form high performing teams.

Claims and disputes contract clauses are meant to specify and regulate the mechanisms adopted for tracking, expediting, and resolving claims and disputes that arise under construction contracts. As such they inexorably lead to engaging all main project participants in an inevitably demanding process, and over a rather long period of time. Inherent to such processes is therefore the engagement of an array of engineering professionals, in respect of rendering judgements such as opinions, findings, determinations, dispute review recommendations, adjudication decisions, pre-arbitral decisions, or arbitral rulings. This paper examines the roles engineering professionals are required to exercise under four standard sets of contract conditions, widely used in North America and internationally. Namely, the examined conditions are those published by the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC), the Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee (EJCDC), and the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and the widely endorsed ConsensusDocs conditions. Stipulated roles are found to have variant properties and associated attributes related to whether given judgements: (1) are said to be binding, or binding and final, upon their mere issuance, or (2) are born binding and turn final upon the action or the lack thereof by any of the concerned parties, or (3) are of such a property that allows the attribute of being “final” to be revoked. Similarly, other investigated properties dealt with the degrees of independency and impartiality under which the concerned engineering professionals end up acting. Finally, the paper critically argues for other considerations and criteria to have to prevail for any rendered judgement to be viewed as fair and reasonable.

Recently in the U.S., public-private partnerships (P3) have become increasingly utilized as a mechanism for closing the gap between revenues and expenditures in transportation mega-projects, however, public perception remains a major challenge to successful utilization. Recent projects have run into issues with public perception, particularly where non-compete provisions are utilized. The conventional wisdom, which is often reflected in the public’s perception, is that non-compete provisions in public-private partnership contracts are a zero-sum game, meaning the losses of one party directly balances the gains of the other. However, the design and selection of non-compete provisions can allow the objectives of the public and private sectors to not be in direct conflict with each other. This study reviews 13 toll concessions, and long-term lease contracts in the U.S. and examines the provisions related to competing facilities contained in each contract. The study found that there has generally been an evolution in non-compete provision types, from strict non-compete provisions or nothing in the 1990s, to limited compete and competing facilities compensation provisions in more recent contracts, as well as a move toward uniformity in language. This more recent generation of contracts explicitly outlines the “unfettered rights” of the public-sector to pursue necessary transportation improvements, as well as their responsibility to the public. These results suggest that the shift towards limited compete and competing facilities compensation provisions is one toward a more balanced approach than the previously used, restrictive provisions in providing a clear path for pursuing necessary improvements.

The review and compilation of the construction contract documents is recognized by engineering and project management professionals as a complex process, which aims at ensuring that the compiled contract package reflects an acceptable degree of completeness and coordination, while being in compliance with the set design criteria and prevailing laws. Yet, construction professionals often encounter defects that may involve any one or more of the documents constituting the construction contract. The objective of this paper is to (1) highlight the types of defects likely to be encountered, (2) identify the participants entrusted with rendering resolutions in respect thereof, and (3) lay down a proposed approach for aiding these decision makers in the formulation of warranted interpretations. The adopted methodology involved scrutinizing six sets of standard contract conditions, in serving the first two objectives; and examining five sources, identified from the literature, which offer various combinations of rules used for interpretation purposes, in serving the third objective. The findings revealed a range of various attributes for the defect terminologies used, participants specified, and resolutions to be given. A synthesis of the encountered rules was performed, resulting in an integrated set of 35 rules. Fifteen rules were classified to be candidate for being directly employed by the engineering professional, while seven rules were deemed as being outside the engineering professional’s prerogative. The remaining ones were regarded to be of such nature that allows the engineering professional to observe, or—at least—be guided by, them. The paper concludes with a three-stage representation, showing the sequence with which the process of constructing reasonable interpretations is streamlined. Three focal considerations are thus reflected along the proposed, sequenced representation, including: setting the boundaries of the contract, reading the contract as a whole, and filtering the multiple interpretations that may possibly end up being on hand.

IPD uses financial risk and reward sharing mechanism to align the business interests of core IPD team members. Grounding on a cooperative game theory, this research analyzes the relative effectiveness of different IPD standard contracts’ risk and reward sharing arrangements on team’s motivation for collaboration. The results indicate that when the project cost is within the target cost, all four IPD contracts incentivize the team members to collaborate within the best interest of the project. The problem arises, however, when the project cost exceeds the target cost and the entire contingency, and at-risk profit is exhausted. Some contracts put the firms at-risk for the additional cost overrun. In this case, the parties will stay with the coalition only if that will benefit them all with additional cost and time reduction. In contrast, some other IPD contracts put owners at-risks for the additional cost overrun. In these circumstances, the parties have no shared financial incentives to stay with the coalition or to lower the cost of overrun. The only contract, which seems to outperform the other contracts with respect to incentivizing the IPD teams to continue their collaboration when the project faces cost overrun is AIA C 191. In this contract, the firms are responsible for additional indirect cost and the owner is responsible for the additional direct cost; in addition, there is a shared at-risk profit that will be distributed upon the project completion, only if all the project goals (excluding target cost and schedule) are satisfied. In this model, the parties are financially incentivized to stay with the coalition and complete the project satisfactory while minimizing the extent of the cost overrun. For shared risk and reward mechanism to be effective, it should encourage the team to collaborate both when the project is within or above the target cost.

The contract administration roles that are expected to be fulfilled by the “Engineer” on behalf of the owner are found to be explicitly stated in, or inferred from, the provisions prescribed under the construction contract. It is well recognized that projects’ owners are at liberty to formulate their own templates of construction contract conditions. When basing the formulation of such templates on standard general conditions, owners commonly opt to amend these in such ways that address their own peculiar needs and interests. This paper aims at tackling this exact meddling with established practices, particularly in respect of the engineer’s authority and roles exercised in administering construction claims. To this end, the paper discusses the means for effecting changes or exercising influences that can lead to limiting the engineer’s authority. As such, it identifies the varying levels authority within, or under, which the Engineer may end up acting when exercising its roles. Four classes have been identified or argued for, which reflect impartial, challenged, limited, and transferred authority levels. Lessons learned from a fully-documented claim case study are then used for the purpose of highlighting how the identified authority classes may coexist in reality. The visitation of the case’s facts revealed practices that were judged to have led to the diffusion of the engineer’s authority in regard to the administration of raised claims. The paper concludes by illustrating the impasse, experienced in the examined case study, which resulted from a combination of limitations and influences that affected the engineer’s authority along the claim/dispute tracking and administration timeline.

The high competition in the construction market entails contractors quoting reasonable, if not trimmed, prices when bidding on construction projects in order to be awarded the contract. This pricing strategy quite limits the successful contractor’s ability to absorb future additional costs, as these cannot be included in the periodic payment applications made by the contractor. This can be explained by considering the case of unforeseeable physical conditions, as a highly occurring example, whereby the contractor incurs unanticipated additional costs and, as a result, submits a claim. In order for a claim to be properly substantiated, contemporary records typically form a critical part of the evidence to be utilized in evaluating the contractual entitlement. Among various such records, the financial statements, maintaining the increased costs incurred, can play a considerable role in supporting the contractor’s contractual right to an equitable adjustment. However, due to a lengthy inquiry and negotiation conducted by, or on behalf of, the owner, the contractor is unlikely to recover the claim proceeds in the same—or even the following—fiscal year, and it is thereby encouraged to financially treat this unresolved claim during the current accounting period to preserve its position in the market among lenders and investors. Therefore, this paper takes the initial steps for addressing such inevitable situations, by: (1) examining the differing site conditions clause under two sets of standard contract conditions published by the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) and the Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee (EJCDC), (2) extracting the corresponding claim process stages, and (3) analyzing the various scenarios that a contractor is likely to face under both standard contract systems and accordingly illustrating how unresolved claims can be best accounted for in the contracting company’s financial sheets, in a way that leads to a positive impact on the periodic income.

