Journal of Construction Engineering and Management

Construction delays are disruptive and expensive. This study assesses the causes of delays by focusing on actions and inactions of project participants and external factors. The study analyzed quantitative data from completed building projects to assess the extent of delays, and data obtained from a postal questionnaire survey of construction managers to assess the extent to which 44 identified factors contributed to overall delays on a typical project they have been involved with. The findings showed that the factors could be prioritized. However, Pareto analysis revealed that 88% of the factors (representing 39 highest priority factors) were responsible for 90% of the overall delays. This suggests that there is no discernable difference among the different delay factors and none really stands out as contributing to a large percentage of the problem. A one-sample $t$ test further confirmed that most of the factors are important contributors to delays. The results suggest the interdependent nature of construction activities and roles of project participants. The overall ranking of the factors and ranking within each factor category provide useful information for construction industry practitioners, policy makers, and researchers when devising ways of combating delays. The results also indicate areas of construction industry practice that require improvement.

Today, government is no longer considered the sole provider of public works or services. Public-private partnership (PPP) has been recognized as an important approach to solving problems for governments in providing infrastructure systems. However, the joint ownership or partnership in PPP complicates the administration of PPP projects. Too often, in PPP, many serious problems occur mainly because of bad administration policies. In particular, the fact that government may rescue a distressed project and renegotiate with the developer causes major problems in project procurement and management. This paper aims to study when and how government will rescue a distressed project and what impacts government’s rescue behavior has on project procurement and management. A game-theory based model for government rescue dynamics is developed. Propositions, corollaries, and important policy implications are then derived from the model. This pilot study, the writer hopes, may provide theoretic foundations to policy makers for prescribing effective PPP procurement and management policies and for examining the quality of PPP policies. The study can also offer researchers a framework and a methodology to understand the behavioral dynamics of the parties in PPP.

This paper deals with procurement routes in public building and construction projects in Norway. Seen from a practical point of view, as well as from a theoretical one, it is important to improve methods for selection of procurement procedure, contract model, and compensation formats. The paper objective is to find out if public owners select a procurement route according to recommended practice. The sources are literature, support material for two software tools for selection of the procurement route, and documentation from 22 public building and construction projects in Norway. According to the literature and the support material for the two software tools, the answer to what is the proper procurement route will depend on the characteristics of each project. The documentation study implies that public owners continue to select the same procurement route as they are in the habit of. They do not consider what procurement route suits each single project, and therefore they do not select the route according to recommended practice. The paper calls for innovation and better supported selection of the procurement route in public building and construction projects.

While critical-path method (CPM) scheduling has been around since the 1950s, its application in the construction industry has still not received 100% acceptance or consistency in how it is used. Project controls, and CPM scheduling in particular, have gone unchanged in the standards arena with little focus for a common understanding and recognition of what is required for CPM schedule development, implementation, and use. In recent years, little research has been conducted relative to the use of CPM and its benefits. In order to determine how the industry views its applicability and usage, a survey was developed for the stakeholders in the construction industry. This paper summarizes extensive research that was performed of the construction industry relative to the use of CPM scheduling, its applicability and its acceptance in the execution of today’s constructed projects. The research obtained the stakeholders’ views on the use and effectiveness of CPM scheduling; the necessary qualifications of scheduling personnel; and opinions relative to whether standards and/or best practices are necessary. The paper discusses the different views of the stakeholders and recommendations as to how consistency can be obtained in the use of CPM scheduling in order to improve the construction industry.

There is a growing need for project controls on today’s construction projects. Delivering a project on time does not mean just signing a contract and hoping that the required contract completion date will be met. More often than not, the majority of today’s constructed projects encounter events and/or changes that affect the original plan of executing a project. A key to monitoring a project’s progress is a critical-path method (CPM) schedule. However, the methods and techniques of CPM scheduling vary widely on any construction site. In light of this difference, a growing need has emerged for standards for CPM scheduling, a common foundation from which terms, definitions, and applications can be universally understood. In determining what recommendations might be reasonable in establishing scheduling standards, one area to be examined is how CPM scheduling is being taught in the universities. In this examination, the writer conducted a survey of university CPM curriculums in the United States, Europe, and Asia. This paper reflects the findings of this survey focusing on the base guideline of time management as presented by the Project Management Institute’s Project management book of knowledge (PMBOK) as compared to how the concepts in the PMBOK are taught in university courses in CPM scheduling in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Data obtained from the study will then provide a basis for recommendations to both industry and academia relative to potential changes which would bring the world closer together in commonality in the area of CPM scheduling.

Residual value needs to be considered in owning cost calculations for used heavy construction equipment. Its dependency on factors such as manufacturer and model, equipment age, and condition rating can best be examined by analyzing real market data from equipment auctions. Macroeconomic indicators can also be included to examine any potential influence of the overall economy on auction prices. This paper discusses statistical considerations for performing such a residual value analysis. Considerations include the study type, data properties, identifying outlier observations, regression assumptions, and formulating and selecting an appropriate regression model using the adjusted coefficient of determination. A second-order polynomial of equipment age with additive factors appears promising as the final regression model. Adjusted confidence and prediction intervals are created to correctly display residual value. Cross-validation using randomly split halves of the dataset is performed. Actual data for medium track dozers are used to illustrate the validity of the methodology.

