Construction Research Congress 2024: Contracting, Delivery, Scheduling, Estimating, Economics, and Organizational Management and Planning in Construction

As an innovative contracting strategy, project bundling has been used by state departments of transportation (DOTs) and other local public agencies (LPA) to combine multiple projects that are of similar type, size, and in a similar geographical location into a single contract. Previous studies on project bundling have claimed its expected savings in cost and project delivery time. However, little research has been conducted to guide DOTs on the effective utilization of bundling in a holistic approach. This study aims to extract the best practices of project bundling that allow DOTs to implement project bundling more efficiently. The paper addresses this issue using a qualitative approach that involves semi-structured interviews and follow-up correspondence with 16 different DOT representatives and a public agency. The analysis of transcribed interviews, using NVivo, reflected the main themes for the study, including the variation of bundling methods among DOTs (optional-tie or mandatory-tie), different bundling approaches (scope-based or location-based), assessment of projects’ suitability for bundling, unbundling strategies, etc. The paper concludes with a set of best practices and a comprehensive strategy that serves as a valuable guide for DOTs in effectively implementing project bundling for various construction projects.

The construction of airport projects can be complex and costly due to the many stakeholders involved and associated strict timelines. Traditional delivery methods, such as design-bid-build (DBB), employed in airport projects often result in major cost overruns due to multiple facets. Design-build (DB) is a construction method that combines design and construction under a single entity, and it has the potential to improve cost performance. None have evaluated DB from a cost perspective in the airport sector. This research fills this gap. First, the data is collected and assessed for validity. Second, risk ratings for cost performance are computed. Finally, the data is analyzed through statistical methods. Results reveal that low level of team collaboration is the most impacting factor to cost performance in DBB airport projects as compared to DBB. Ultimately, the findings will be valuable for airport stakeholders as they seek to improve cost performance through DB implementation.

Green construction is an approach to reducing the environmental impact of resource-intensive construction. Several certification systems have been devised and are globally recognized to provide green building rating frameworks. While a building can be designed to achieve a green rating, the rating is achieved based on the completed facility’s actual measured performance. There had previously been limited attempts to give an in-depth examination of the remedies for unrealized green ratings. As such, this paper addresses this knowledge gap using a multistep research methodology. First, the authors analyzed and classified the nature of damages resulting from failed green certification under the commonly used standard form of contracts for green buildings, namely the ConsensusDocs 310-2011: Green Building Addendum, and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) E204-2017: Sustainable Projects Exhibit. Second, the authors examined relevant judicial dispute cases. Third, based on the contractual and legal analysis, the authors developed a checklist to help the contract parties in allocating and handling damages if the intended green certification is not achieved. Ultimately, the findings of this study will strengthen and support the balanced contractual perspectives of project participants involved in disputes over green and sustainable construction projects.

Several contract forms such as the ConsensusDocs 300, AIA-C-191, etc. were developed to provide a relational agreement between the stakeholders of an integrated project delivery (IPD). Nonetheless, none of the standard contracts provides a methodology for the fair division of cost deviations. As such, this paper proposes a model that fairly distributes cost savings and/or overruns by applying cooperative game theory, specifically the Shapely value. The proposed approach first utilizes the project’s earned value calculation to account for each stakeholder’s cost deviation. Then through Shapely value, the authors were able to calculate each stakeholder’s fair share of the cost deviation, beyond the contract target band. The mechanism was applied to a case study, and the results were assessed for a better visualization of the concept. The research contributes to the body of knowledge by introducing a fair distribution mechanism of cost deviations based on the stakeholders’ marginal contribution throughout the project’s duration. This approach thus acts as a constant motivator for the stakeholders to further collaborate in the IPD.

As the market for major transportation projects in North America evolved over the past few decades, major players have taken over a large share of the market, leaving fewer opportunities for small and medium-sized firms. As a result of this business climate, bankruptcy, failure, or withdrawal of major players generates a significant concern. The withdrawal of two seasoned players, Skanska and AECOM, from the US public-private partnership (PPP) market raised the alarm. In light of these events, what effects will the changing structure of the market network have on the US infrastructure market going forward? This study introduced a stakeholder-centered approach to measuring market resiliency for infrastructure projects using social network analysis. Resiliency of a network addresses its capacity to absorb, adapt, or transform in the face of changes and shocks. Building on this concept, the authors quantified market resiliency to characterize the structure of connection of stakeholders such as public agencies, consultants, funders, equity holders, joint ventures, and major contractors. Findings revealed that the PPP market offers more resiliency based on applicable metrics such as node degree distribution, path diversity, network connectivity, and robustness compared to the design-build and design-bid-build markets.

Multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT) is a non-monetary approach used to quantify the difference between distinct alternatives considering decision-makers’ preferences to outcomes by assigning utility measures for each alternative. The main objective of using MAUT when evaluating different alternatives is to achieve value for money (VFM), meaning the best possible results based on the money spent. This paper describes the development of a decision-making framework proposed to assist the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) with selecting contractor compensation provisions in resurfacing design-bid-build (DBB) projects. The framework facilitates the trade-offs among four decision objectives, if satisfied, to demonstrate value-for-money in FDOT resurfacing investments. The model is illustrated through a hypothetical resurfacing project. The development of the model includes defining four decision objectives. Six measures were proposed to evaluate the level of achievement of the four decision objectives.

Selecting an appropriate project delivery method (PDM) is a complex decision that typically involves assessing many variables and the relationships between them. One of the main challenges in PDM selection is to accommodate changes in the relationships among variables when more information becomes available as the project is involved during the project development process. The objective of this paper is to develop a Bayesian decision-support model for PDM selection in highway construction by using cost performance data of 177 highway projects delivered by design-bid-build, design-build, and construction manager/general contractor. The conditionally probabilistic inferences associated with these delivery methods were evaluated to determine an appropriate PDM. The model was validated using the k-fold cross-validation and case projects. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge by demonstrating the implementation of Bayesian networks as a data-driven decision-making tool in the construction industry and supporting transportation agencies in their PDM selection process.

Risk management on major transportation engineering and construction projects is a recognized necessity for successful delivery. Accurately identifying and assessing the probability and impact of each risk is complex. Risk events are often assumed to be independent, but neglecting the interactions and relationships among major risk factors can result in inaccurate risk ranking or cost and schedule model underestimates. This study explores the causal relationships between primary transportation risk factors using sentiment analysis of over 5,000 risk statements, and attempts to identify the most critical factors using the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL). The findings identify seven critical risk factors that have higher than average importance and are in the net cause group. Coordination with state and local agency stakeholders was the most critical factor, ranking highest in importance and fifth in its degree of effect on the network. The results can be incorporated into project risk assessments to more comprehensively evaluate the risk severity not only as an individual event, but considering its effect on the network of risk events as a whole.

Alternative project delivery methods, including construction manager at risk, design-build, progressive design-build, and public-private partnerships, have been increasingly used in airport capital projects to improve the speed and efficiency of the project delivery process. However, the selection of these alternative project delivery methods has been primarily conducted based on an intuitive sense of their advantages/disadvantages without applying a systematic decision-making process. This study aims to propose an automated and practical selection tool that helps airport agencies select an optimal delivery approach for a given project based on project characteristics, goals, risks, and constraints. The proposed decision tool was developed using individual interviews and a survey sent to 39 airports across the United States. The results of this study are expected to assist airports of all sizes in selecting an appropriate delivery method given a project’s specific needs, goals, and risks, and allow agencies to document the rationale behind their decision-making.

The United States is currently facing a significant problem with the lack of affordable housing, which affects both low-income families and millennials entering the housing market. The cost of living, including housing, is influenced by various global political and economic decisions, but innovative solutions need to be considered to address external factors affecting housing prices. Modular construction is being considered as a potential solution, and this study evaluated its viability through a thematic descriptive analysis of two case studies. The Phoenix Rising Project in Auburn, Washington, and Live on 1st in Titusville, Alabama, were analyzed for their community characteristics and project implementations. The results demonstrate that modular construction has the potential to be an effective and viable solution for affordable housing in the United States. The study provides recommendations for the widespread implementation of modular construction in affordable housing to address the ongoing problem of housing affordability.