For international construction, contractors perform their work in another country and thus risks are normally difficult to be identified and assessed for further intervention. However, previous risk assessment methods in the context of international construction lack of consideration of risk associations therefore, risk intervention strategies were critiqued ineffective for linking with risk associations. In this paper, we propose a two-stage risk control management framework consists of project objectives, risk events, risk factors, and project stakeholders based on dynamic meta-network analysis (DMNA) method. In the first (risk assessment) stage, comprehensive evaluation and sorting the risk factors can be implemented by integrating multiple type of networks, i.e., meta-networks constituted of risk factors, risk events, and project objectives. In the second (risk corresponding) stage, by analyzing the impact of project stakeholders on the meta-network, effective risk intervention measures are proposed towards stakeholders respectively. A highway construction project of a Chinese contractor in an Eastern Europe country is chosen as a case study to verify the feasibility and applicability of the proposed risk control framework for international construction projects. Results: In the process of DMNA, researchers can assess the risk level based on time-variant risk associations. Also, relevant risk control measures are put forward accordingly as management basis. This study modeled risk priorities based on time-variant risk associations and put forward a new method for risk management, supplementing the body of knowledge in the area of international construction.

Contracting in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) poses unique challenges due to the Kingdom’s distinctive cultural, political, and religious facets. Being the largest economy in the Middle East and North Africa, and having massive planned investments in infrastructure public works, KSA is a fertile soil for investments by U.S. contractors; especially for those who aim at strengthening their global presence. Despite that, the literature is short in guiding U.S. contractors and preparing them for the contractual challenges they are expected to face in KSA. This paper presents contract administration guidelines for U.S. contractors partaking, or intending to partake, in public works projects in the KSA. To this end, a comparative analysis has been conducted between the Saudi Public Works Contract (PWC) and the U.S. Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). Moreover, the unique contractual and legal considerations that are unique to the KSA have been extracted from the different relevant laws and regulations. In addition to the provided discussions, the paper presents a summary of the findings in the form of: (1) a comparative checklist showing the similarities and differences between the two governmental approaches, and (2) a matrix of relative opportunities and risks of the PWC and FAR. This study should be beneficial to U.S. contractors in honing their understanding of the risks and opportunities associated with working in the KSA; thus, helping them in attaining their desired strategic global presence. The study also adds to the body of knowledge by filling a gap in the seldom-researched legal risks of international construction related to poor contract administration.

Social networking platforms have been widely employed to detect, track, and visualize physical events in population-dense urban areas. They can be effective tools to understand when, where, and what happens retrospectively or in real time. Correspondingly, a variety of approaches have been proposed for detecting either targeted or general events. However, neither type of event detection technique has been developed to detect urban disasters in specific geographic locations and with unpredictable characteristics. Therefore, we propose a spatial and data-driven technique for detecting urban disasters. The method addresses both geographical and semantical dimensions of events (geo-topic detection module) and evaluates their crisis levels based on the intensity of negative sentiment (ranking module). Our approach was designed specifically for georeferenced tweets. To demonstrate the system, we conducted an experiment with 4-h of geotagged tweets in London. Our urban crisis detection technique successfully identified the Grenfell Tower fire among all the candidate geo-topics. Our future work focuses on enabling online-mode detection with high scalability in large-volumes of streaming data. The completed research will contribute to efficient disaster informatics and urban resilience regarding crisis detection and tracking, situation awareness, and information diffusion.

The implementation of housing regulations within crisis organization has received little attention in academic literature and yet plays a critical role in determining quality of living within accommodations and standard practice. During 2015, Germany experienced a rapid increase of displaced persons seeking asylum. Permanent reception centers and collective accommodations for people in the asylum application process quickly met capacity and additional space was required. To meet this need, government agencies coordinated with private companies and non-profit organizations to create alternative short and long-term housing solutions, such as renovated office spaces, schools, light-frame structures, and container housing. This study analyzes the role of regulations and contracts within temporary accommodations through the lens of housing managers and social workers. Six semi-structured interviews were conducted on-site with housing employees from non-profit organizations and private companies in one German city. These interviews were qualitatively coded, and excerpts relating to regulations and contracts for the facility were examined for emergent themes. Emergency housing guidelines have been introduced by various international organizations to maintain living conditions and safety for displaced persons, but primarily within the context of limited existing infrastructure. In contrast, this study explores the perception of housing regulations within the context of a more established built environment. Results from this study provide potential areas of continued research in the housing operation for government coordination including: (1) perceived difference of interaction with governmental agencies based on the type of accommodation (emergency versus collective), and (2) responsibilities of actors within crisis organization in relation to regulations and contracts.

High project complexity is often associated with poor project performance. Some practitioners have learned, at their expense, that a lack of awareness and management of project complexity can be disastrous. This has motivated researchers and practitioners to develop strategies to manage complexity. However, the solutions proposed tend to offer local strategies and fall short of, e.g., addressing project complexity from a structural perspective. Indeed, project structural complexity refers to the interdependences between the multiple elements of the project domains (i.e., product design, engineering, installation, use) and local strategies for managing complexity fail to consider interdependences across domains. Therefore, this paper proposes the lean project delivery system (LPDS)—multi-domain-matrix (MDM) framework as a more holistic approach to the visualization and modeling of structural complexity on projects. The framework was tested on a facility plant upgrade project delivered through a design-bid-build process. The framework helped those involved gain a better understanding of the root causes of the project breakdowns. Specifically, it points out that traditional project management (PM) methods encourage project teams to focus on contract deliverables (programming documents, design drawings, shop drawings, installation milestones) rather than to collaboratively understand the project structural complexity. Conversely, the framework shows how lean construction is fit to manage complex projects.

Project complexity has been increasing over time, especially over the last half century. Since complex projects are more often said to be associated with cost overruns, delays, and overall lower performance than simpler projects are, they have been subject to particular attention since the 1960s. In the AEC industry, scholars and practitioners have studied four themes: they defined and characterized project complexity, identified factors driving it, developed management methods for it, and created metrics. A literature review published in 2017 about construction project complexity summarizes publications dated between 1996 and 2015 and addresses these four themes. It also provides guidance for future research on project complexity. However, the relevance of this work can be questioned for three reasons. First, it encourages the measurement of project complexity without discussing the value of complexity for project stakeholders and its relevance for project management. Second, it overlooked publications before 1996, which the construction industry built upon to gain a better understanding of complexity. Third, it fails to mention lean construction as a way to manage project complexity. Beyond providing those reasons, this paper presents an overview of lean tools and methods that can be used to manage project complexity.

The construction industry is a large part of the world economy and thus is susceptible to macroeconomic shifts and prone to fluctuations in economic health due to the effects of financial risk factors. Reports show that unlike those in the Japanese market, many architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) companies in Korea and the U.S. have either failed or experienced financial distress. Understanding and evaluating financial management indicators are an important part of maintaining fiscal well-being and avoiding corporate ruin. Construction experts are now also concerned about consequences that follow a recession, like the labor deficit. To date no prediction models have been able to accurately predict the next recession following the 2008 recession caused by subprime lending. However, maintaining financial strength is always an encouraged business practice that contributes to avoiding financial hardship including bankruptcy. The Altman Z-score is a bankruptcy prediction model based on multivariate discriminant analysis and used for data investigation. In this study, financial ratios are derived from the financial statements of construction companies and compared among three countries: Korea, Japan, and the U.S. Financial statements are an important area to study because they are a reflection of a company’s management style, culture, and social structure. This study seeks to reveal the similarities and differences in the financial indicators of companies. The findings of the research from financial ratios will provide better understanding of construction companies from different countries while offering insight into proper financial management.

The delivery capability of main contractors depends largely on the quality of their subcontractors and the harmonious relationships that exist between them. Research work was therefore conducted to identify the mechanisms to facilitate the understanding between these pairs and also develop a model that puts emphasis on the factors. To achieve this aim, one hundred questionnaires each were administered randomly to main contractors and labor-only subcontractors in the study area. Seventy-five and eighty-eight questionnaires were respectively filled and returned in this regard. The application of total weight value and rating index techniques shows that type of contract, scope of contract, payment terms, cooperative attitudes, third-party involvement are the main factors that influence this relationship and this was further validated by a model. The paper concludes that this methodology could culminate into a useful decision making tool for both main contractors and subcontractors during the development and execution stages of construction projects in the study area.