Construction professionals do not attribute to accident prevention the same importance as they do to the main (“value adding”) activities. As a result, not enough time and effort are invested in safety issues. Fall from heights (“fall”) is the main cause for fatalities and injuries in construction projects. The objective of the present research is to automate fall prevention procedures. An automated model that identifies the dangerous activities in the project’s schedule was developed. It also defines the areas in the building where these hazards appear, proposes protective activities (guardrails erection), and integrates them into the schedule. Additionally, it constantly compares the planned guardrails (location and time) and the ones actually used on site. The model provides textual and graphical reports and warns when guardrails are missing, are incomplete, or have been partially removed. The model was implemented, tested in an ongoing project, and presented to 14 experts who were asked to evaluate it. The experts’ main conclusions were (1) the model is accurate; (2) the model is a very useful managerial tool in that it identifies all fall hazards, including ones in less visible areas; (3) it enables early detection of fall hazards before and during construction, even during the design stage; and (4) the model is an important managerial, monitoring, and control tool keeping track of all fall hazards and protective measures, and warns when a safety problem occurs.

On-site materials-handling operations are error prone and the errors that occur significantly decrease construction productivity. New technologies and sensing devices can enhance materials-handling management practices on construction job sites. This paper describes a study that aimed to determine the potential benefits of the deployment of global positioning system (GPS) technology within the materials-locating processes on industrial projects. Its main goals were (1) to evaluate the technical feasibility and (2) to quantify the direct benefits in terms of process duration derived from the integration of GPS devices within pipe-locating processes. A field trial was conducted and its results indicated significant time savings. This study also analyzed additional potential benefits derived from the use of GPS in this scenario.

This paper describes the development of linear regression models to predict the construction cost of buildings, based on 286 sets of data collected in the United Kingdom. Raw cost is rejected as a suitable dependent variable and models are developed for $\text{cost}∕{\mathrm{m}}^2$ , log of cost, and log of $\text{cost}∕{\mathrm{m}}^2$ . Both forward and backward stepwise analyses were performed, giving a total of six models. Forty-one potential independent variables were identified. Five variables appeared in each of the six models: gross internal floor area (GIFA), function, duration, mechanical installations, and piling, suggesting that they are the key linear cost drivers in the data. The best regression model is the log of cost backward model which gives an $R^2$ of 0.661 and a mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 19.3%; these results compare favorably with past research which has shown that traditional methods of cost estimation have values of MAPE typically in the order of 25%.

Owners, developers, and engineers are often challenged with determining the value of accelerating the construction of a project. There is a cost for accelerating the construction of a project to reduce the time required to transfer a facility into the operational phase. Determining the cost of acceleration is a difficult challenge with the limited information typically available early in the project development phase. Many unknowns exist (e.g., future revenue, costs, etc.) and the owner, developer, or engineer often make best guesses to justify if building faster is worthwhile. A simple methodology is needed to assess the value of building faster. This paper derives a set of equations that will allow owners, developers, and/or engineers to estimate the percent increase of the baseline project costs to reduce the time to completion of a construction project. The equations were derived such that variables that are easily known or can easily and reliably be determined are required. After the value of accelerating a project is determined (as a percentage of the original baseline budget), owner, developers, and/or engineers can use this information to determine if a project should be accelerated.

The paper provides a synthesis of the construction industry needs and requirements in relation to the adoption and use of information and communication technologies (ICT). This is based, on the one hand, on existing research and technology development initiatives commissioned at a national and European level, and, on the other, on a wide consultation with construction industry key players across Europe. A framework, used as a basis for capturing industry requirements, and formulating an ICT vision, has been defined. Five priority areas have been identified with the potential to solve the ICT related problems of the construction industry, namely: knowledge management, legal and contractual aspects management, quality and performance management, total lifecycle management, and human aspects management. The ICT vision, enabled by addressing these priority areas, has been formulated on a consensus basis, and a detailed roadmap has been developed providing a pragmatic implementation of the proposed vision.

In the modern and dynamic construction environment it is important to access information in a fast and efficient manner in order to improve the decision making processes for construction managers. This capability is, in most cases, straightforward with today’s technologies for data types with an inherent structure that resides primarily on established database structures like estimating and scheduling software. However, previous research has demonstrated that a significant percentage of construction data is stored in semi-structured or unstructured data formats (text, images, etc.) and that manually locating and identifying such data is a very hard and time-consuming task. This paper focuses on construction site image data and presents a novel image retrieval model that interfaces with established construction data management structures. This model is designed to retrieve images from related objects in project models or construction databases using location, date, and material information (extracted from the image content with pattern recognition techniques).

Uncertainty and risk have contributed to the reluctance of U.S. homebuilders to embrace new construction technologies. This paper explores one innovative, but underutilized building technology, structural insulated panels (SIPs), and its impact on the residential construction process. The paper presents findings from a side-by-side case study of the construction of two Habitat for Humanity homes, one SIP and one conventional wood-framing. Although the study focuses on labor productivity and cycle time during framing, other key construction performance metrics are assessed including worker safety, quality/workmanship, material waste, worker skill levels, and equipment requirements. Findings indicate that SIPs saved about two-thirds of the site framing labor for walls and roofs, with cycle time savings of similar magnitude. No significant impacts on other construction performance metrics were observed, however, size of the panels did require a lift truck and construction crane. While conclusions are limited by the scope of the case study, the writers believe that building with SIPs can be very efficient. The paper identifies key actions required of builders and SIP manufacturers to maximize potential benefits.