Journal of Construction Engineering and Management

This paper presents a flexible mixed integer-programming model for the solution of the time/cost tradeoff problem encountered in project management. Whereas it is commonly assumed that the time/cost function is linear, the model presented in this paper makes minimal assumptions and accommodates any type of cost function that is linear, piecewise linear or discrete. The model can be used for answering various “what if” questions that may be very helpful to a project manager in making rational decisions. The basic model minimizes the total cost which is the sum of direct and indirect costs, subject to a project deadline constraint. A simple modification in the model changes the focus from minimizing total cost to minimizing project completion time subject to a resource constraint. The models of this paper can be set up and run very easily on commercially available optimization packages with an integer-programming module. These models provide a viable alternative to more specialized algorithms developed for the time/cost tradeoff problem simply because a typical project manager may not have the necessary skills or resources to implement specialized algorithms.

The writers formulated a case study of the Kuala Selangor Cable Stayed Bridge to examine the application of the constructability concepts particularly during the conceptual planning and the design phases of the project. This paper presents the advantages of implementing the constructability concepts and the barriers that were encountered when applying these concepts during the planning and design phases of the cable stayed bridge project of Kuala Selangor in Malaysia. The writers concluded that barriers to constructability implementation that are related to the owner were the major impediments in the application of constructability concepts during the early conceptual planning phase. The opinion of the engineer was another factor behind nonapplication of some other concepts. At the same time, many others were implemented due to the awareness and opinion of the engineer and his ability to control their application.

Lack of information regarding technology benefits along with uncertain competitive advantage from new technology have resulted in industry reluctance to implement new technologies. An industry-wide survey was used to collect project data from more than 200 capital facility projects on the issue of technology usage and overall project success. Twenty-two research hypotheses are presented and analyzed according to five different data class variables: industry sector, total installed cost, public versus private, greenfield versus expansion versus renovation, and typical versus advanced projects. Findings pertaining to associations between project success and technology usage at the project and phase level are discussed. The results of this research indicate that several technologies may contribute significantly to project performance in terms of cost and schedule success, particularly for certain types of projects. In addition, project schedule success is more closely associated with technology utilization than is project cost success. Findings from this study can provide companies with information on technology benefits and whether to use certain technologies.

Environmental management systems (EMSs) are intended to formalize procedures for managing and reducing environmental impacts. Construction firms typically do not have comprehensive and certified environmental management systems. This paper discusses the elements of environmental management systems, the relationship to the ISO 14001 standard, and the importance for construction firms to implement an EMS. A case study of a certified environmental management system for a construction firm is presented. Benefits and costs of such systems are identified. The paper concludes that construction firms should begin to work towards implementing more complete environmental management systems, although fully certified systems are not essential.

Various drivers of construction innovation are distinguished and classified in four distinctive categories: environmental pressure, technological capability, knowledge exchange, and boundary spanning. Innovation drivers in these categories are active at the transfirm, intrafirm, and interfirm level in the network of organizations in the construction industry. Empirical research in the Dutch construction industry illustrates that the innovation drivers are used by managers of the authorities, clients, architects, consultants, and contractors to stimulate and facilitate innovation processes. It also exemplifies that driving innovation on the transfirm, intrafirm, and interfirm level in the network of organizations is an opportunity for managers of both public and private organizations to develop, improve, and renew their organizations’ positions in the market, the quality of their organizations’ projects, and the cooperative structure of the industry as a whole.

While opportunities for international construction firms have been growing with globalization, the risks involved with international construction projects are increasing significantly. However, due to the complex skein of various risks, it is difficult to evaluate the severity of risk variables at the corporate level and to examine key success factors in an attempt to maximize a firm’s value under the challenging global business environment. This paper focuses on a financial portfolio risk management for international projects to integrate the risk hierarchy of both individual projects and at the corporate level, which applies a multicriteria decision making method to maximize the total value of firms. To demonstrate the approach, a case study is conducted based on real projects collected from a multinational general contractor. Finally, we present lessons learned as well as guidelines for the application of these lessons to future projects through a workshop with industry practitioners.

Risk analysis is crucial in enabling management to make informed decisions regarding the economic viability of engineering projects. In most building construction projects, sophisticated risk assessment methods are not used because the detailed input information they require is unavailable to the average project owner or manager. As a result, risk assessment is often limited to simple sensitivity analyses. This paper presents a practical yet thorough method in which the economic risk inherent in a construction project can be calculated with input information of varying levels of detail. The proposed “multifactor” method includes consideration of interdependence between a project’s risk factors. The principles of the method are explained, its application to a large construction project is illustrated, and the findings are discussed.