Despite the benefits of change orders in allowing owners the exceptional flexibility to mitigate construction problems and respond quickly to capitalize upon opportunities, they have recently become the rule and a major dispute in many construction projects in the Middle East. This study focuses on the State of Kuwait as a case study for this phenomenon, where investigations indicate that around 70% of projects in Kuwait suffer from cost variations. Specifically, the main objectives of this study are to: (1) identify the causes of change orders in public projects; (2) characterize the impact of such change orders on project cost and duration; and (3) recommend practical solutions to minimize the negative impacts of change orders. Data is collected from 38 projects maintained by government agencies and analyzed to highlight common problems and patterns that lead to change orders. The most impacting factors are identified in order to facilitate further investigation of their effects and propose strategies to address these effects. The study also provides recommendations for government agencies to eliminate the causes of change orders or at least minimize their negative impact on projects. This should prove useful to other countries experiencing similar change order trends as it presents a systematic replicable approach to identify the cause and effect of change orders.

This study covers one of the most important aspects of the project closeout period, “the punch-list,” particularly, influential factors that contribute to the punch-list problem. In a high-rise tower project in Las Vegas, Nevada, the punch-list period was delayed by about 6 months. The highly experienced project participants—the general contractor, subcontractor, architect, and owner’s representatives—of this project were in consensus with the researcher that punch-lists are challenging and problematic in any project closeout. Telephone interviews and questionnaire survey with the participants of this project were conducted to identify the major factors having an effect on the punch-list. Based on the initial interviews, questionnaires were prepared and distributed to the other project participants. Results indicated the majority of the respondents agreed that the punch-list problem is a recurring problem. The study also showed that “Multiple punch-lists” was a greatest contributing factor for punch-list delay, and “lack of an official sign-off document” was the most challenging issue of the punch-list period. Results from this study could contribute significantly to owners, contractors, and subcontractors understanding punch-list issues more completely and how to counter problems associated with it.

Design-build (D-B) has been a Federal Highway Administration authorized delivery method since the special experimental projects-14 pilot program in 1990. Today D-B is used so frequently amongst select states that it is hardly an “alternative” delivery method. A large amount of literature has been dedicated to studying D-B’s cost, schedule, productivity, and quality performance. This accumulation of literature has given researchers and practitioners an understanding of D-B performance in comparison to design-bid-build (D-B-B). Missing from these studies is the D-B’s performance over time. Existing literature datasets infrequently span longer than 5 years, and none discusses D-B’s performance over time. This research fills this gap by investigating if Colorado DOT (CDOT) is increasing in their D-B performance metrics over time, as they have matured in their D-B use. CDOT was chosen for study as it is one of the more innovative states in its use of D-B, having recently developed a project delivery selection matrix that ensures D-B is considered for most potential projects. However, our findings indicate that CDOT used D-B for only 21 of the 755 (or 3%) highway construction projects analyzed between 2008 and 2016. Potentially due to the small dataset, no statistical difference of cost growth was observed between D-B-B and D-B within these CDOT projects. From existing literature, this could be caused by D-B being more often chosen for innovation, schedule acceleration, and risk transfer on complex projects versus cost savings. Finally, D-B showed no trend of improvement/decline of cost growth over the years, although D-B-B did show non-statistically significant trend data of cost growth improvement throughout 2008–2016. This study adds to the current body of knowledge and provides practitioners a better understanding of the characteristics of the D-B market.

The main objectives of construction projects are to complete the project according to an available budget, within a planned schedule, and to achieve a pre-specified extent of quality. Therefore, time, cost, and quality are of the most fundamental attributes that determine the success of construction projects. It is vital to strike a balance between these three conflicting objectives, since no one solution can be optimal for all the three objectives. For the aforementioned purpose, a stochastic model is developed to optimize the total duration, cost, and quality of construction projects considering uncertainty by applying the program evaluation and review technique (PERT). To validate the developed model, it was applied to a case study. Results obtained by the developed model demonstrated its effectiveness and efficiency in analyzing stochastic time-cost-quality trade-off problems.

Large-scale construction projects, which involve diverse stakeholders, have numerous interfaces. Mismanagement of interfaces can result in negative project performance. Recently, interface management (IM) has emerged as an effective management strategy to address interface issues. Previous studies on IM have focused mainly on formal IM practices such as developing IM procedures and information systems. Although these formal IM practices are useful, they may not be enough to bring about desired IM performance because the quality of IM is also highly dependent on how well interface stakeholders are working together as a team (i.e., teamwork). This study aims to develop and test a theoretical model to investigate the roles of both teamwork and formal IM practices in improving IM performance and, in turn, project performance. Based on the 221 responses collected from international large-scale construction projects, the model is empirically tested using structural equation modeling. The results show that formal IM practices have a direct and positive effect on IM performance, and teamwork plays a partial mediation role in the relationship between formal IM practice and IM performance. Implementing IM is proven to be an effective approach to promote project performance in terms of schedule, quality, and cost. All the findings clarify the relationships among formal IM practice, teamwork, IM performances and project performance, which help to develop appropriate IM strategies (e.g., improving team cohesion) to effectively manage interfaces.

Setting the right time and cost contingency is a major contributing factor to the success of the project. Project managers usually tend to allocate project time and cost contingency subjectively based on their previous experience. This paper presents a fuzzy logic-based model that allows owners predict the project time and cost contingency reliably and accurately in Egypt. The most important factors affecting time and cost contingency have been identified and are defined as input variables for the model. The effect of these factors on the time and cost contingency, the output variables, have been determined and incorporated into the model via fuzzy rules. On the basis of the known effects of these factors, a fuzzy logic model is developed to automate the prediction process using MS Excel software. Several scenarios are developed and subjected to initial testing using 10 actual projects data. Based on the initial testing, the best model was subjected to tuning in order to achieve the optimum model results in terms of accuracy and validity. Finally, the model is tested by applying it on new five actual construction projects which were not used in the initial testing nor tuning. The model results were found to be acceptable having an average validity percent of 84 and 81% for time and cost contingency, respectively. The proposed model allows the owners to (1) understand the effect of the project different factors on the contingency values, (2) minimize the cost and time overrun through setting the right amount of contingency, (3) avoid tie up of excessive funds for the project, which can be used in others projects, and (4) have higher confidence during the decision making process of whether to proceed or not to proceed with the project.

Construction projects have been rarely completed at the estimated cost and time as it is forecasted approximately more than 50% of projects face significant delay and major cost escalation. Hence, it is of importance to investigate the main schedule and cost performance indicators of engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) projects and address these challenging issue. In spite of the fact that a vast range of studies conducted to identify the leading performance indicators (LPIs), lack of consistency between these indicators has been a matter of debate among construction practitioners and scholars. Furthermore, since construction phase activities consume the largest portion of the project budget and time, most of the previous studies concentrated solely on the performance of construction phase. As a result, the performance of engineering and procurement phases has received the least attention. Therefore, this study will review numerous existing research documents to collect the identified leading time/cost performance indicators and then prioritize them based on their frequency of occurrence in the literature. To accomplish this objective, over 200 peer-reviewed papers from different parts of the world have been studied and a vast range of LPIs in each EPC phase was identified. This study concludes that the principal common cause of delay and cost overrun in both engineering and construction phases is “design change.” Moreover, the schedule and cost performance of procurement phase can be highly affected by “resource shortage” and “price fluctuation” respectively. Although, it is proven that any delay in the project causes cost overrun, the other root causes of cost escalation lie in “poor economic condition,” “poor communication between different stakeholders” and “severe weather condition.” The findings of this review assist construction practitioners to provide required resources properly and help academic researchers to conduct their future studies by presenting an extensive phase-based review of time/cost performance.