The Waaban Crossing bridge project located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, was delivered with an integrated project delivery (IPD) approach. In 2020, it was recorded that this project was the first major public infrastructure project in North America to be contracted with a tri-party agreement and managed through an IPD approach. The project stakeholders selected an IPD for various and differing reasons, including risk reduction, collaborative decision making, and fiscal transparency. As the project was completed in December 2022, project stakeholders can reflect on the outcomes and lessons learned. Online surveys and semi-structured interviews of project stakeholders surface hits and misses for the project. Project participants’ answers are revealed and documented to determine the extent to which initial goals and objectives for the project were realized. Data are collected individually, so that the unique perspectives of owner, designer, prime contractor, and specialty contractor are contrasted. The project was reported a success by all stakeholders, yet fundamental business drivers that can put entities at odds with one another were present. The findings can inform planners of IPD projects on how to manage project delivery and to structure financial incentives that address the business needs of all key stakeholders.

Many state departments of transportation (DOTs) are executing design-build (D-B) and construction manager-general contractor (CM-GC) projects. There is a need to identify and disseminate successful practices in administering these contracts, particularly in the post-award phase. The National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) funded the development of guidebooks and implementation training related to tools and strategies for effective contract administration, including eight interactive workshops involving 235 participants from 33 DOTs. Training introduced participants to the tools for post-award contract administration and included peer-exchanges with 18 experts. This paper describes the workshops and shares experiences implementing these tools by various DOTs in the design phase. Qualitative content analyses identified reasons for use, processes, and examples of experts’ implementation resulting in advice to inform practitioners. The paper contributes by providing guidance for efficient implementation of tools to achieve successful contract administration, enhanced communication, and better owner-contractor relationships in D-B and CM-GC projects.

Over 21,000 general building (GB) contractors have active B-licenses in Los Angeles (LA) County in California but less than 800 are competing in public works. This paper aims to identify the gap between GB contractors competing in private and public projects and factors that affect this trend. The scope of this paper is limited to GB contractors who are based out of and actively performing in public projects in the Southern California counties. The authors analyzed data from the Contractors State License Board (CSLB) and the California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR). The percentage of GB contractors performing in public works in each county is as follows: LA (3.5%), Orange (5.5%), Riverside (5.7%), and San Bernardino (5.6%). In addition, identifying factors that affect the lower percentage learned from interviews include payments, financial capabilities, benefits, and availability. This paper provides insight into the realm of public and private contracting.

Understanding the nature of change orders is crucial for optimal project performance. However, limited research exists on change orders in the design-build (DB) context and their impacts considering the timing of change order occurrence. This study aims to investigate change orders in the DB environment regarding their frequency, schedule impacts, cost impacts, and the primary reasons for their occurrence, considering project progress. A scaling technique, parametric statistical tests, and classification were conducted utilizing 275 change orders from 29 US highway projects. The main findings indicate that project progress significantly affects change order frequency, while no statistically significant mean differences were observed in schedule delays and cost overruns based on project progress. Furthermore, this study identified principal change order reasons, including high-frequency/high-risk or low-frequency/high-risk types, based on their frequency, cumulative, and average impacts. This research contributes to the knowledge of change order impacts on project performance in alternative project delivery.

Owners and practitioners are leveraging guaranteed maximum price (GMP) as an innovative contracting method to better control project costs, mitigate risks, and improve project performance. Despite the protection GMP contracts provide against cost and time overruns, there are limited studies on the current practices of this contracting strategy and its application to the construction industry. Through an analysis of interviews with industry practitioners, this paper strives to explore how large general contracting firms are approaching GMPs on the traditional design-bid-build, construction management at-risk (CMAR), design-build (D-B), and progressive design-build (PDB) project delivery methods among others. This study examines the different approaches used in the utilization of GMP on construction projects, as well as different strategies used in the implementation of the pricing methods, how cost categories and milestone estimates are addressed in GMPs, and adjustments that have been made to the current unprecedented market conditions resulting from supply chain disruptions and price escalation. The findings would be useful to show areas of consistency across the industry and existing varieties for owners.

Construction contracts are often perceived as complex and lengthy documents, making information extraction significantly challenging. Smart contracts are recently introduced as an alternative to handle the contracts’ provisions, duties, and clauses. However, smart contracts are not yet widely adopted in the construction industry. This study reviewed the literature to understand smart contracts better and how they can benefit the construction industry. After that, the study utilized and designed an analytical approach-based quantitative survey to gather experts’ comments to evaluate the limited adoption of smart contracts in the construction industry. Study findings outlined the benefits and drawbacks of utilizing smart contracts, particularly emphasizing the Saudi Arabian construction industry and the challenges stakeholders must overcome. The study findings assessed the barriers to adopting smart contracts in the construction industry and will benefit the industry which is known for being slow to adopt new technologies.

There are differences in implementing a design-build approach across the building construction, highway, and industrial sectors. These differences affect many aspects of a project, including the role of the design-integration manager. A design-integration manager is an employee of the designer-builder who serves as a bridge between design lead and construction manager. The role of a design-integration manager was explored through virtual research charrettes, surveys, and one-on-one interviews. Participants in these activities included academics and subject matter experts (SMEs) from industry with sector-specific knowledge on design-build. From the qualitative data collected, unique characteristics of the industrial and highway sectors were identified that differentiate their projects from projects in the building construction sector. The results show that the complexity of highway and industrial projects differs from building construction due to different factors such as project scope and size, construction phasing, and public involvement for highway projects. For industrial projects, facility design is dependent on process design, uncertainty in design persists longer, and time to market is extremely important. The results of this study show how the practice of design management in design-build will need to change to accommodate the differences between market sectors.

For the effective construction dispute management, it is important to quickly identify the similar precedent cases as it helps practitioners make decision for the direction to respond appropriately to disputed issues. However, due to their extensive length and specialized content, promptly and accurately comprehending texts of precedent cases related to construction disputes poses challenges. This study presents a model that employs natural language processing (NLP) for automatically summarizing texts of precedent cases relevant to construction disputes. Developed using Python, this tool generates summary reports for 300 US construction dispute precedents obtained from the Westlaw database. During the preprocessing phase, case texts undergo processing based on construction knowledge. To ascertain the most suitable model for summarizing construction dispute texts, various summary models utilizing Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) and traditional ranking algorithms like TextRank and RexRank are compared. The efficacy of these summarized outcomes is evaluated not only using the general ROUGE algorithm but also through readability assessments by domain experts. The findings of this research have the potential to aid practitioners in the timely management of dispute-related documents by automating the summarization process.

The use of alternative intersections and interchanges (AII) is crucial for transportation infrastructure because AII enhances traffic flow, increases capacity and safety, and accounts for future traffic demands. One challenging problem is that AII designs are negatively perceived in the construction industry since they are perceived to result in additional construction time and cost compared to projects with conventional designs. To assess this concern, the identification of construction inhibitors affecting AII projects was investigated using claims and supplemental agreement data using AIIs and conventional design projects. Findings indicated inhibitors that most affected project performance and top five inhibitors were utilities, additional work, work delays, safety for workers, and weather impacts. By understanding the potentially negative impact of these inhibitors, the constructability of AII projects can be enhanced, and transportation agencies can opt for more sustainable solutions.