This paper presents structural modeling and design considerations for a double-layer shoring system made of wood posts based on analytical derivation, numerical computation, and the LeMessurier formula. Simplified two-dimensional models of double-layer shoring systems are developed. The analysis shows that system critical loads do not increase with the addition of individual pinned-ended shores, i.e., leaning columns, in the system during construction. If these individual pinned-ended shores are widely used, more cases of falsework failure may occur. The effects of lengths of horizontal stringers and vertical shores, stiffnesses of stringers, and positions of strong shores are investigated in the paper. The reinforcement by addition of bracing to the shoring systems can improve the system buckling strength. The study concludes that appropriately fastening a group of pinned-ended shores with horizontal bracings, i.e., strong shores, can increase the load-carrying capacity of a double-layer shoring system.

This paper details a mathematical algorithm to determine the required number of rollers for a chip seal project’s equipment spread based on maximizing the asphalt distributor’s production and adhering to specified roller time requirements. The paper reports one of the findings of a three-year constructability review of the Texas Department of Transportation’s statewide seal coat program. One of the findings of that study was that there was a correlation between the number of rollers used on a job and the loss of aggregate after construction was completed. The roller is the tool used to seat the aggregate and create embedment in the asphaltic binder. Thus, the failure to achieve design embedment depth is primarily a function of achieving quality control requirements for roller linger time. The paper illustrates a straightforward method to calculate the required number rollers to achieve both maximum productivity for the chip seal paving train and to ensure a uniform distribution of roller coverage across the width of the shot. The paper concludes that designing the roller spread is in the best interests of both the chip seal contractor and the owner.

China’s entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO) will allow both domestic and overseas construction firms to compete under the same market conditions. This development will lead to a more rigorous participation from overseas construction professionals in the Chinese construction market. Nevertheless, this participation can only be effective or successful when there is a proper understanding about the construction procurement practice in China. The Chinese construction practice has its own characteristics, such as governmental regulations, professional qualification systems, and procurement systems. These characteristics present a different practice in awarding construction contracts from that in the West. This paper investigates the characteristics of construction business environment in China and identifies the key parameters used in assessing contractors’ competitiveness for awarding construction contracts in the market. The parameters are useful tools for assisting contractors in identifying their strength and weakness, thus reengineering actions can be adopted for improving competitiveness. A case study is used to demonstrate how these multiple parameters are used in the process of awarding contracts in the local market.

Subsurface obstacles, lack of contractor experience, site planning in addition to other factors complicated the installation process of pile foundation. Productivity and cost estimates for such a process are affected by these difficulties. Therefore this study focuses on the piling process productivity and cost assessment using simulation. Data were collected for this study through designated questionnaires, site interviews, and telephone calls to experts in different construction companies. Many variables have been considered in the piling construction process. Two simulation models have been designed and validated to assess piling process productivity and cost. Consequently, two sets of charts have been developed based upon the validated models to provide the decision-maker with a solid planning, scheduling, and control tool for piling process projects.

The management process of any construction operation usually can be defined as a chain of decisions. A decision-maker can bid, plan, and organize the bored pile projects based on an accurate estimate of productivity. To estimate productivity efficiently, piling process qualitative and quantitative factors have to be considered. This paper focuses on assessing the effect of subjective factors on bored pile construction productivity. A productivity index (PI) model is developed to represent this subjective effect in refining productivity assessment using simulation and deterministic techniques. The analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy logic are used to develop the proposed PI model that relies on the actual performance of 10 main piling process subjective factors. Subjective data were collected from bored pile (drilled shaft) contractors considering these subjective factors. The developed PI model implementation to piling process resulted in PI=0.7. This value has been validated using simulation model outputs.

Several alternatives are being attempted to obtain the sustainable residential building, based on the acceptable level of environmental impact and socio-economic characteristics of residential building. These criteria are in conflict each other, thus it is very difficult to assess or find the sustainable residential building. This paper presents a methodology of the assessment for residential building that is intended to assist the decision making for the building planners or practitioners. The results show that this approach can effectively work for the quantitative evaluation and selection of the best alternative of the residential buildings considered, especially when conflict relation exists. This approach allows the planner or construction companies to test design strategies against different sets of criteria.