Research work on construction project success has been of steadily considerable interest to a number of industries, including that of engineering and construction. The objective of the research reported in this paper was to investigate the significance of project controls as a critical success factor (CSF), with the aim of validating the continued need for improving on the current practices related to putting in place effective project control processes. The research methodology involved undertaking a scrutinized review of project controls research studies reported on—over the last three decades—in the related reputable literature, followed by a synthesis of the factors cited as critical to the success of various types of projects. Fifteen headings ended up being adopted for describing factors reported in the reviewed studies as critical to project success. The findings revealed that the semantics used in the literature in relation to an adopted broad heading of “effective project monitoring and controls methods” come with the highest frequency (62 citations), as compared to the citations (ranging from 12 to 51) in respect of the other adopted 14 headings. The distribution of the various research methodologies relied upon in the encountered studies is presented, showing “questionnaires” as the dominant means for collecting CSF-related information. In addition, the full range of encountered “project controls” semantics and their categorization are offered. The paper concludes with a brief analysis of the ranking assigned to project controls as a CSF, with medium and high ranks inferred for more than 50% of the studies dealing with construction projects.

The earned value management system (EVMS) is undoubtedly a well-established method offering an integrated approach for controlling a project’s cost and schedule targets. Nevertheless, the literature has increasingly reported limitations hindering the use of this tool, as alleged by main project participants in various industries, including that of construction. The overall objective of the research reported on in this paper is to identify those shortcomings stated to be hindering EVMS application and to investigate the main improvements proposed to the representation of the traditional set of EVMS key parameters [i.e., budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS), budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP), and actual cost of work performed (ACWP)]. The research methodology was initiated by an explorative thorough review of the project controls and EVMS archival research literature, covering the last two decades. Sixteen classes are being adopted for classifying the EVMS limitations reported in the scrutinized review of 58 encountered studies, with those related to the quality of inputs (faulty results in calculating the percent complete of executed work) and outputs (mistaken results of estimate-at-completion forecasts) being the top cited limitations (17 and 19 citations, respectively), compared to other human- and process-related shortcomings. Secondly, a synthesis is presented of the main tracks along which reported enhancements can be classified, with the purpose of gaining discernment on how the encountered EVMS limitations may possibly be overcome. The findings revealed that the highest frequency of reported improvements (30%) is allocated to the two limitations with the highest citation occurrences, and twenty six percent of the reviewed and classified improvement studies (110, in total) were found to be tackling the method’s set of key parameters. As such, the paper concludes with a synthesis of the improvements found to be affecting the representation, usage and measurements of these key parameters.

Risk chasing can erroneously lead to suboptimal decisions. On construction sites, the pursuit of saving time and money can place construction managers in situations where ethics are involved. In today’s integrated construction sites, younger and more novice construction professionals are increasingly required to make quick decisions on vital matters. Although the impact of age on risk chasing has been thoroughly studied in the behavioral economics literature, a gap was identified in how age affects the propensity of ethical decision making with a key emphasis on construction sites. Based on this knowledge gap, an experiment was developed to compare two groups: (1) one hundred college engineering students with some limited project experience, and (2) forty-eight highly experienced construction leaders. Responses to a set of questions framing a situation common on typical construction sites are compared between the two groups. The findings suggest that the younger respondents are more likely to pursue options that, although they save the project money, are nonetheless unethical. The findings can be used by construction and engineering management professionals to help understand and characterize site decision making behavior, and to support the development of training tools to mitigate the costs associated with unethical and suboptimal decisions.

Highway agencies are often required to make crucial decisions in early stages of the project development process. One of these decisions is selecting an appropriate project delivery method (PDM). Currently, highway agencies have been using three fundamental PDMs, including design-bid-build (D-B-B), design-build (D-B), and construction manager/general contractor (CM/GC). No single PDM is suitable for all types/conditions of highway construction, but there exists a delivery method that is optimal for a given project. This paper presents a Bayesian network (BN) approach to selecting a suitable PDM. The model was developed based on three phases: (1) data collection and preparation, (2) BN-based model development, and (3) model testing and validation. The data used to develop the model included 177 highway projects completed from 2004 to 2015. The model variables included risk profile, project attributes, project complexity, cost, and time factors. The model development involves determining interrelationships among these variables. The expected outcome of the model includes probabilistic inferences associated with each delivery method (D-B-B, D-B, and CM/GC). The BN-based model was tested and validated using a k-fold cross validation technique. The results indicate that the proposed model has an average precision of 91.5% and an average reliability of 91.0%. The findings of this paper contribute to theory by first introducing the BN-based approach to project delivery literature. The findings from this paper also help practitioners quantitatively select the most suitable delivery method for their projects.

In complex construction projects with numerous stakeholders, communication can be very challenging, and any miscommunication, i.e., faulty transfer of information, can negatively influence the project’s success. Although communication is one of the key success factors in the construction industry, a limited number of researchers have focused on internal communication of primary and secondary stakeholders. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to study the quality of communication among primary and secondary stakeholders, and develop a network for external communication of entities within a civil project. To achieve the mentioned objectives, this study initially utilized the earlier-identified internal CIs within primary stakeholders and then found CIs within secondary stakeholders through several statistical analyses, including the two-sample t-test, chi squared test, and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The indicators, which influence the quality of internal communication between more than one groups of stakeholders, were considered as shared communication indicators (SCIs). Therefore, the overlaps in the various groups of stakeholders creates a new space for communication between these entities (eternal communication). We aimed to quantify an external communication network by utilizing Cohen’s d effect size weights. The outcome of this research study allows project participants’ to focus on project characteristics, which influence communication between stakeholders and allocate more human and financial resources to the identified sensitive communication areas, which could remarkably increase the communication effectiveness and subsequently project success.

In the field of construction engineering, practitioners frequently encounter uncertainties in the process of decision-making and management of complex projects. These uncertainties associated with project complexity, which vastly affect the project development and execution process, may cause favorable/unfavorable impacts on projects cost performance. Several scholars believe that project complexity may cause unintended consequences on project performance; however, some other researchers stated that complex projects might receive higher attention and more resources and as a result, may face less cost overruns. Therefore, this study initially aims investigate the impact of complexity on phase-based cost performance. For this reason, 44 case studies consisting 30 high complexity projects and 14 low complexity ones were collected. Then, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) phase cost performance of high and low complexity projects were studied and compared. To analyze the collected data, two-sample t-test was utilized. Analysis indicated that complex projects have better EPC phase cost performance compared to low complexity ones. Finally, to find out the underlying causes of better cost performance of high complexity projects in comparison with low complexity ones, the allocated resources and implemented best practices (BPs) were studied. It was observed that high-level of constructability, alignment, partnering, front-end planning, team building, and change management best practices were implemented in complex projects. The findings of this study can help project/program managers (PM) to better understand the phase-based behavior of cost performance in complex projects, and hence implement strategies and allocate resources effectively and efficiently in complex projects.

General contractor’s (GC) loading strategies, defined as the amount of work GC assigns to trades in a given time, directly impact project and trades’ performance. Previous researchers have discussed that it is beneficial not to load 100% of trades production capacity and account for variability in the flow of work passing from one trade to another. However, there has been limited research identifying to what extent underloading is beneficial for both trades and the project. By modifying the Parade Game model and considering different levels of workflow variability, this paper quantifies the effects of GC’s loading strategies on project cycle time and trades’ utilization. This study simulates a single-line production system in which GC controls the rate of work assigned to the production system. Results show that: (1) although underloading will result in shorter cycle times, 40% underloading could lower trades’ average utilization up to 34%; and (2) in a variable production system with a coefficient of variation (CV) of 0.71, variability should be reduced 1.625 times more to achieve a short cycle time of 6 weeks but 14% more trades’ average utilization, considering 70% trades’ average utilization as a benchmark. The findings of this paper will be useful to project managers by enabling them to develop production strategies that lead to better project cycle time and trades’ utilization.

