Journal of Construction Engineering and Management

With arbitration, a person or panel approved by the disputants is charged with establishing an equitable settlement. At least in the construction industry, arbitration is primarily limited to smaller disputes between the contractor and owner, or the designer and owner. Now, however, as the costs and time required to litigate disputes increases, there is much greater interest in arbitration, and new forms of it are developing. Alternate approaches to arbitration are discussed herein, and their performance is evaluated. Special attention is given to the form and performance of arbitration used by state agencies.

One of the features of the construction industry of the late 1970s and the early 1980s has been the emergence of a diversity of building procurement methods. Among the most popular has been “management contracting” (MC), and this has assumed a prominent place in the battery of procurement methods offered by contractors. The writers (1984) have defined management contracting as the “process whereby a contractor is employed to undertake the co‐ordination of specialist sub‐contractors to complete a project. The management contractor relies upon a percentage fee or a lump sum to be remunerated for the services offered. The management contractor becomes associated with the client team of professional advisors and in common with other professionals has liability for the provision of a professional service.” This paper presents some research findings from the Construction Study Unit at Brunel University. It summarizes the development of and the market for management contracting in the U.K. It then reports the results of interviews with construction clients who are asked to compare management contracting with the traditional method of project procurement.

The nature of the variability of construction activity duration is described and its effects on sequential repetitive activities investigated. The central limit theorem is used to argue that the distribution of activity durations containing sufficient sequential repetitions of an operation will be approximately normal. Based on this assumption of normality, the probability of an activity interfering with the progress of the next activity in the sequence is investigated. It is shown that this is a function of the probability of independent activities overlapping on the final operations and a heuristic method of evaluating this function is described. The assumptions inherent in this heuristic method are tested by comparing the results of such calculations with the results from a digital simulation model. It is shown that the calculated probabilities of interference compare very well with the estimated probabilities from the simulation results except for the results for activities whose average rates of progress diverge in time. These discrepancies are, however, unimportant in the anticipated uses of the model, where convergent activities have much greater significance.

A sample of unionized construction workers from a major midwestern city is surveyed to gather their perceptions of the behavior of their foreman. There are 703 participants in the study. Five dimensions of foreman behavior are identified: (1) The degree of participation allowed by the foreman in decision‐making; (2) the level of support provided by the foreman; (3) the degree of achievement orientation of the foreman; (4) the degree of bias of the foreman; and (5) the level of work facilitation provided by the foreman. The five dimensions have varying relationships with worker motivation, performance, and satisfaction.

A sample of unionized construction workers from a major mid‐western city is surveyed to gather their perceptions of the behavior of their contractors. There are 703 participants in the study. Four dimensions of contractor behavior are identified: the propensity of the contractor to punish, the propensity of the contractor to reward, the degree of participation allowed by the contractor in decision making, and the level of work facilitation provided by the contractor. The four dimensions have varying relationships with worker motivation, performance and satisfaction.

Total quality control (TQC) programs have been responsible for improved labor motivation, production, and product quality in Japan. Quality control circles, as part of a TQC program, are a rather new participative management technique that merits study and analysis. A brief history of quality circles (QC) is given and QC program implementation is described briefly. The differences between manufacturing industries, where the circles have been originally implemented, and the construction industry are discussed. QC applications in Japanese construction companies are reviewed. and the cultural and organizational differences between the Japanese and United States construction industries are addressed. A number of guidelines are recommended for the implementation of quality circles in a United States construction company. It is believed that if used correctly and efficiently, QC programs can work in the construction industry and can improve productivity, motivation, and quality.

Reinforced concrete construction and steel construction are two areas of construction where improvements in technology would produce significant benefits, according to the Business Roundtable Report on “Construction Technology Needs and Improvements.” This paper identifies specific activities with the greatest potential for technological improvement of the steel construction and reinforced concrete construction processes. These activities were identified through interviews with field superintendents and field engineers. Specific suggestions for technological improvement in the activities are also presented.

Political risk identification, measurement, and management are key to successful international construction contracting. Multinational contractors are particularly sensitive to quick, unexpected change in the political environment that affects principal cash‐flow elements of their projects. Traditional political risk analysis used by manufacturing or heavy industrial firms for capital investment decisions does not adequately address contracting risks. An alternate approach is presented to fill this important gap. Essential to this treatment is the identification of the primary political source risks and their impacts on project cash‐flow elements. Recognition and planning, rather than gambling, is emphasized as a contractor's best approach to successful international construction.

Construction engineering and management education in Central Europe, and its relationship to practice in the construction industry, have concepts that could benefit their counterparts in the United States. This paper first describes the system of education in Central European technical universities, then reviews curricula in four cases. University research practices are also examined and compared to U.S. counterparts, as is the role of academics in industry. While there are many similarities between the two systems, there is more technical content in European degree programs, but at the expense of liberal arts courses. They have more decentralized autonomy in budgeting and staffing, with larger staff sizes to support comparable numbers of faculty and students; but they have lower capital equipment budgets. Finally, characteristics of the Central European construction industry that support research and innovation are examined. These include top management's greater interest in technology and innovation, a comparative lack of the legal liability problems, a bid evaluation system which encourages contractors to submit design alternatives, in‐house contractor research laboratories, and a more cooperative contract administration climate.

This study investigated the possibility of U.S. Air Force use of roller‐compacted concrete pavement (RCCP). A decision model was developed. To do this, the unique pavement requirements of the U.S. Air Force were identified. These requirements were then compared with the inherent strengths and weaknesses of RCCP. Using this methodology, a decision checklist was developed to support the Air Force engineering manager in deciding if RCCP is a good choice for a particular pavement application. The logic behind the decision model could be applied to the use of other new construction technologies.

The effects of revisions, repairs, and rework on large, complex projects are very substantial and are not frequently dealt with in a comprehensive, consistent, or effective manner, even in industries that deal constantly with very large projects, such as the commercial nuclear power industry. Large‐scale commercial nuclear projects require multiple work phases and disciplines that result in substantial and significant interdependencies among these work phases and disciplines. These interdependencies and the complex interactions that result are key factors in understanding, controlling, and managing such projects. Of particular relevance are the consequences of these interdependencies upon effective project work scope caused by revisions, repairs, and rework. This study examines these effects using a simplified mathematical model constructed to correspond with intuitive reasoning and empirical observations. A range of hypothetical examples is also provided to illustrate the consequences of these effects.

Construction contract types and general condition clauses have a major influence on the likelihood and degree of project success. A comprehensive empirical study was conducted for 36 very large capital construction projects completed within the past three years to assess such impacts. Two general contract types (cost reimbursible and fixed price) and 96 clauses were carefully analyzed for impacts on six measures of project performance: cost, schedule, quality, safety, and owner and contractor satisfaction. The clauses bearing most heavily on project performance are identified, and the key elements of those clauses that are most crucial to project success are discussed in detail. Other contract administration concepts such as risk allocation, respective views of owners and contractors, and incentive provisions are factually and thoroughly discussed.

The trend is for resident engineers to encourage their inspectors to use checklists to ensure thoroughness and document that the inspection did occur. The purpose of this paper is to provide guidelines, conforming with good construction practice, that a construction inspector can use when inspecting sheet pile construction. These guidelines address preparatory, initial, and follow-up inspections of timber sheet pile, concrete sheet pile, and steel sheet pile construction. This list shows checks that inspectors should make prior to physical work placement (at preparatory inspections), checks the inspector should make after a small amount of work (at initial inspections) and it shows checks during driving that the inspector should make at follow-up inspections as work progresses.