This paper examines the long-held hypothesis that the price of asphalt is related to the price of crude oil and fuel. A stochastic risk assessment tool using a modified cumulative sum (CUSUM) statistical analysis method was used to determine their relationship using monthly-posted asphalt, crude oil, and fuel price indexes by the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) and US Energy Information Administration (EIA). The results indicated that the most likely time gap between crude oil and asphalt price indexes was three months, and the percentage change was 58%, and two months and 46% between fuel and asphalt price indexes. The risk assessment tool enables the prediction of the timeline of asphalt price changes along with the magnitude of the changes and risks associated with those changes based on relationships with crude oil and fuel.

State departments of transportation (DOTs) are facing the challenge of high rates of attrition and the loss of knowledge as seasoned construction inspectors retire or the agency workforce is downsized. Many DOTs are increasingly using different risk-based inspection (RBI) approaches to offset the staff shortage. These approaches prioritize the inspection of material and workmanship based on criticality, which may vary considerably in DOT’s perception of risk and inspection methods. This variability leads to the problem of inconsistency in inspection practices among DOTs. The current study addresses this problem by comparing and analyzing RBI practices of DOTs. A content analysis of DOT documents, such as inspection guidebooks and construction manuals, was conducted to identify DOTs’ risk perception and compare their critical inspection methods. The result shows that 10 DOTs implement RBI in their construction projects. There is a variation in risk perception and assessment among these 10 DOTs. A high-risk activity in a DOT inspection may be a low risk in another DOT. There are two types of RBI, inspection of materials and inspection of construction activities. DOTs may implement RBI for material, construction activity, or both. Inspection and acceptance could be performed through material sampling testing, manufacturer’s certification, and visual inspection. This study helps DOTs develop RBI approaches and adopt risk-mitigating strategies that reduce the need for inspection staff and funding.

Despite various attempts throughout past decades to deal with concurrent delays in construction project schedules, they continue to be a vexing issue that has eluded an unambiguous solution. Prior studies have resorted to the prime contract, which only binds general contractor and owner, cannot be proven to be fair, and may even be biased. Therefore, this paper adopts a concept from cooperative game theory, the Shapley value, which apportions profits (which project participants seek to maximize). Creatively applying it to liquidated damages (which they seek to minimize), the model uses all participants’ actual finish dates as input to gain percentage shares of liquidated damages as output. Analyzing all possible coalitions among participants and assigning weights comprehensively assesses their marginal contributions to the project finish date. This generalized view of participants explicitly includes subcontractors, whom prior approaches typically ignored. An example demonstrates how the model also implies an early completion bonus. This yields compelling implications for real-world incentives that can be cast into future contract clauses.

Construction schedules are widely modeled and analyzed as networks that consist of activities within a dependency structure of sequential and parallel paths. All future activities carry duration uncertainty that is caused by diverse risk factors. But worse, by being linked, activities can cause a “ripple effect” of delays that propagate through the remainder of a project. This paper studies this phenomenon systematically: it captures topology with the intuitive concept of reachability. It formalizes an index, cruciality, as the product of reachability and scaled covariance of any two activities within a schedule. And it simulates various test schedules with probabilistic activity durations to answer two related questions: How does schedule topology determine vulnerability to delays? And what ways can schedulers take to design more resilient schedules? It differs from research on the static critical path and forecasting the project duration; instead this work seeks to stabilize said value. Two strategies can be used to reduce the potential propagation: reduce uncertainty in high-risk activities. Or reroute, combine, or even delete links if this is technically feasible. A more parallel topology is beneficial, because it reduces potential interactions. In practice, this could be realized through strategies like modular design or task-dedicated resources.

The analysis of the causes of time and cost overruns in construction projects has attracted much attention worldwide in recent decades. These causes usually vary from country to country and depend on aspects such as the kind of project, the environment, the construction company’s features, etc. This study aims to identify the main causes of delay and cost overrun in Ecuador’s construction projects and analyze the main factors influencing their occurrence. A total of 72 causes were collected from a literature review. Through the Delphi method, a group of experts identified Ecuador’s most important causes. Subsequently, the information from 53 civil engineering and building projects was gathered through a questionnaire survey to identify and evaluate the risks of project delays and cost overruns perceived by construction professionals in Ecuador. Descriptive statistics and non-parametric analyses were performed. Results highlighted that the main causes of time and cost overrun are the weather, unexpected conditions in the construction site, design changes from the owner, incomplete drawings, and mistakes or incomplete designs. However, these results vary significantly depending on the project type and the company size.

COVID-19 has unprecedentedly impacted the transportation construction industry. Highway agencies are facing great challenges posed by the pandemic, including labor shortage, project delays, and increasing costs. The research objective of this paper is to quantify effects of COVID-19 on US transportation construction material prices. Markov switching regression and causality inference were used to empirically analyze the relationship between transportation construction material prices and indicators monitoring different aspects of COVID-19 effects and government response. The results reveal the lasting adverse impact of the pandemic on volatility in material prices. The extent of recovery was highly dependent on the degree of economic support and lockdown measures. Causality test confirms that stringency index, economic support, and number of confirmed cases are leading indicators of transportation construction material prices. This research contributes to the body of knowledge by (1) establishing a statistical method for quantifying impact of COVID-19 on transportation construction industry, and (2) analyzing material prices in transportation construction industry before, during, and after COVID-19. It is anticipated that the results will help policymakers grasp the impact of COVID-19 on transportation construction activities and design more effective policies to respond to future pandemics.

Projects often experience cost overruns due to market uncertainty and price escalations. Traditional cost estimation methods that rely on point estimation are incapable of providing prediction intervals as well as probabilistic assessment. Thus, there is need for an innovative approach to predict the changes and uncertainties in construction material costs. This paper proposes a novel stochastic model to estimate construction material costs by applying probabilistic forecasting using autoregressive recurrent networks. First, price data was collected for four different construction materials. Second, data was divided into a training set (pre-COVID-19) and a testing test (post-COVID-19). Third, the state-of-the-art DeepAR algorithm was implemented to provide probabilistic forecasts for construction material prices under uncertain post-COVID market conditions. The results showed that the proposed stochastic model provides accurate cost estimates with a mean absolute percentage error of 1% for concrete products, of 2% for concrete ingredients, of 3% for paving mixtures and blocks, and of 4% for steel and iron materials. This paper adds to the body of knowledge by proposing a new approach for estimating construction material by providing probabilistic forecasts in the form of Monte Carlo samples that can be used to compute quantile estimates, which offers better protections against rising costs.

Immersive technologies (ImT), like virtual reality (VR), have several potential applications in the construction industry. However, the absence of a cost-benefit analysis discourages construction decision-makers from implementing these technologies. In this study, we proposed a primary model for conducting a cost-benefit analysis for implementing virtual reality in construction companies. The cost and benefit factors were identified through a literature review and considered input variables for the model, and then using synthetic data, a Monte Carlo simulation was performed to generate a distribution of outcome. Given the uncertainty in input parameters, this distribution reflected the potential range of total net benefit. Considering synthetic data and input factors obtained only through literature and assumptions, VR implementation could be a promising decision based on the results. This study’s results would benefit decision-makers in construction companies about the costs and benefits of implementing VR and other researchers interested in this field.

The transportation construction industry is one of the most critical components of every country’s economic growth. However, several projects nationwide faced schedule delays because of weather conditions and other factors. Therefore, considering accurate weather-related delays and establishing a reasonable construction time is essential in project planning and schedule management. Thus, this study proposes a framework for estimating weather delays using historical daily work reports (DWRs). Project data from 161 completed projects, including 29,539 DWRs, were collected from a state highway agency. These projects were delivered between March 2017 and February 2023. The framework analyzes DWRs to determine how many weather delays occurred each month by location by searching for keywords in DWRs. Finally, 15 case studies were conducted to validate and measure the proposed framework’s accuracy using Akaike information criteria (AIC) best selection measure and risk Pareto distribution as it striked a balance between the goodness of fit model for all 12 months. This study helps state highway agencies determine an accurate account for weather delays based on historical data to estimate construction time better.