The general consensus in the construction industry and academia alike is that good risk management is pivotal to project success. However, quantitative evidence supporting this conjecture is lacking. The SCIRT alliance, formed after the 2011 earthquakes in Christchurch, provided the opportunity to compare projects with different risk management strategies and analyse the effects of changes in scope and forecasted final cost on project success. Data from more than 200 projects was used in statistical and qualitative analysis. It showed that early contractor involvement and risk workshops in the design stages significantly improved the financial performance of projects. Project managers changed their forecasted final project cost more frequently and the changes led to improved cost certainty. Changes in project scope were linked to poor financial performance. Enhanced risk management techniques employed in the design stages of a project provided project managers with a better platform from which to manage project risks. The results of this study quantitatively support the intuitive notion that proactive risk management has favorable effects on the financial performance of projects. This study contributes towards increasing the understanding of how a better overall performance of a construction project is associated with the improvement of the risk maturity inside the organization. This should encourage construction practitioners to support the proactive risk management and risk maturity as a precursor to more effective project delivery.

Construction projects continue to be inundated with delays as numerous studies have quantified. Factors that contribute to such lack of schedule performance have also been identified and ranked in many case studies. But these are retrospective instead of being proactive and predictive. Existing schedule forecasting via the earned value method has problems, including that after tracking deviations from the plan, its index reaches 100% merely by ultimately completing the project, without any record of progress problems. Therefore inspiration from finance—where stock performance of disparate companies has long been compared within a common market—is used to develop the needed index for schedule performance, which is called beta. Its unitless definition allows applying it to data at any scale from subcontractors via projects and companies to entire industry sectors. Its value for each entity can become a moving average of performance that indicates the propensity to deliver on schedule compared to a baseline. Perfect performance occurs near a zero beta while larger values indicate deviations. Simulations of benchmark schedules explore how the new metric depends on their link structure, i.e., varying degrees of complexity. Recommendations include studying how to account for plan changes and examining its sensitivity to criticality.

Disruptions caused by out-of-sequence work are major causes of productivity losses, cost overruns, schedule overruns, and rework, either directly or indirectly. Projects often appear to be moving smoothly until suddenly near the end consequences of earlier disruptions appear; resulting in a chain reaction of rippled and unplanned impacts. Traditional scheduling and modeling techniques fall short in grasping the full impacts of these disruptions due to their limited ability to capture the highly dynamic nature of multiple feedback processes within the project. The damaged party tends to use the modeling method that overestimates the losses while the undamaged party does the opposite. That is why the associated claims are seldom settled before turning into disputes. This paper proposes an advanced system dynamics (SD) model that can reasonably grasp the rippled impacts of out-of-sequence work and provide informative forensic analysis of the corresponding project overruns. To this end, the authors utilized a multi-step methodology that involved: (1) forming causal loop diagrams encompassing project work flow and rework cycles; (2) developing mathematical formulations to link the different elements in the causal loops; (3) developing a multi-stage calibration algorithm to ensure the model is capable of replicating planned and actual project behaviors; and (4) formulating procedures for performing different what-if scenarios to provide retrospective and prospective analysis. The model was tested on a case study where it has shown its ability to assess the negative impacts of out-of-sequence work simulate its complex dynamics. This is the first research to focus on the dynamics of out-of-sequence work in the construction body of knowledge. The developed model will assist project participants in properly analyzing and forecasting the direct and indirect effects of out-of-sequence work as well as assessing their corresponding mitigation techniques.

Productivity is a major determinant of and an important driver for the success of construction projects. The concept of productivity was derived from manufacturing and defined as a ratio of outputs to inputs. Previous construction productivity research was largely grounded in the manufacturing-based productivity concept, and emphasised quantitative measurements of construction processes from the perspective of contractors. However, there is increasing awareness of the need to consider the features of construction projects compared with manufacturing and to address the intangible parameters of construction projects when measuring productivity. This paper therefore aims to develop a novel methodology for measuring systematic construction project productivity (SCPP). SCPP is reconceptualised as “how input resources are effectively transformed into the value for clients and meet their objectives.” A theoretical framework which is composed of site efficiency, products effectiveness, and capacity effectiveness is developed to measure SCPP. This framework contributes a multi-dimensional productivity measurement for construction projects by combining the participation of contractors and clients (stakeholder’s dimension), by incorporating the tangible and the intangible parameters of completed projects and constructed facilities and the soft outcomes of those projects and facilities during their operation (variables dimension), and by extending time-boundary to integrate construction and operation processes (timeframe dimension). The findings contribute a new conceptualisation for productivity measurement that integrates the tangible and intangible parameters of projects and facilities. Finally, the developed framework also provides a theoretical basis for the future development of mathematical models for effective benchmarking of SCPP across different construction projects.

For an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) project team, cooperation between different functional departments has been concerned as the core factor which lead to success among all phase. However, researches about the role of general contractor in cooperative behaviors are still limited. This study aims to explore the relationship between ethical climate in EPC project’s general contractor and cooperation within its different branches. Ethical climate questionnaire (ECQ) is used to identify the atmosphere in general contractor. Data are collected from 192 respondents which have EPC contracting experience, and analyzed by partial-least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). We find out that some dimensions such as rules and code, efficiency have a positive effect on cooperation. The results show that the working environment which rules can be followed willingly and the work can be done efficiently tend to have more cooperative behaviors. Despite the linkage between ethical climate and cooperation, it also suggests in this work that the ways to improve cooperation, such as holding ethics training workshops and heavier punishment on unethical behavior or individuals. Also, we broaden the use of ethics related theory in construction project and industry.

Limited data exist informing how and to what extent construction work and activities impact worker health. By monitoring and comparing pilot physiological data, this research begins to explore the impact of construction activities and environmental factors on the health and productivity of individuals performing construction related activities. Specifically, this study analyzes physiological data from 10 U.S. Air Force Academy cadets performing construction activities during a summer field course in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Using off-the-shelf monitoring devices, researchers recorded cadets’ vital signs and physical indicators including factors related to cardiovascular stress, musculoskeletal stress, heart rate, breathing rate, and core temperature. The data set is unique and represents a relatively homogenous sample of individuals at “peak-health” performing construction activities in a controlled environment, including similar sleep and food regiments. This research documents research tasks, data collection and analysis methods as well as lessons learned. Findings begin to demonstrate how such data can be used to develop benchmarks and, possibly, real-time alert strategies that increase awareness of health and safety measures for construction workers. The contribution is a demonstration of readily available metrics, which can be used to compare and aggregate the physiological impact and stress placed on the body under different types of construction activities.

Knowledge contribution loafing is seemingly perceived to be negative, and shall pose a threat to the team to success adequately fulfill the construction project. Arising from the organizational climate is lacked to facilitate the knowledge contribution. This paper aims to ascertain how to abate the negative impacts exerted by knowledge contribution loafing via ethical climate (instrumental climate, caring climate, rules climate, law and code climate, and independent climate) in construction project team. Through empirically anatomizing the 186 questionnaires that are adopted as an important source with the structural equation modeling analysis through the partial least squares method. It is bespoken from the results of this paper that the instrumental climate, caring climate, rules climate, and law and code climate help alleviate the negative impacts exerted by knowledge contribution loafing. And yet the independence climate exerts non-significant effect on knowledge contribution loafing in construction project team. For this reason, the instrumental climate, caring climate, rules climate, and law and code climate shall be established by the project team of construction to abate the negative impacts exerted by knowledge contribution loafing that shall conversely lead to benefits for the team as a whole.

Construction job sites are fluid, and unpredictable obstacles occur almost every day. These obstacles disrupt the original time schedule causing delays, reduced labor productivity, and extra costs for manpower and materials. One solution is to build resilience into the scheduling process to withstand the disruptions. With an existing short-interval schedule data set for electrical case projects, we identify the causes of the disruptions and their associated schedule impacts—the number of hours not worked as scheduled (NWAS) which involves both the time loss due to obstacles like absenteeism and the time spent on other tasks not scheduled. A disrupted schedule becomes resilient when the construction workers, instead of sitting idle, are reassigned to other tasks they otherwise were not expecting. Moreover, knowing the hours NWAS caused by different obstacles allows for decision-making about which obstacles require more attention and immediate action than others. To that end, we frame the resilient scheduling problem in a conceptual decision framework and suggest a measure of resilience in a short interval schedule using recoverable time and lost time. This measure of resilience is illustrated further with a case study and a sensitivity analysis showing the uncertainty of the schedule impact due to the disruptions.

