Journal of Construction Engineering and Management

In recent years many changes have occurred in the construction industry in Saudi Arabia, caused by the switch in emphasis from new construction—building the infrastructure—to operation and maintenance, the declining revenue from oil sales, and the planned privatization of many aspects of construction. Contractor financing has changed from interest‐free loans provided by the government—in the form of large advance payments—to short‐term, fee‐bearing loans provided by commercial banks. A commercial banking system, established under strict government regulation, is providing loans, bonding, leasing, letters of credit, hedging and other financial services to contractors. Commercial banking in the Kingdom faces various problems not present in western countries, in complying with Islamic mores. This paper discusses the financial requirements set by the Saudi Arabian government for contractors engaged in public works, the establishment of, and the financial services offered by, the commercial banks in the Kingdom, and the cost and qualifications for obtaining these services.

This paper presents the findings of a research project which identified problems with sheetpile cellular construction and proposed solutions. Sheetpile cellular structures are cylinders of sheetpile that are filled with soil. Several of these cylinders may be interconnected to form cofferdams and wharfs, or an isolated cell may be used to moor barges and ships. The most prominent shortcomings of the existing method of construction are the lack of redundancy of the structural system for safety, and the complexity and hazards involved with constructing the cells. There are three major findings in the study: (1) Bursting is the dominant failure mode for cellular structures; (2) a concept which would involve the use of wider sheetpiles would increase structural safety, however, a very large order might be required to justify retooling costs; and (3) another concept, cell structures built from hooplike concrete segements, could be designed to a high target reliability.

Application of robotics in welding orthotopic steel decks for bridges is investigated. It is found that by using robot welders, savings of about 5.6% can be realized in the fabrication cost of the steel decks. Deterioration of the bridges' concrete decks at alarming rates has bridge engineers looking at alternative systems. Orthotropic steel decks are particularly attractive because they last longer than concrete, reduce the bridge's dead load and can be replaced without major disruption of traffic. Traditional methods of steel deck fabrication are costly and labor intensive. Based upon the findings of the research described in this paper, if robotics technology is used in steel deck fabrication, the required man‐hours and the fabrication costs may be reduced. This would reduce the initial cost of steel decks making them competitive with the cost of concrete decks. Considering life cycle analysis, orthotropic steel decks appear to be even more competitive with the concrete decks. In this investigation, a typical orthotropic deck module was designed using approximate methods. Several steel fabricators were contacted and price quotations for fabricating this module were obtained. A model of a robotics system for welding of this deck module was conceived, the robot's specifications prepared and the cost of the system estimated. A comparison of the cost of the conventional and robotic fabrication and analysis of results are presented.

Due to the increasing strategic importance of the African continent, there has been an increase in demand for ports and port facilities along its coastline. Sea trade to and from ports all over the world tends to make the Horn of Africa a focal point for waterborne traffic of the world. The assurance of the highest possible quality per dollar spent on port construction is of utmost importance to the host country (owner). Use of the principles and insights, which were learned during performance of quality assurance function on port construction project in Somalia and are shared herein, will maximize the probability that the quality of work produced is that which was designed. Proven‐in‐action success techniques related to production are divulged which will help the contractor realize expeditious, economical field operations and solve construction problems before they occur by preparing himself in advance to deal with them.

It is widely accepted that environmental uncertainty strongly affects decision makers' performance and that the construction environment is very uncertain. Despite awareness of the consequences of uncertainty on a project, little attention has been paid to its effects on construction management, particularly on the planning function. The paper focuses on the assessment of the effect of environmental variables on the efforts invested in planning. The effect of eight situational variables is evaluated by measuring the time invested in planning and control, as well as the frequency of revisions. The variables examined are: number of subcontractors, number of trades, objectives rigidity, percentage completion of design, past construction experience, predictability of weather, availability of labor, and attitudes towards planning. The study concludes that efforts should be adjusted to meet variable situations.

Current labor agreements of 250 craft unions are obtained representing six different building trades. The inclusion of the wording of selected provisions are examined. Although some provisions occur with consistent frequency in practically all labor agreements, clear trends are observed for some provisions in that the historically stronger crafts are more successful in negotiating for more favorable provisions for their unions. For some provisions a wide disparity is noted between the agreements made in union shop states when compared to those of right‐to‐work states. Comparisons with past studies indicate that the inclusion of certain provisions has not remained constant in recent years.

Construction risk is exposure to possible economic loss arising from involvement in the construction process. A unified‐field‐theory classification of the risk‐adjusted discount rate (RADR) methods demonstrates that modern portfolio and capital‐market theories can be translated into RADR models. Project in market context, firm in market context, and project in firm context assume perfect (efficient) capital market. The first two claim unsystematic risk is irrelevant. Project in firm context assumes that only marginal unsystematic risk of the project is relevant. Project in isolation, which is based on the total risk of the project, is not an optimal investment policy. Project in firm context is not practicable due to realworld constraints. Project in market context is theoretically superior. However, the systematic risk index, beta, cannot be easily determined. Therefore, for a simple accept/reject decision, firm in market context resulting in an average cost of capital is the only practicable alternative for determining the required rate of return.

This paper provides a methodology for feasibility analysis of robotics in the construction industry. Major factors in robotization of construction processes are identified as need, technology, and economics. Ten characteristics supporting the need for robotization have been identified: labor intensiveness, vanishing skill area, high skill requirement, precision and dexterity requirement, repetitiveness, tedious and boring, critical to productivity, unpleasant and dirty, hazardous to health, and physically dangerous. The technological areas against which each construction process was evaluated included: material handling requirements, required sensor technology, complexity of required control software, control hardware, and end effector requirements. The economic benefits of robotization are basically due to productivity improvement, quality improvement, and savings in skilled labor. 33 operations are evaluated and numerical rankings are developed. Recommendations for future research are presented.

The purpose of owner‐directed acceleration is to reach a certain milestone, maybe the completion of the project, before a certain deadline. What activities have to be accelerated and what the terms of payment to the contractor will be is the subject of this paper. If acceleration is ordered in the remaining portion of a project that has been delayed by owner‐ and contractor‐caused events, the apportioning of extra acceleration costs between the parties is not simple. The various alternatives that are available for resolving this problem are reviewed in this paper, and a method is proposed to reach a fair and reasonable solution. The method is based on the premise that acceleration of the remaining portion of a project is typically ordered to compensate for the delays that occurred in the completed portion of the project and that acceleration conducted in the most economical way should follow accountability lines chronologically defined in previous delay impact analysis. This way, any replanning to suit the new conditions can be made amply clear by the party concerned. This will help the parties in reaching an agreement before inauguration of the change.