In a traditional construction project, there tends to be a negative cash flow as the contractor might need to pay advance payments to suppliers prior to receiving payment from the owner. If the contractor awaits payment from the owner to pay the suppliers, the project could be delayed. Consequently, contractors resort to financial institutions such as banks to finance their negative overdraft. However, banks typically require collaterals which small and medium enterprises (SMEs) might not be able to provide. Also, banks impose high interest rates, which reduces the contractor’s profitability. This study investigates how the integration of supply chain finance (SCF) tools can influence the cash flow of construction projects. The proposed study compares the traditional financing cycle to an alternative cycle that involves SCF as a means of materials financing. The comparative analysis is conducted by developing two multi-objective optimization models with the aim of maximizing the profit margin and minimizing the negative overdraft. The two models are tested on five hypothetical construction projects. Results of the study indicate that SCF could act as a valuable tool for enhancing the overall health of a contractor’s cash flow.

One of the primary determinants of project success is completion of the project on, or ahead of, schedule. Owners are constantly concerned about schedule progress and project completion. Departments of transportation (DOTs) are not an exception to this behavior. DOTs each have their own specification requirements. A comparison of the specification requirements, including definition, float ownership, software, differentiation of project levels/complexity, progress narratives, preliminary schedules, schedule updates, review and resubmit durations, and “as-built” schedule development, reveals areas of consistency and differences between states. Through this comparison, researchers can support DOTs in developing specifications that support the DOT mission while not being burdensome to project management and the contracting industry. Preliminary findings indicate the requirements for proprietary scheduling software (e.g., P6) and the use of cost-loaded critical path method (CPM) schedules for payment purposes are potential sources of conflict between the contracting community and DOTs.

The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 caused global panic with numerous consequent changes. The high fluctuation of construction bid costs illustrated the struggle to reflect such changes in the construction field. Although a new era of post-COVID is soon to arrive, cost inflation, labor shortage, and pent-up construction demands show that the construction industry is still suffering from the pandemic. This paper examines the impact of COVID on construction projects, specifically Georgia highway maintenance projects, by analyzing the unit bid price of the recycled asphaltic concrete pay items from Oman Systems. A spline regression was employed to examine the overall trend of the pay items, and residuals from the regression detrending are used as an input for cumulative sum (CUSUM) charting. A prominent mean shift in the price residuals was detected in 2021 with a lag of a year after the outbreak of the pandemic, indicating significant deviation in the price. This investigation is expected to provide insight into more accurate cost estimate of highway projects and more-informed investment decisions accounting for variability and uncertainty in the aftermath of COVID-19.

Assessing the quality management (QM) performance of capital projects is challenging as construction projects are complex, unique, and fragmented. This paper aims to develop a comprehensive list of quality-related metrics used to assess QM performance on capital projects. To achieve this objective, a thorough literature review of existing quality metrics for the engineering/design, construction, and operations and maintenance (O&M) phases was conducted. Information from the literature review was synthesized to provide a list of metrics with a drive for QM standardized metrics that could be used industry-wide. This paper’s primary contribution is identifying and developing a quality metrics list that can be utilized to develop a standardized quality metric to evaluate the effectiveness of QM programs on capital projects.

For the past few decades, researchers have tried to make a sustainable built environment by maximizing recycling and reuse of construction and demolition (C&D) waste. In particular, demolition waste accounts for more than 90% of the total C&D waste generated in the US, thus signifying substantial potential for recycling and reuse. While there have been several models to estimate construction waste available for supporting its waste reduction planning, however, there has been a lack of estimation models for demolition waste. This research seeks to evaluate and compare the feasibility and accuracy of four common estimation approaches for demolition waste (i.e., demolition waste volume and cost): a linear regression, an artificial neural network, and two advanced case-based reasoning approaches, which utilize several regression models on selected instances to improve the overall accuracy of predicted cost and volume of demolition waste. A database of 52 demolition projects, containing information on architectural characteristics, permit history, value, and contract requirements, is used to train models and facilitate evaluation. Different estimation methods are compared in terms of estimation accuracies while discussing the potential improvement of each method. This study will serve as the cornerstone to develop a more reliable demolition estimation model in the future.

The COVID-19 pandemic permanently changed the construction industry. Remote meetings are more commonplace, and technological advancements and implementation accelerated. Although previous studies have identified the types and characteristics of such pandemic-induced changes, little is documented about how each change affected work performance. Here, we investigate construction industry changes and associated impacts. In November 2022, a list of changes was distributed to construction industry professionals working for US- or South Korea-based companies using an online survey (n = 245). The survey asked respondents to identify which changes they underwent during the pandemic and whether their perceived productivity consequentially increased or decreased. The analysis revealed that the implementation of several workforce- and technology-related changes, such as document/design review platforms, improved productivity. On the other hand, the implementation of mitigation strategies for supply chain interruptions had a negative effect. The results empirically demonstrate that pandemic-driven changes impacted the performance of construction organizations.

Generally, fluctuation in one material’s price can cause a series of chain reactions in the supply chain system, known as price fluctuation transmission, as all materials are interconnected and interrelated. None of the previous studies have investigated price fluctuation transmission among all construction materials. This paper aims to fill this gap in knowledge. The authors collected producer price index (PPI) data for 16 construction materials, modeled the relationship between each pair of materials using vector autoregression technique, and validated the causality using Granger causality test. Network analysis was performed to identify the price fluctuation transmission capacity, susceptibility, and intermediatory capacity for each material. The results showed that the materials with the highest price transmission capacities include (1) “fabricated structural metal products”; (2) “construction sand, gravel, and crushed stone”; and (3) “plastic construction products.” Ultimately, it is concluded that significant changes in the price of these materials can be an indication of price escalations in the supply chain and other construction materials. This paper provides industry practitioners with an unprecedented framework that highlights materials that can act as early warning signs for overall price fluctuations in the construction industry.

Decision-making in construction bidding is one of the complicated processes. In determining related decisions, contractors weigh various bidding factors to assess the expected benefits of a construction project. Various studies have identified factors that impact construction bidding-related decisions. However, there is a lack of research that examines the alignment between industry and literature as related to the perception of the importance of bidding factors on bidding decisions. This paper fills this area of research need. First, the authors performed a content analysis of 124 construction bidding-related journal papers, and accordingly, 43 bidding factors were identified and mapped with analyzed journal papers. Second, the authors developed a survey to gauge the perception of industry experts about the influence of the identified bidding factors and collected 82 responses. Thereafter, a statistical analysis was conducted to investigate the alignment between literature and industry. The results indicated that some bidding factors have been understudied in literature compared to their perceived industry importance such as risk of fluctuation in labor, equipment, or material price, contractor’s risk attitude, and value of liquidated damages. Ultimately, this study adds to the body of knowledge by identifying any misalignment between the industry needs and research efforts on construction bidding.

Over the past decade, there has been a notable increase in skilled labor shortages within the construction industry. This shortage has numerous negative consequences on construction projects, such as delays in completion, compromised quality, and higher costs. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to examine the extent of skilled labor shortages observed throughout the industry and their impact on the cost performance of construction projects. To achieve this goal, the authors identified 10 key construction trades that heavily rely on skilled labor. Subsequently, an industry survey was conducted to measure the extent of skilled labor shortages, as well as the effect of these shortages on project costs. The survey responses were subjected to statistical analysis, including the use of two sample Z-Test and Pearson’s correlation coefficient test, to investigate two aspects: (1) the level of skilled labor shortages and their cost impacts for each identified trade, and (2) the correlation between skilled labor shortages and the cost performance of construction projects. Results show that MEP trades have the highest skilled labor shortages, followed by civil works trades. Further, MEP trades also have the greatest impact on cost performance among the identified labor-intensive trades.