Traditional practice of estimating labor productivity in construction industries compares actual versus historical productivity. This comparison exhibits relative efficiency rather than absolute efficiency. Accurate estimation of optimal productivity would allow project managers to determine the efficiency of their labor-intensive construction operations by comparing actual versus optimal rather than actual versus historical productivity because optimal productivity is the highest sustainable production level per unit of time achievable in the field under good management and typical field conditions. This study advances the feasibility of a novel two-prong approach, a radically different approach from traditional methods, by applying into a crew performing repetitive sheet metal bending task. The first prong estimates optimal productivity by minimizing system inefficiencies using qualitative factor model. This yields the upper limit estimation of optimal productivity. The second prong estimates optimal productivity by reducing operational inefficiencies using discrete event simulation. The result of this prong is the lower limit estimation of optimal productivity. An average of these two limits is the best estimate of optimal labor productivity. A case study was conducted on a sheet metal roll bending task which was labor-intensive. Actual productivity observed was 32.76 sheets per crew-hour. After minimizing loss due to system inefficiencies, the first prong estimated 60.88 sheets per crew-hour. Similarly, after reducing loss due to operational inefficiencies, the second prong estimated 38.58 sheets per crew-hour. Finally, the estimate of optimal productivity, average of two limits, was determined to be 49.73 sheets per crew-hour. The analysis showed that the work was only 51.8% efficient as compared to the optimal productivity. Therefore, this study contributes to the current body of knowledge by presenting a rationality of the two-prong strategy for estimating optimal labor productivity in labor-intensive operations and helps project managers to determine unbiased efficiency.

Building inspection plays a critical role in the quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) of building construction projects. In practice, collaborative inspection is encouraged where a team co-review the as-built information and coordinate searches for discrepancies. Communication is considered as indispensable in this process. However, no existing methods clearly define what level of communication is sufficient but not redundant in various building inspection scenarios. Too much communication may lead to information overload and group polarization. Information overload refers to cases where perceived input information exceeds human cognitive capacity that affects decision quality; group polarization refers to the tendency for a group of people to converge into a central opinion held by a dominant team member. This study tested a hypothesis that excessive communication in collaborative building inspection compromises the performance of building inspection. The authors conducted a human-subject experiment (n = 71) to compare the building inspection performances of groups that were allowed to exchange information via verbal communications against those of groups conducting review and inspection independently. A multi-user virtual reality (VR) model uses a real building on Texas A&M University campus as the testbed to facilitate the review session. The authors documented the number of identified discrepancies as the performance indicator, including architectural, structural, and MEP discrepancies. The research results showed that groups practicing independent reviews and inspections outperformed groups allowed to have verbal communications. While other factors (e.g., the experience level of test subjects in building inspection) were controlled, the observed distinct performance suggests that communication may compromise building inspection quality to some extent or certain “dominants” in teams tend to mislead the discussion. Another reason might be relevant with the complexity of inspected built assets. Future investigations are necessary to comprehend such team inspection performance deterioration further.

Values, or core beliefs that individuals experience as standards that guide how they should function, is emerging as a critical factor linked to workers’ decisions to remain in or depart from the construction industry. Many exploring satisfaction and work values build off of prior work in psychology and nursing, emphasizing the examination of misalignments between occupational or work values and company values. This paper describes the development and implementation of the work values of professional staff in construction survey, which is tailored to examine the importance of specific values to the career satisfaction of professional staff within the construction industry. Survey items were initially developed based on review of existing worker’s values literature from across industries. The resulting set of initial survey items were then adapted to the construction industry context through focus group discussions with professional staff. The final list included 12 items that were administered in a questionnaire survey in the summer of 2016 to 225 construction workers at 37 companies. We conducted an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and established internal consistency using Cronbach’s alpha on a subset of the analytical sample data (n = 225). The results indicate that three work value factors are important to the career satisfaction of professional staff in construction: professional progression, company commitment, and project choice.

The productivity frontier, a theoretical maximum production level per unit of time that could be achieved under perfect conditions, can act as a benchmark to estimate optimal productivity. The study of the productivity frontier and optimal productivity brings a new approach of measuring efficiency of construction operations by comparing actual versus optimal productivity rather than the existing practice of comparing actual versus historical productivity. This new approach of comparison determines absolute efficiency and avoids the accumulation of the relative errors that is in the existing practice. The primary objective of this study is to estimate the labor productivity frontier for the “lock forming” task by conducting a multi-level hierarchical analysis. The concept of inverse mean variance optimization explains the significance of the multi-level hierarchical analysis. This study estimates labor productivity for the “lock forming” task at both action level and movement level by following two approaches–observed durations and estimated durations. The productivity of this task computed from the action level and the movement level analyses are 85.71 sheets per crew-hour and 104.80 sheets per crew-hour, respectively. The highest productivity between two level analyses is the labor productivity frontier for the “lock forming” task, which is 104.80 sheets per crew-hour. The productivity during the movement level analysis is achieved more than the action level analysis because the non-contributory movements are eliminated from the analysis as lower levels of the hierarchy are employed, generally in the movement level analysis as per the concept of inverse mean variance optimization. In addition, this paper further compares the results of action and movement levels analyses for the “lock forming” task and also reports the significance and limitations of the multi-level hierarchical analysis.

Construction productivity plays a pivotal role in construction and is a major determinant of the success of any project. Productivity rates are used by highway design engineers to estimate the project contract completion time when preparing final contract documents for bidding purposes and contract administration. Establishing realistic and accurate contract completion times is particularly critical in cases where the contract contains incentive and disincentive clauses or involves cost plus time bidding. However, the numerous factors that could affect productivity make the prediction of productivity rates on future projects more challenging. For example, when a state highway construction project is bid, design engineers must set and specify a reasonable time for completion of the project. Engineers rely heavily on accurate productivity data of individual construction activities for determining contract time. Poor productivity data affects the accuracy of forecasted activity durations, and inaccurate activity durations make it impossible to produce a reliable construction schedule. This paper presents a method for estimating future productivity that accounts for the variability in productivity of construction activities. Due to project condition first, several project factors that can affect highway construction productivity were identified. An online data collection tool was then developed in which construction project personnel rated their respective projects on several project specific factors and provided observed production rates of several construction activities including: earthwork, concrete paving, asphalt paving, bridges, structures, and miscellaneous. Next, sequential regression analysis was used to incorporate project specific factors into models to predict future productivity rates on future projects. Finally, a productivity estimation tool was created to predict productivity on future projects based upon project condition factors. Models generated by this study have predicted future productivity on highway construction activities with varying degrees of accuracy, and this accuracy will improve as more data is collected and incorporated into the models.

There exists a great number of studies that have been conducted in the construction industry that concern the causes of lost productivity. However, these studies have two major shortcomings: first, that they do not consider a breadth of factors and second, that they do not provide statistical evidence for the impact the factors they consider may have on labor productivity. This study fills this gap by developing a “quantitative” and “qualitative” analysis of a comprehensive list of productivity factors using extensive data from 167 completed mechanical and electrical construction projects. The quantitative analysis of this paper showed strong statistical evidence that multiple labor factors can have high impact on the overall project productivity. “Longer change order processing time” corresponded to the highest productivity loss (17.75%) in the data, whereas “overtime use” corresponded to a lower productivity loss of (7.06%). Based on the qualitative analysis, it was found that ‘out-of-sequence work’ impedes project performance the most, followed by “trade stacking” and “access constraints.” These results provide statistical evidence for productivity loss based on the presence or absence of a factor—they are not, however, intended to provide exact values for the amount of productivity lost for any one factor.

