Journal of Construction Engineering and Management

The typical limitations of the existing construction management programs are the lack of an integrated approach to managerial decisions in real life construction environment, not enough emphasis on engineering design, construction methods and communication skills, and poor coordination between the undergraduate and the graduate studies. An effective construction management program should. integrate teaching on undergraduate and graduate levels and research. On the undergraduate level it should provide the students with a good insight into all managerial tasks in civil engineering projects. On the graduate level it should allow specialization in the various areas of interest both to the practicing engineers and also to students who wish to pursue an academic career. The program should strongly interact with research and engineering practice.

Current and expected chailenges on large engineering and construction projects demand innovative methods for improved performance. Analyses of several examples of innovative engineering and construction techniques for nuclear generating plant projects as presented. The findings based on those analyses identify not only conditions that favor innovation, but also those that appear to restrict the use of new techniques. The writer suggests guidelines for industry professionals and researchers to follow, in order to promote engineering and construction innovation.

Conventional resource allocation procedures implicitly assume that the availability of resources is certain. In real life situations, their availability is, at times, uncertain. A Risk Evaluation Model (REM) is proposed to systematically evaluate the uncertainty of resource availability and generate several alternatives having varying project completion time, cost, and performance probability. REM can aid a contractor in “bid/no‐bid” decision‐making, an entrepreneur in investment decision‐making, and a consultancy organization in corporate planning.

Since 1973, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has been conducting a Rehabilitation Program for the Midvale Irrigation District near Riverton, Wyoming. The work consists primarily of upgrading the distribution system of open ditches and constructing new buried pipe drains in the farmer's fields. Work is done under eight to ten small contracts each off‐irrigation season (October to April). Since the type of work does not vary from year to year, specifications writing is basically an updating and retyping of the previous year's specifications. A system was developed using the Bureau's dual CYBER 170/800's (CDC) computer and Xerox 9700 Electronic Printing System in Denver; a LA36 DECwriter timesharing terminal in Riverton; and a versatile formatting system known as COMPOSE/RUNOFF. Specifications are now prepared at a considerable savings of time, manpower, and money.

Now tools will help managers design organization structures for large engineering and construction projects. An improved understanding of how managers decide in structuring project organizations is necessary to develop these tools and to assist managers in the systematic design of organizations tailored to meet project goals under unique situations. This paper reports a portion of results from research conducted to determine current practices in project organization design. The conclusion that adaptation dominates this process leads to several implications for industry professionals and researchers wishing to improve project performance. Recognizing the role of adaptation in current practices of organizational structuring will allow managers to avoid inertia and systematically design organizations. Researchers can assist by expanding variables in organization theory to better capture project situation and structure and by developing new tools to assist in systematic organization design.

Expansive soils prevail over a large area of Sudan and have caused significant damages to irrigation systems, water lines, sewer lines, buildings, roads and other structures located on these soils. Damage caused by expansive soils is estimated by the writers to exceed $6,000,000 (8,000,000 Sudanese pounds) annually. The paper summarizes typical damages to show the type, extent and causes of damages and provides information on current design methods being used in Sudan to reduce potential damages. Based on soil surveys and soil properties collected from more than 30 sites, over one‐third of Sudan's $2\text{,}600\text{,}000{\mathrm{km}}^2$ area may have potentially expansive soils. It is recommended that all potential construction sites in the Clay Plain be evaluated for expansive soils.

This paper describes the history, development, implementation, and benefits of a computerized master specification system established in a consulting engineering/architecture company. Besides reviewing the problems encountered in developing such a system, the paper quantifies computer costs and word processing labor hours expended in preparing technical specifications for several projects betwen 1980 and 1983. It compares these costs and labor hours to those expended using the traditional system of preparing specifications. The computerized specification system allows engineers to prepare technical specifications in one‐third to one‐half the time it takes using the traditional methods. Word processing or typing productivity increases by a factor of three to six.

Construction materials engineering is a long-time discipline of civil engineering which has gained definition and recognition in recent decades due to increased demands placed on the construction materials engineer. This discipline of civil engineering involves the evaluation of construction materials, processes and products. It is a professional practice most often included as part of the project quality assurance. The role of the construction materials engineer in the design phase, the bidding phase, the construction phase and the post-construction phase of projects is examined.