Project management (PM) is the process of organization, allocation, and control of resources to achieve a specific goal. Previously, PM focused on planning and executing projects according to predetermined objectives, but it has evolved to include the use of technology to aid in managing and delivering projects. However, no research has provided a comprehensive analysis of this PM evolution. To fill this gap, this data-driven study conducted a scientometric analysis, using PM-related research papers, to identify the PM evolution along the holistic life cycle of its knowledgebase. The findings of this study identify four distinct PM phases: PM 1.0, PM 2.0, PM 3.0, and PM 4.0. Each PM evolution’s trend was found to be built on the preceding one, with even earlier generations of PM still impactful today. Trend analysis also suggests that there will be an increased focus on big data to further advance the field of PM with effective technological implementation. This suggests that PM 5.0 may be around the corner supporting previous PM principles to then balance environmental, ethical, and social concerns. Ultimately, this study will be beneficial to PM stakeholders by providing a holistic understanding of the main principles in PM and potential future research paths.

Lean construction (LC) practices comprise a set of tools providing optimal value generation with reduced waste and costs while promoting stakeholder collaboration. The selection of these tools is a complex process considering various organizational and strategic goals with the number of available LC tools. Companies implementing LC principles need practical applications to select the most optimal and value-generating tools that align with their goals. With that, this study explores the utilization of decision-making methods in LC tool selection. The study determined limited studies utilizing decision-making methods in LC tool selection and further reviewed lean manufacturing tool selection efforts. The study revealed the lack of systematic approaches in LC tool selection within several LC tools. Moreover, future research directions were suggested, such as understanding the value of LC tools for different project types and investigating decision-making methods in other industries for lean tool selection with their applicability in the construction industry.

The common goal of historic building renovation and restoration projects is to accommodate current needs while preserving the cultural and aesthetic heritage of buildings. However, the challenges encountered when renovating historic buildings are different from new construction projects. To provide better insights, the authors conducted a survey of industry practitioners to identify the frequency and severity of common challenges. Comparison of results by the respondents’ functional role shows a significant difference in assessing the severity of challenges, but no difference in assessing the frequency. Notably, construction team members tend to perceive the challenges as more frequent and severe than design professionals do. This study contributes to the body of knowledge in the risk management research domain as well as the historic renovation construction domain. Also, this study allows industry practitioners to better understand this type of construction project and manage plans by considering differences in their roles.

The prevalence of modular construction has sparked interest in understanding the industry’s new and emerging business drivers for modularization to seek maximum modularization benefits in capital projects. Previous studies on modularization business drivers have primarily focused on the building sector, with few addressing industrial projects. Additionally, these studies have been criticized for failing to address emerging issues such as sustainability and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives. To address these research gaps, this study identifies new and emerging business drivers for modularization in capital projects, mainly heavy industrial projects. A comprehensive analysis of existing business models/tools in the industry, followed by a literature review and brainstorming sessions with subject matter experts from the Construction Industry Institute Research Team 396, was conducted to gather all the potential business drivers for modularization. As a result, a total of 97 potential business drivers were identified. The subject matter experts assessed these drivers through a survey, indicating that sustainability, construction-related emissions and waste, ESG initiatives, transportation-related emissions and congestion, and standardization (repetitive design) are the new and emerging business drivers. This study offers valuable insights for practitioners seeking to analyze the potential of modularization ventures.

Modularization, a strategy of transferring some or all site-based work to external locations, has the potential to improve project competitiveness with cost and schedule advantages. While much previous research on modularization has primarily focused on the building sectors, many heavy industrial projects have yet to fully realize the benefits of modularization due to poor and late decisions. To address this issue, this research identifies the critical decision factors for implementing modularization in industrial projects. Utilizing the expertise of the Construction Industry Institute Research Team 396, the researchers identified the decision factors for modularization based on their importance in the industrial sector after thoroughly examining existing business cases/decision models from world-leading global companies and literature. A survey questionnaire was prepared and distributed to the subject matter experts, asking them to rank the importance of decision factors. The result indicated that the top 10 key decision factors for modularization in industrial projects were site location, site attributes, site access, labor costs, cost savings, owners’ ability, logistical constraints, maximum module size, labor availability, and site infrastructure. The study guides the practitioners seeking to maximize the benefits of modularization in heavy industrial projects.

Decision-making in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry is challenging due to stakeholders with divergent expertise. Oftentimes, the process of decision-making does not follow a systematic approach. Several scientific decision-making methods have been implemented to streamline the decision-making process in the AEC industry. However, previous studies have shown that not all frameworks are well structured, equally efficient, and applicable to all scenarios. This study attempts to develop a methodology to combine and assess the efficiency of the two common multi-criteria decision-making frameworks, Choosing by Advantages (CBA) and fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP). Furthermore, the study focuses on addressing the early material selection problem in the industry. Both CBA and AHP methods are used to compare concrete, steel, and mass timber building materials in the US from an early decision-making perspective. The findings of the study will have significant contributions to construction practices in terms of making rational and informed decisions regarding building material selection.

Building information modeling (BIM) is a powerful tool that can greatly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of construction projects. However, despite its many benefits, the adoption of BIM in India has been slow. Construction organizations are typically project-based, and the decision to use BIM can vary depending on factors such as the contractual arrangement, project requirements, and the capabilities of vendors and subcontractors. Considering these, we identify the different pathways of BIM adoption from an Indian perspective. This study intends to understand how BIM adoption varies from one firm to another from an institutional theory perspective. This is achieved by using an in-depth qualitative case study approach. The results of the study indicate that firms display adoption differently, guided by institutionalized logic. Competence logic and completion logic were some of the institutional logics we observed that influenced adoption. Overall, this research highlights the approaches taken by different construction firms in India towards “BIM adoption” based on the institutional logics that the firms follow and contributes to the institutional theory literature by understanding the interplay between the different logics.

Productivity indicates how efficiently resources are utilized to deliver outputs. Studies show that the UK’s construction productivity lags behind similar European countries and the USA. This paper aims to uncover the underlying reasons by examining the industry’s approach to measuring productivity. Our findings stem from semi-structured interviews with 29 industry practitioners and the observations of productivity measurement technologies on three projects. Production rate (output per unit of time) emerges as the most common productivity metric in projects, assessed on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis for decision-making. We also identified several issues in this area. Firstly, the industry tends to prioritize activity outputs over their interdependencies, influenced by earned value management thinking. Secondly, labor productivity (output per worker-hour) is not measured often due to reduced incentives and contractors passing productivity risks onto subcontractors. Lastly, inconsistencies in metrics and data collection limitations hinder the development of company-wide performance measurement frameworks.

Pre-project planning encompasses all the tasks from project initiation to the beginning of detailed design. Planning efforts at this stage have a significant effect on project success than efforts undertaken after project kickoff. Given that some contractors are new to the accelerated bridge construction (ABC) method, providing knowledge of ABC success indicators during the initial phase will significantly impact ABC project success. The research aims to (1) identify the success indicators through a systematic literature review, (2) conduct a survey of ABC stakeholders with a focus on successful ABC projects to validate and define the weighted success criteria, and (3) develop an ABC success index matrix. The study identified 16 ABC success indicators that should be taken into consideration during the pre-project planning stages of the ABC project. The study findings will support, educate, and direct ABC contractors to realize/value the significance of pre-project planning and encourages better organizational management.

The United States (US) committed over $1.2 trillion to help strengthen the nation’s infrastructure systems and networks. Nearly $450 billion of these funds are being invested in energy and electrification projects. Electrical contractors (ECs) are poised for exponential growth in areas such as energy, power, and electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, yet research is limited on strategies to engage in the expanding infrastructure market. The goal of the study is to investigate future opportunities for electrical contractors from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). This study reaches several conclusions using factors such as region, project size, and industry/market. Nearly $197.5 billion has been awarded across all 50 states and accounts for 15,691 projects. The analysis of the IIJA-funded projects revealed that broadband, clean energy and power, and EVs are directly relatable to ECs. The funding approved for these projects is approximately 8% of the total funding. There are 10,740 projects smaller than $2 million, which makes up nearly 68% of the total number of projects that were funded in the spending bill. The South is experiencing a surge in large-scale battery projects. Meanwhile, the West Coast is leading the charge in both renewable energy and EV infrastructure projects.