Construction workforce development is centered throughout the state of Florida and poses many challenges on the social, political, and economic aspects of a building community. In the State of Florida, particularly, the construction workforce shortages are historically cyclical and driven mostly by regional housing trends, producing significant fluctuations in volume over time. Training programs such as registered apprenticeships (RAs) have been used to reduce the gap in the trained workforce. However, as the industry recovers from the economic downturn of 2008, complaints regarding the shortage of qualified construction workers are substantially increasing among construction companies. In times of an unstable construction workforce, understanding methods of training become essential for identifying the problems and developing long-term strategies. This paper aims to (1) review the evolution of training and education methods, (2) identify the current workforce problems in the construction industry, and (3) identify current and emerging strategies for training the construction workforce.

Model-based estimating (MBE) has become more common in recent years with many seeking to capture the potential of building information modeling (BIM) in the construction industry. However, MBE is neither utilized as widely as expected nor implemented as efficiently as it could be in current industry practice. Previous studies attributed this to a low level of model sharing and lack of required information in models largely due to lack of integration between design and construction and the absence of effective communication among project participants. Thus, the cooperation between two major project participants, namely designing team and general contractor, appears to be a crucial factor in determining the level of utilization of MBE. However, there has been little to no study specifically aimed at investigating cooperation that is required for MBE. In response, the present study targets to test a hypothesis that a correlation exists between the level of project integration and the level of MBE implementation. This study uses an online survey as a main research methodology to collect responses from industry practitioners, and a statistical analysis was conducted to test the hypothesis. The study results will support project teams in devising ways to improve the level of MBE implementation for future projects.

In 2015, the transportation sector accounted for 27% of the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the United States; only second to the electricity sector with 29% share. Half of the emissions from the transportation sector are produced from passenger cars and light-duty trucks. Substantial proportions of the transportation emissions come from drive-alone commute mode, which is reported in 2013 as the predominant commute mode with 76.4% of the total traveled miles in USA. This highlights the importance of identifying solutions that would reduce the drive-alone mode to decrease the transportation related emissions. Furthermore, employers often provide free parking spaces to their employees and accordingly existing business commute choices rely mainly on employees’ preferences, intermediate stops and time constraints. Accordingly, optimized solutions that provide individualized commute plans and comply with commuter needs are required to improve efficiency of the transportation system. This paper presents the development and implementation of a novel and innovative optimization system that is capable of identifying optimal tradeoffs among two important transportation objectives: minimizing negative environmental impacts and commute times. This system identifies the optimal commute mode for each commuter, such as drive existing vehicle, carpool, use public transit, bike, or walk to achieve the aforementioned objectives. The present system is designed to: (1) maintain convenience such as departure and arrival times, and commute duration; and (2) incentivize commuters such as providing monetary incentives, and realizing burned calories, health benefits, and saved commute time and cost due to changes in commute behavior. A case study of students at University of Colorado Denver is used to verify the system performance and demonstrate its use. The results of the case study show that GHG and air pollution emissions can be minimized in the student community by up to 26%, while minimizing total commute time and cost of students.

Spatial temporal clashes happen when workspaces overlap to share the same location at the same time period. The impacts of such overlap, as stated by the literature could extend from loss of productivity to property damage or death. The determination of the magnitude of the clash is based upon many parameters such workspace type and activity criticality. Most of the current clash detection models are deterministic. However, the behavior of the crew (their performance and approach taken towards management of clashes) is more chaotic. The chaos mainly emerges from the dependency of clashes and their consequences on the human interactions among crew members and between different crews. Stochastic modeling and simulation can help, to some extents, in capturing the chaotic nature of such behavior. Increasing the complexity of the model (due to introducing stochastic variables) is theoretically expected to add to the accuracy of simulation outcomes. The first step however, is to determine the sensitivity of the clash detection problem to possible chaotic behavior. This paper defines four possibilities of non-deterministic behavior: uncertain movement, variable productivity, dynamic scheduling, and clash impact butterfly effect. Additionally, this paper reports the results of a simple case study applied to define the fitness of selected clash evaluation models to the changes in workspaces due to the non-deterministic behaviors.

Multiple disciplines in construction projects have greatly improved the efficiency of their coordination efforts by using building information modeling (BIM) for clash detection. However, because the outcome of clash detection includes many irrelevant clashes that have no substantial influence on a project, the precision of the method has been questioned. To address this problem, this paper uses Bayesian statistics to distinguish relevant from irrelevant clashes for improving the clash detection of BIM. The paper compares naive Bayesian, the Bayesian network, and Bayesian probit regression, and validates the effectiveness of each method. Additionally, the paper discusses how prediction can be improved by combining the three methods by majority rule. Bayesian statistics provide a method of mining knowledge from historical data and leads to clash management processes that are more independent of the project experience of BIM coordinators.

The performance of a construction project is attributed to several determinants, where the project risks play a substantial role. Selecting an appropriate delivery method is among one of many factors affecting project performance. There are a number of project delivery options ranging from the traditional design-bid-build to alternative delivery methods including design-build (D-B), construction manager/general contractor, and public-private partnerships. In particular, D-B has been increasingly used because of its documented benefits such as the potential of shortening project schedule, enhancing innovation, and reducing adversarial relationships among project players. However, D-B also gives room for increased risks for both the contractor and the owner if the risks are not managed efficiently. Previous studies have attempted to identify and analyze the risks on D-B projects but have not fully addressed the influence of risks on the cost growth of a project. Building upon the previous work, this study analyzes 118 D-B highway construction projects using structural equation modeling (SEM) to identify the pertinent relationship between risks and project cost growth. These project data were collected from completed highway projects between 2004 and 2015. The risks are categorized under five critical factors namely environmental and complexity risk, utility and right-of way (ROW) risk, construction method and contract risk, permit risk, and construction procurement/design risks using confirmatory factor analysis. The project cost growth is determined based on the project cost variation from the award to the final cost. Results from SEM indicated that utility and ROW risks, procurement and design related risks, environmental risks, and permit risks have a strong positive correlation with the cost growth of D-B projects.

Project delivery system (PDS) defines the relationship and timing of involvement between different contracting parties. Traditional PDSs referred to in cited literature are: design-bid-build (DBB), construction management at risk (CM), and design-build (DB). More recent studies, including this paper, add a fourth PDS: integrated project delivery (IPD). Existing PDS literature has claimed that increased PDS collaboration results in performance improvement. However, these studies have either studied the performance differences among the three traditional PDSs, or compared the performance of IPD to the three traditional ones collectively. Very limited research has examined the statistical performance differences between the four PDSs. By collecting quantitative data from 109 real-world projects, and applying statistical methodologies such as analysis of variance (ANOVA), Kruskal-Wallis H test and related post-hoc tests, this paper illustrates that PDSs significantly differ in 10 performance metrics spanning five performance areas: cost, schedule, quality, communication, and change management. Furthermore, the findings of this paper demonstrate the poor performance of DBB as compared to the superior performance of more collaborative PDSs, specifically IPD.

Many large-scale construction projects suffer from issuance of construction phase change orders that ultimately leads to significant cost overruns and major scheduling delays. Researchers and practitioners have found complexity, as well as several project characteristics, to be the underlying cause of change orders. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate and analyze the impact of a project’s level of complexity on the value and number of change orders issued by each of the three primary stakeholders (owner, designer, and contractor) during the construction phase. To fulfill the objectives of this study, a survey questioning about the project characteristics was developed and distributed. After two follow-up emails, 44 complete survey responses were collected. Thirty were related to high complexity projects, and the rest were related to low complexity projects. The value and number of change orders dispensed during the construction phase by owners, engineers, and contractors for high and low complexity projects were studied and compared. Depending on the type of collected data, the two-sample t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were utilized. Results revealed that there is a significant difference between the number of change orders issued for low and high complexity projects. Owner and contractor stakeholders issued significantly more change orders for high complexity projects than for low complexity ones during the same phase. Further investigation showed that for high complexity projects, the owner stakeholder derived the maximum value for a minimum number of change orders. For low complexity projects, the contractor stakeholder derived the maximum number and value of change orders. Finally, the impact of the complexity indicators on change order types (scope creep and rework) in complex projects was studied. The results revealed that the three primary determining indicators leading to issuance of scope creep and rework change orders in complex projects are directly related to the total number of joint venture partners in a project, the number of funding phases from concept to project completion, and the number of executive oversight entities above the project management level. The intent of this paper is to help project managers (PMs) accurately estimate the value and number of change orders derived by each of the three types of stakeholders, and to predict the behavior of complexity indicators on the issuance of scope creep and/or rework change orders at an early stage of a project. This would assist PMs to plan proactively to prevent change orders and related financial contingencies.