This paper presents information by which to measure safety management performance on construction sites. In China, the conventional construction safety benchmarking approach is to assess safety performance by evaluating the physical safety conditions on site as well as the accident records, while no attention has been paid to the management factors that influence site safety. This paper is to identify the key factors that influence safety management and to develop a method for measuring safety management performance on construction sites. Based on the survey and interview data collected on safety management factors in 82 construction projects in China, the safety management index as a means to evaluate real-time safety management performance by measuring key management factors was developed. The quantified factors were compared with the commonly accepted physical safety performance index, which was derived from inspection records of physical safety conditions, accident rates, and the satisfaction of the project management team. Multifactor linear regression was conducted and the result indicates that safety management performance on site is closely related to organizational factors, economic factors, and factors related to the relationship between management and labor on site. Based on this benchmarking study, a practical safety assessment method was developed and then implemented on six construction projects. The results show that this method can be an effective tool to evaluate safety management on construction projects.

This paper provides a historical perspective on construction research trends as reflected in the American Society of Civil Engineer’s Journal of Construction Engineering and Management (JCEM). The paper reports the results of an 18-year analysis of JCEM between 1985 and 2002. The analysis focused on such data as author information (affiliations and home countries), as well as the research topics of the technical papers. The paper summarizes the data extracted from the journal and use it to analyze construction research trends. Construction trends reveal that U.S. writers contributed the most papers by that there has been an increasing number of international submissions to the journal. The top research topical areas relate to scheduling, productivity, constructability, simulation, cost control, planning, safety, and computer systems as described in this paper show that research is increasing throughout the world and topics are changing as current needs change. However, there is a need to increase research collaboration between industry and academia, government and academia, and industry and government to advance the construction industry.

This study considers the contents of the papers published by the ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management which has witnessed a growth in terms of number and length of papers and breadth of participation, particularly of international origin, during the 1983–2000 period. The content is analyzed according to two main dimensions: the type of subject and its composing topics, and the institutional sources of the papers. The analysis shows the evolution of the construction engineering and management discipline as it is represented in the journal. Over the years traditional construction engineering topics have been complemented by an increasing interest in construction management topics, such as management of the firm, project delivery systems (Build–Operate–Transfer and Design/Build), project performance evaluation and project quality planning. This paper, in addition, identifies 30 institutional sources of the published papers and the extent of specialization of these institutions in terms of subjects relating the construction engineering and management discipline.

The “build, operate, and transfer model” (BOT) is a financing model, which is used in many developing countries to finance new infrastructure projects with private sector participation. The BOT method foresees the financing, designing, building, operating, and managing of the facility by the private sector and then its transfer free of charge, to the owner after a predetermined concession period. For interested parties, the history of BOT laws and projects in Turkey is presented as an Appendix. In this study, the Izmit Domestic and Industrial Water Supply Project, the biggest privately financed water supply project procured under the BOT model in the world at the time and the first in Turkey will be introduced and the problems that arose during the implementation of the project, namely, the scope of the project, equity debt ratio, return on equity, principles of accounting, coordination of State departments, land access, determination of the optimum operation period, and the sale price of the water, will be presented and suggestions will be given on how to deal with these problems.

Construction lump sum lowest bid procurement is one of the most prevalent methods of awarding construction contracts. For a lump sum bidding practice in Taiwan, after the lowest bidder is awarded a construction project contract, the contractual unit price for each cost item is taken as the product of the owner’s estimated unit price and a discounting ratio equal to the total bid price divided by the owner’s project cost estimate. This owner-based approach is inequitable because the bidder is denied the right to allocate the risks associated with the costs of performing the work. In U.S. practice, while the unit prices submitted by the bidder are usually considered as the contractual ones, unbalanced bids may occur. This work presents a bidder-based quantitative procedure, built on an electronic-based bidding process for effectively and efficiently supporting reviewing and adjusting the bidder’s proposed unit prices for a lump sum procurement project. The advantages of this procedure include that the unit prices electronically obtained from the owner and all qualified bidders are included in analyses during unit-price evaluation, and that rules for unit-price adjustment along with maintaining the total contractual price are included. The novel procedure has been successfully applied to several construction projects in Taiwan and the results have been greatly appreciated by both governments and contractors.