Successful capital project organizations need to have a high degree of agility to anticipate and initiate change efforts with a transformative impact on strategy, structure, people, and culture. One question arises that contributes to organizational science: What makes an organization’s response to change agile and its impact transformative? This study proposes a self-assessment “change response-impact (CRI) matrix” that allows decision-makers to map their change efforts across two variables: “change response” and “change impact.” Through a survey distributed to the capital projects industry, data was collected on 60 change practices to identify the most critical and most challenging practices of each quadrant of the matrix. This paper focuses on exploring the change practices of the upper-right quadrant of the matrix, that is, for organizations with a high degree of agility and going through a transformative impact. Findings of this study can guide practitioners and researchers as they navigate successful organizational change efforts.

Construction workers face increased health and safety risks due to harsh weather conditions, resulting in delays and additional costs for construction projects. Climate change has made weather events more unpredictable, leading to unprecedented winter storms in regions not accustomed to severe cold weather. As a result, construction projects in the southern regions of the United States may encounter unusual weather challenges, with inadequate safety procedures and maintenance for workers and machinery. A literature review was conducted to explore measures taken in cold regions to mitigate the effects of winter storms on construction projects and workers. In addition, a web-based survey was developed using an evidence-based survey design approach to assess the level of preparedness of construction sectors in the South for unprecedented extreme winter events. This survey design provides a valuable tool to evaluate their readiness for such events and identify potential gaps in their preparedness.

Lean practices and initiatives can substantially benefit the construction industry, but the implementation level by trade contractors is lagging. This is partially due to a lack of awareness of potential methods that can be employed by trade contractors, as well as a lack of tools to assist them in realizing their current level of lean implementation. The effectiveness of lean implementation in trade contractors cannot be improved without understanding the current state of its adoption. Several maturity models have been developed to assess lean adoption for organizations and general contractors; however, none has been created for the trade contractor community. Trade contractors execute most of the production tasks on construction projects; thus, they should benefit the most from lean adoption. This paper identifies 15 elements for lean construction implementation by trade contractors using literature review of existing lean construction maturity models and lean construction project implementation.

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have become a prevalent delivery method for large global projects. Previous research has examined individual Egyptian PPP projects; however, there is a notable absence of comprehensive analysis from a PPP program perspective, which is crucial to gain deeper insights into the program’s overall outcomes, including total number of projects, the invested capital value, and the extent of public funding. This paper proposes a system dynamics model for a national PPP portfolio focusing on Egypt to address this gap. It aims to provide a tool for practitioners and policymakers to study the entire PPP system and the factors affecting it. Four causal loops show how policymakers and investors must balance economic growth with social acceptability to develop effective infrastructure strategies. The findings demonstrated an excessive reliance on the Egyptian PPP program in the energy sector and unsolicited proposals. Hence, policies focused on strengthening public capacities to procure PPP projects may be needed to counteract this tendency and enhance competition. The Egyptian PPP program can also benefit by prioritizing investment in critical infrastructure projects, particularly in sectors historically underfunded in the PPP program, such as ICT, which is critical for fostering the benefits of Industry 4.0. This paper analyzes the national PPP program dynamics and offers PPP decision-makers valuable approaches to improve project portfolio outcomes.

Since 1990, lean construction (LC) has drawn many participants in the construction industry due to its innovative features that have been demonstrated in the industrial sector, resulting in a flurry of adoption and implementation. As is typical with new techniques, some factors facilitate and encourage their adoption. This study aims to discover and explain the overall critical factors for LC implementation, regardless of company size, specialization, or nation, from a theoretical perspective. Additionally, recommend future study directions on this topic. A systematic literature review was conducted to identify the critical factors (CFs) for LC implementation from previously published research. The CFs were identified and categorized into six major types: managerial, operational and technical, cultural and human, educational and knowledge, financial and contractual, and governmental. The dependability and correctness of the data acquired in earlier investigations are critical to the accuracy and consistency of this study.

The public-private partnership (PPP) is a paradigm that upsurges the broad spectrum of financial perks of infrastructure deliverables. It is perceptibly becoming comprehensively acclaimed as the remedy to the significant bottleneck in PPP-urban infrastructure projects’ (UIP) service delivery in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The empirical initiatives have scarcely examined the cross-sectoral dimensions of crucial success determinants in KSA’s PPP-UIP. Hence, this paper seeks to investigate critical success factors (CSFs), portraying an approach to augmenting the prospect of successful PPP-UIP in KSA. Twenty-eight probable CSFs are revealed after examining a large corpus of literature, whittled down to 15 CSFs, banking on UIP managers’ convictions, and conducting focus groups. In this context, a structured questionnaire matrix was devised premised on the hierarchical model constituted following a thorough literature review. The current study subsequently utilized the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methodology to examine beneficial characteristics in the KSA’s UIP. Findings obtained in this paper equip decision-makers with an insightful perspective slanted towards constructing further productive approaches for implementing PPP-UIP in KSA successfully.

Augmented reality (AR) technology will promote worker efficiency through visualization and simulation, reduce health and safety concerns, and improve management in the construction industry. AR-enabled information improves student comprehension in regular classroom settings and prepares students to be technologically enriched professionals in the construction sector. Since the use of AR in the construction industry is still in the early stages, the amount of knowledge of AR hardware and software devices is to be explored. This research aims to assess the present state of development using a literature review. The study helps to provide an in-depth understanding of potential applications in the construction industry. It also analyses the uses and difficulties of AR for teaching and training in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) sector and measures its effectiveness in doing so. This review also serves as a resource for academics, educational institutions, and schools, boosting awareness of AR in AEC training and education.

Multiple infrastructure projects are scattered over a broad urban area and are usually executed simultaneously. Scheduling these multi-concurrent projects, and allocating shared scarce resources to them, while accounting for their restricted deadlines and preconstruction activities (e.g., locating underground utilities, site readiness), is daunting. It demands thoughtful approaches to effectively allocate resources while ensuring that projects are completed within the specified time frame. In collaboration with a municipal drainage services provider, this paper aims to improve the short-term planning of this kind of project, as such in municipal infrastructure maintenance operations. The problem is formulated into a mathematical model to represent the objective and its relevant constraints analytically. The model is prototyped and tested in Excel and validated by conducting case studies based on data collected from the real world. We found that the developed model outperforms the partner company’s current practice in providing optimum solutions and significantly faster response time.

Construction projects are exposed to high levels of logistical uncertainty like material shortages, power outages, and unpredictable weather events. Proactive planning around these uncertainties is complicated by the many resource interactions and interdependencies needed for the completion of most construction tasks. Exposure to uncertainty and a high sensitivity to that uncertainty makes project schedules more vulnerable to delay. The application of human-robot collaboration (HRC) in construction tasks has the potential to reduce uncertainty related to labor but may increase vulnerability in other unexpected ways. This paper explores how HRC in a subset of construction tasks, specifically in drywall finishing, affects project vulnerability to simulated disruptions. Data from jobsite observations and worker interviews are used to develop a meta-network model of the drywall finishing process, which is integrated a semi-automated robot named “Canvas” in an HRC application. The results identify the circumstances under which HRC in drywall finishing makes the project more or less vulnerable to uncertainty. The findings of the research will aid project managers by enabling more resilient planning of HRC applications and provide guidance to robotic manufacturers improving the integration of their systems on construction projects.