The growing need at maintaining steady cost projection of construction projects has been an issue of serious concern to both the clients and the construction practitioners on sites. Also, cost deviation from initial cost plan and cost budget has been prevalent on construction sites and no concerted efforts have been made at addressing this phenomenon. This study therefore examined the factors that are considered to be affecting the cost management practice of construction firms in the southwestern Nigeria and also proffered possible ways of ameliorating the factors. Using survey approach, one hundred copies each of structured questionnaires were distributed to clients, contractors, and consultants on construction sites in the study area while 72, 77, and 78 copies were duly filled and returned by the respondents respectively. Relative importance index (RII) technique was used for the analysis. The results revealed that poor leadership and inappropriate management, inefficient deployment of resources, excessive wastage of materials on sites, complex payment mechanisms, theft of materials on sites and variation during construction works are the prevailing factors affecting construction cost management practice in the study area. It was concluded that extra focus should be placed on the identified factors with a view to reducing cost of construction, enhancing construction performance and building confidence within the construction industry in the study area.

Change management is an integral part of any construction project. Although changes in scope in the construction phase are mainly caused by owners, they can occasionally be caused by contractors. Previous studies and experience have shown that scope change can have a substantial impact on the project’s progress, budget, schedule, and labor performance. In fast-tracking projects, sometimes poor-quality engineering drawings are issued for construction, which necessitates changes during the project’s execution. In this research, the authors address the indirect impact of engineering changes on construction labor performance during the project’s construction phase. This method involves using baseline schedule, earned value management system (EVMS), and an actual progress tracking tool. The occurrence of changes in the engineering scope is integrated with the EVMS charts to illustrate the impact of engineering changes on the construction labor performance factor (LPF). This method provides quantitative measurements of the labor performance loss due to engineering changes. It was applied using data from a real construction project to quantify the LPF loss due to changes. The results show that the LPF deteriorates in direct proportion with the number of changes made to the original scope.

The variables that characterize construction organizational competencies are both quantitative and qualitative in nature, and thus require measurement methods and modeling techniques that can handle both variable types. Models that are capable of relating organizational competencies to performance provide a critical advantage in the identification of target areas leading to improved performance. This paper proposes a framework to develop a fuzzy hybrid model for mapping organizational competencies to performance. To achieve these objectives, different fuzzy modeling techniques, such as fuzzy rule-based (FRB) systems and fuzzy neural networks (FNNs) are explored. This study highlights research gaps related to organizational competency and performance studies in developing models at the organization level. The proposed framework outlines modeling procedures that enable the integration of fuzzy modeling techniques with other approaches that exhibit learning capabilities. The proposed model captures organizational competencies as input by using various competency evaluation criteria, and provides organizational performance as an output using multiple performance metrics. Finally, the model assists researchers and industry practitioners in evaluating the competencies of construction organizations and in analyzing their impact on organizational performance.

Under construction project organizational structures where the design consultant maintains a direct contract with the project’s owner, it is normally mandated that the design consultant furnish professional liability indemnity (PLI) coverage for the direct benefit of the owner. In addition, it is not uncommon that owners under such structures request that a project-specific PLI coverage be procured solely for the project in question, with the owner being named as insured. Alternatively, under another structure, such as that where the design consultant is to operate directly under a design-build (DB) contractor, the design consultant is no more in direct contract with the owner. Here, the question becomes that of whether the design consultant still has to procure PLI coverage for the direct benefit of the owner or to now procure the same (and probably different) PLI coverage for the direct benefit of the DB contractor, and/or indirectly for the benefit of the owner. Coupled with that question is another question on whether the DB contractor is also required to directly procure such coverage for the direct benefit of the owner. As such, this paper investigates the change in respect of the way PLI coverage is to be procured and administered under a multi-tiered DB approach. Furthermore, the paper establishes for the argument that, regardless of which of these known project organizational structure variations is adopted for a specific project, the design consultant can be held liable for issues adjudged to be pertaining to its rendered design services. The paper concludes with a conceptualization of how this persisting liability burden can have an impact on the capability and willingness of the design consultant to deal with (or accept to abide by) a certain pattern or extent of design information release that is in satisfaction with the construction priorities or preferences imposed by a DB contractor.

Often in the construction industry, staffing for a capital project is structured upon selection of personnel to fulfill roles, leading to the formation of a temporary, project-based network that can be viewed as a single entity behaving like an organization. The primary goal of these organizations is the delivery of one project. This paper seeks to define the problem of fragmentation in the construction industry in relation to the role-based staffing for construction projects. Eleven construction projects were studied, where we focused on construction owner’s approaches to staffing and the associated challenges observed. Based upon the identified challenges, the concept of organizational routines matching is presented as a potential mechanism to limit the impact of fragmentation by aligning the routines and required personnel capabilities for capital project delivery.

The United States (U.S.) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) every day counts (EDC) identified the construction manager general contractor (CMGC) as a unique project delivery method to accelerate the delivery of highway projects and to address the challenges presented by limited budgets. State transportation agencies (STAs) recognize CMGC has more benefits than challenges and many are exploring and using CMGC on highway projects. Many research efforts have found benefits and challenges from owner’s perspectives. However, limited research has focused on characteristics and effective practices of successful CMGC projects from perspectives of design professionals and general contractors. Both designers and contractors with limited CMGC experience need more guidance to optimize the value of CMGC project delivery for the owner. The scope of this study is to identify CMGC characteristics and effective practices by conducting literature reviews of successful CMGC projects and semi-structured interviews with design professionals and general contractors. Qualitative analysis formulates a two-dimensional framework for CMGC characteristics. These two dimensions are static project characteristics and dynamic team characteristics. Static project characteristics include cost-effectiveness, schedule sensitivity, innovation, constructability review, and risk management. Dynamic team characteristics include leadership, teamwork cycle, and culture of trust. The teamwork cycle consists of communication, collaboration, and integration for CMGC effective practices include a new model, general protocols, and specific practices. This paper summarized CMGC characteristics and effective practices for future project and team selections, proper risk allocation, and overall project success using CMGC project delivery method. The CMGC characteristics and effective practices will help both owner and contractors use CMGC to deliver highway projects with reduced cost, accelerated schedule, and improved quality and satisfaction.

Large scale industrial projects are challenging undertakings due to high degrees of complexity, multiple stakeholders with differing business objectives, evolving technology, building in difficult environments, and other difficulties. Due to these multitude of challenges industrial projects experience, they can be seen as high risk business ventures. More collaborative project delivery strategies such as integrated project delivery (IPD) have been used to manage and mitigate risks associated with delivery of projects in other sectors such as commercial buildings in the United States. This project delivery method uses more collaboration and integration to increase the amount of certainty in the project life thus reducing the amount of risk experienced through project execution and increasing project performance. This study evaluates the performance of industrial projects when more collaboration and integration strategies and methods are used. The research is based on the results of a survey of highly experienced professionals for industrial projects. In total, 85 complete survey responses were used and an index to quantitatively measure the level of collaboration and integration of a project was developed. The findings from this study statistically support that as the degree of collaboration and integration increases, the project performance increases in direct correlation while significantly minimizing uncertainties about project outcomes.