The construction sector has been characterized by having lower productivity than other industries. Construction has been encouraged to improve project performance and promote improvements in the life cycle. BIM is a project management methodology based on virtual construction and collaborative work that allows better integration in the life-cycle project. The main objective of this research is to demonstrate, through a survey, the BIM implementation level in the Colombian construction industry. It was concluded that implementing BIM methodology in Colombia is incipient without a full implementation in the industry. Many enterprises continue to use traditional methods; however, the benefits in companies where it has been implemented are evident. Additionally, statistically significant differences were found in variables like BIM maturity and knowledge, among groups, such as type of enterprise, and organizational levels. Collaborative strategies could be developed to reduce barriers such as lack of knowledge, extra costs, and fear of change.

The increased proliferation of utility infrastructure within the public right-of-way has become a growing challenge. Today’s highway projects typically require interaction with many utility owners because of the increasingly complex utility infrastructure. Researchers have investigated different practices for effective utility coordination, including better communication and timely involvement of all stakeholders. Unfortunately, insufficient communication and coordination between utility stakeholders remain highly cited problems. Practitioners strongly believe that applying basic project management to utility issues can help alleviate those problems. Under the project management heading, stakeholder management is considered one of the most important tools and issues to project success. This fact, coupled with the persisting inefficiencies regarding communication and coordination among utility stakeholders, has created the need for a comprehensive review of stakeholder management literature in the utility coordination domain. This study aims to address this gap by analyzing the study interest of scholars in this field. Researchers conducted a systematic literature review that gathered relevant information from journal and conference papers and research reports. This information was categorized into the three well-known stakeholder theory approaches—descriptive, instrumental, and normative. The results revealed directions for future research regarding stakeholder management in utility coordination on highway projects.

Researchers have proved that employees who have the intention to quit the organization, called turnover intention, have decreased productivity and may not fulfill their duties properly. The turnover intention has a negative relationship with the quality of core job characteristics of the organization. As the construction industry has distinctive characteristics compared to other industries, the job characteristics that influence turnover intention need to be explored separately. This study identifies job characteristics of the construction industry that can affect turnover intention. Through the literature review, autonomy, task identity, required skill variety, task significance, justification in assigning work location, and job security are identified as core job characteristics. Based on that, this study suggests a survey evaluating the organization’s level of these job characteristics and turnover intention. The results showed that skill variety and justification in assigning work location are significant predictors of turnover intention. This study contributes to the understanding of the relationship between the independent variables, including the quality of job characteristics and demographics, and the dependent variable, turnover intention. Also, the suggested survey will be conducive for human resource practitioners who want to proactively identify and address employees with a high possibility of turnover.

Chaos theory, a mathematical discipline, delves into the behavior of dynamic systems highly susceptible to initial conditions, often called the butterfly effect. In project management, chaos theory becomes a tool for comprehending and predicting intricate systems, exemplified by large-scale engineering projects. Its application involves identifying and mitigating risks, improving decision-making, and enhancing overall project performance. By harnessing chaos theory, project managers attain profound insights into project dynamics, leading to more adept strategies for control and optimization. Consequently, the incorporation of chaos theory revolutionizes the management and refinement of complex systems. Nevertheless, scholarly exploration of chaos theory’s role in project management remains limited. This article aims to analyze the integration of chaos theory in project management and its specific benefits in the context of substantial engineering endeavors. It encompasses fundamental chaos theory principles, implementation techniques in project management, instances of successful real-world engineering projects, and prospects for future research in this domain.

The construction industry plays an essential role in developing countries. Effective development of construction projects leads to improved well-being and progress for society. Despite their importance, construction projects still face diverse and unpredictable challenges that threaten their performance, such as managing the increasing complexity of their requirements. Poor scope definition in the early stages of a project is one of the leading causes of failure and underperformance. This study aimed to develop a management tool to assess the early scope definition of low-cost housing projects tailored for developing countries, including sustainability and building information management criteria. To achieve this aim, this article carried a methodology out based on the collection of information from the construction management literature and validated by a panel of experts using the Delphi method. The study defined a requirements matrix made up of three main sections, eight categories, and 39 requirements. The management matrix included sustainable standards for efficient energy, water management, and information management using BIM from the early stages of the project. Thus, the results of this study provide project managers with a set of criteria to meet the new and complex requirements of sustainability and BIM in developing countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a large disruptor for construction projects, disrupting the global supply chain, limiting workforce availability, and creating contractual challenges. However, the pandemic can also be seen as an opportunity to improve for the construction industry. This study aims to review existing literature and identify negative and positive impacts in the construction sector due to the COVID-19, and qualitatively analyze interviews with Chilean experts who worked through the pandemic to compare the negative and positive impacts identified from the literature with those discussed by experts. Our results show that more negative impacts are reported compared with positive impacts, which emphasizes the disruptive nature of the pandemic in the construction industry. However, when discussing positive impacts, experts were more optimistic and reported benefits, such as implementation of new technologies and digitalization of construction. This work may assist construction companies in defining new strategies for the post pandemic construction sector.

The collective performance of construction project teams results from individuals sharing ideas and actions, and this collaboration shapes their values toward common goals. Inter-brain synchrony (IBS) is a potential explanation for team performance, which is the coordinated brain activation across individuals. IBS is observed in other disciplines but not adequately studied in engineering and construction project teams. The purpose of the research presented in this paper was to explore the existence of IBS in engineering project teams during design and build activities. The study included 16 undergraduate fourth-year civil engineering students who were paired to form eight dyads. Each team was given the same three tasks varying in time and budget constraints. Team members wore a brain imaging device that measured the change in oxygenated blood in their prefrontal cortex. IBS was observed among all the teams but more prominent in some teams over others. Specific regions of the prefrontal cortex also expressed more IBS than others. The connection between IBS and team cooperation and performance varied. Further exploration is needed to better understand the role of IBS in team dynamics and performance.

Projects in the upstream, midstream, and mining (UMM) sectors present unique complexity. The Construction Industry Institute’s (CII) Research Team 398 aimed at developing the criteria that define project complexity in the UMM sector, a matrix that describes the different levels of complexity and assign tools from the CII database that can be used to manage complexity. The eventual goal is to create a fit-for-purpose handbook for the UMM sector. This project is divided into phases; the first phase is to develop a complexity matrix for the UMM sector CII companies with more mature project management organizations. The team used convenience sampling and conducted interviews with owners and contractors for this purpose. The methodology also included reviewing literature from research into complexity, the characteristics of the UMM sector and incorporating the findings of other complexity models developed within and outside of CII. The result was a complexity matrix that includes factors relevant to all the three sectors. The vision for the next phase includes validating the current complexity matrix and identifying key information (“golden nuggets”) for addressing complexity.

The construction industry is one of the main pillars of the economy. It plays a vital role in the country’s economy by generating employment, upgrading current infrastructure, and boosting overall economic activities. In the United States, the economic contribution of the construction sector to the gross domestic product is nearly 4%. Nevertheless, the construction industry has not reached the desirable levels of overall performance in terms of delivering projects on time and within budget while maintaining high levels of safety, quality, and sustainability. Consequently, it is critical to pinpoint the industry’s challenges to provide practical solutions. In this study, 25 experienced construction professionals were interviewed to understand better the emerging and persistent challenges of the construction industry. The study findings suggest that the most significant and pressing challenges facing the construction industry are (1) the shortage of skilled labor, (2) supply chain disruptions along with material and labor cost volatility especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, and (3) the slow integration, high cost, and maturity of new emerging technologies (e.g., 3D printing, virtual and augmented reality). The study findings will help industry leaders, governmental agencies, and construction researchers develop solutions that would improve the overall performance of the construction industry.

Most architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) projects experienced disruptions, changes, or cancellations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To compensate for the adversarial effects of this unexpected situation, some project owners stopped and restarted their projects after evaluating their scope and timeline, which caused changes in role assignments and communication structures. However, there is a knowledge gap regarding how communication network structures changed at the macro level with the involvement of new individuals at the micro level for the projects paused and restarted. Thus, this study examines the changes in the individuals occupying key roles and the impact of their egocentric networks on the project networks considering performance values. The research team collected archival, e-mail exchange, and survey data from an AEC project during the construction phase and conducted social network analysis. The study findings demonstrated that network topologies and collaboration patterns were different before and after the involvement of new project members. Especially, the new project manager acting as a network bridge prevented the formation of subgroup structure and contributed to the existence of the core-periphery structure. The results add to the body of knowledge by providing empirical observation on the macro-level effects of micro-level changes in AEC teams.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been the most severe global health emergency in recent history. The pandemic has affected the construction industry like other industries, especially during the early months. Several studies have assessed the pandemic’s impacts and examined several mitigation strategies. However, no study has discussed the information sources that construction organizations relied on to obtain information about COVID-19 and the early lessons learned. This study compiled the information sources that construction organizations relied upon while operating during the early months of the pandemic by conducting interviews with construction professionals. The study also collected the early lessons learned from operating during the pandemic. Interview findings suggest that the most frequently used sources were (1) the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and (2) local city and county websites. As for early lessons learned, the findings from the interviews revealed that there is a need for an industry standard to work during similar events and the need to stockpile adequate material and place early orders. The current study’s findings would help industry leaders and decision-makers better understand how the construction industry reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic to establish the best practices to remain operative, productive, and safe during future pandemics.

In customized building mechanical component production, more frequent quality issues and maintenance activities caused by unexpected machine failures interrupt production and result in waste and delays. Integrating predictive maintenance strategies into manufacturing operations is necessary to solve this problem. However, under the uncertainties of machinery deterioration and uncertain productivity, existing literature lacks a quantifiable index for precise evaluation for measuring the stability of joint maintenance and production schedules. A significant challenge exacerbating this gap is the scarcity of production and maintenance data to infer these deterioration models accurately. As a result, current methods struggle to balance production goals with production machine maintenance needs, often leading to sub-optimal operational performance and increased machine downtime. This paper presents a joint maintenance and production scheduling framework that integrates data extraction and process mining to infer manufacturing line deterioration models. This framework generates stable maintenance coordination plans, considering uncertain customized products’ production schedules and machinery deterioration rates. It establishes the needed predictive maintenance using the deterioration models estimated from limited production and maintenance data. The production and predictive maintenance activities can be thus scheduled simultaneously to stabilize productivity and quality. The authors validated the proposed framework using data from a ventilation duct manufacturing line. The results illustrate that this framework can use limited production and maintenance data to produce reliable machine deterioration models that support stable joint maintenance and production scheduling.

The construction industry relies on temporary alliances for project completion, emphasizing effective coordination and communication. Line of privity (LoP) is a key concept in construction projects, representing the contractual relationship between parties and playing a vital role in inter-team coordination. This study investigates the impact of LoP on team communication and productivity within a transaction cost framework, using mixed methods with social network analysis. The main hypothesis posits that contractual and organizational ties, measured by LoP and distance, enhance project team productivity through improved communication. Data were collected from a healthcare project using mixed methods throughout project delivery. Analysis reveals the importance of direct communication, although excessive focus may hinder performance due to fewer parties involved or information overload. Increased organizational distance negatively affects completion rates, while frequent long-distance communication promotes understanding and coordination among distributed teams. A direct correlation between the ratio of LoP communications and project performance was observed. This paper provides insights for construction project management, emphasizing the significance of direct communication, effective management of organizational distance, fostering long-distance communication for distributed teams, and understanding the impact of LoP communications on project performance. These findings contribute to efficient coordination, reduced idle time, and minimized rework.

This study explored changes in communication patterns within construction project teams during times of disruption (i.e., the COVID-19 pandemic), focusing on transaction costs associated with communication and coordination through individual-level project team interactions. Nodes within the communication networks were classified based on their roles (owner, general contractor, designer) and were further categorized into three tiers according to their significance, decision-making authority, and involvement in the project. By utilizing social network analysis (SNA) and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), the study discerned considerable shifts in network dynamics. Designers and owners in tier 2 showed a decline in network centrality and importance, as evidenced by reduced eigenvector centrality and increased inverse of closeness centrality. Conversely, the owner and general contractor in tier 1 either maintained or slightly enhanced their network importance. Local transitivity, indicating the propensity for nodes to form clusters, fluctuated across roles and tiers. The pandemic typically decreased the authority score, implying diminished perceived credibility of nodes. The elevated communication load on tier 1, mainly including project managers, exerted pressure on their capacity limits. The disruptive period and the potential impacts of COVID-19 marked an irrevocable shift in global communication, not just in the construction industry, necessitating role and tier-specific strategies.

Prior studies on the impact of building information modeling (BIM) on project management performance (PMP) have mainly focused on different business types or projects. However, few quantitative studies have explored the impact of BIM adoption on PMP across employees’ experience, company’s BIM percentage, and countries. To address this gap, a survey was carried out on 229 BIM-related practitioners to collect their perceptions of BIM’s impact on PMP for real-world projects. The survey results indicated that BIM contributed the most to early problem detection and the use of coordination tools, but less to safety management. Significant differences were observed between respondents with less and more than five years of experience, and companies with less and more than 30% BIM percentages. No significant differences were found, except for safety management, between countries including and excluding the US. This study contributes to the understanding of BIM’s impact on PMP at multiple levels.

The increasing complexity of construction projects necessitates an effective project management system. In construction management, integration management is a crucial and valuable system encompassing all project aspects, processes, and stakeholders. It ensures effective communication and coordination throughout the project life cycle from initiation to completion. Integration management comprises six main components: project charter development, knowledge integration, process integration, team integration, supply chain integration, and integration of changes. Although previous research has addressed one or two of these components, they have yet to address all of them, their significance, factors, and barriers in the construction industry. This paper reviews previous research to comprehensively understand all integration management components. The review aims to determine the barriers that impact integrated management implementation and define the critical factors that enable effective integration across different processes. This review is the first step in highlighting the importance of integrating, managing, and controlling all project processes, activities, and elements. It will serve as the foundation for future research in managing construction projects, strengthening critical success factors, and eliminating barriers to better understanding integration management for construction projects.

Offsite fabrication has been proposed as a critical component of the effort to industrialize the construction industry and close its performance gap with the manufacturing industry due to its positive impact on project schedule, cost, safety, and quality. Agile manufacturing is considered a successful way for manufacturing and assembling products. However, tools of lean manufacturing and lean construction are the main applied tools in the industry and academic research for modular and offsite construction. Manufacturing firms recognized the importance of responding quickly to market demands in a cost-effective way. However, it is difficult to determine if an organization is agile or not and its level of application for agility principles. The importance of determining the level of application for agility principles, enablers, drivers, capabilities, and metrics helps in driving further the agile culture for any organization. This paper proposes an agility assessment framework for modular and offsite construction based on existing literature for agile manufacturing. This simplified assessment tool integrates the agility enablers (AE) and capabilities (AC) into a single group of competencies to describe the MOC external (enablers) and internal (capabilities). Validation of proposed framework was conducted using Delphi technique by interviewing eight executive experts from the MOC industry. It is concluded that acquiring agile certification by MOC professionals benefits the industry.

Public infrastructure, like electric and telecommunication utilities, is increasingly moving underground to avoid above ground congestion in urban areas and for protection of their facilities. Locating underground utilities remains a challenge in the United States, and accurate as-built records are crucial for urban development and utility management. Emerging geospatial, three-dimensional (3D), and as-built utility survey technologies are essential for producing reliable and accurate geospatially referenced subsurface utility data. However, the practice for collecting utility as-built data using 3D modelling technologies is one of the least-used approaches among the United States DOTs. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the positional accuracy of digital as-built data of underground utility captured through ground-based photogrammetry with traditional real-time kinetic (RTK) corrected GPS survey points with elevations calculated by survey level. The results demonstrated geospatially accurate 3D scan, and the notable accuracy achieved by device orientation demonstrates ground-based photogrammetry’s value for utility as-built data collection.