Journal of Construction Engineering and Management

Individual contractors exhibit different bidding behaviors when confronted with a given set of project decision environment factors, i.e., heterogeneity in the population of contractors. In examining the tenability of the bidder homogeneity assumption, a linear mixed modeling approach is applied to two data sets obtained from Hong Kong and Singapore contractors via a bidding experiment. Two linear mixed models were developed by relating the contractors’ mark-up decision to four project decision environment factors, namely, (1) market conditions; (2) number of bidders; (3) project type; and (4) project size. The results show that not only is there a significant heterogeneity between the Hong Kong and the Singapore contractors in terms of both their preferences (intercepts) and responses (slopes) to the project decision environment factors that affect their mark-up decision, but also that the individual Hong Kong and Singapore contractors have different degrees of sensitivity toward the project decision environment factors (which is reflected in the varying individual-specific intercepts and slopes). These individual-specific parameter estimates have implications for managerial action in formulating a firm’s competitive strategies.

With the increasing demands for domain-wide integrated construction and infrastructure development, there is a need for developing a domain ontology to build a knowledge model that describes the multistakeholder project development process. This paper presents a domain ontology for supporting knowledge-enabled process management and coordination across various stakeholders, disciplines, and projects. The ontological model is composed of concepts, relations, and axioms. Concepts represent the “things” in the domain of interest; relations establish the interconcept links; and axioms specify the definitions of concepts and relations and constraints on their behavior and interpretation. The ontology models the most fundamental concepts in the domain in a structured, extendable, and flexible format to facilitate future evolution and extension of the ontology for representing application-specific and/or enterprise-specific knowledge. The ontology was evaluated through technical evaluation and user evaluation. User evaluation was conducted through one-to-one expert evaluation interviews.

Over the years of the study (1999–2004) presented in this paper, the City of Edmonton, Canada’s Drainage and Maintenance Department has experienced an annual increase of about 12% in the installation of water and sewer services for residential facilities. According to the current estimating procedure, a discrepancy of up to 60% exists between the estimated and actual costs of these projects. A detailed analysis of all activities involved in the installation of the water and sewer services has been carried out and is presented in this paper. The proposed methodology, which is based upon the analysis of past data obtained from the City of Edmonton’s drainage division for the period of 1999–2004, is also presented. The methodology has been incorporated into a computer module, which integrates the concept of artificial neural network (ANN) with the current estimating system used by the City of Edmonton. The following research includes a description of the algorithm used in ANN, as well as an assessment of past data obtained from the city record for over 800 jobs (cases) performed over the period of the study.

This paper introduces an extant, theoretical, social-psychological model that explains the sense-making processes of project managers confronted with a new technology to improve our understanding of project-based innovation processes. The model represents the interlinked processes through which project managers decide to implement new technologies on their projects according to the outcomes of these sense-making processes. The paper validates the model against observations gathered in four case studies of technology implementation on construction projects. Doing so, it assesses the general usefulness of the model to explain the success of technology implementation dynamics in project teams. The paper also derives a number of management suggestions from the model: for example, project managers should focus squarely on the immediate benefits of the technology in improving work processes on the project instead of focusing on long-term strategic firm or industry benefits.

The goal of this research is to conduct a comparative investigation of the performance of minority/disadvantaged/women business enterprise (MBE/DBE/WBE) versus non-MBE/DBE/WBE companies in transportation projects. A performance assessment model was developed in a survey format following review of contemporary performance measurement tools. The survey was administered to prequalified MBE/DBE/WBE and non-MBE/DBE/WBE companies in transportation projects nationwide. The names and addresses of these companies were obtained from U.S. DOT websites. Comparisons between the two groups were made using the Mann-Whitney test. When the test was administered to the entire group regardless of firm size and age, non-MBE/DBE/WBE companies outperformed MBE/DBE/WBE companies. However, MBE/DBE/WBE companies were smaller and had been in business for fewer years than non-MBE/DBE/WBE companies. When MBE/DBE/WBE and non-MBE/DBE/WBE companies of similar size and age were compared, the study revealed that there are no significant differences in performance.

Although various factors have been identified as important for accomplishing successful stakeholder management, few studies appear to have undertaken a comparative analysis of practitioners’ views on the relative importance of critical success factors (CSFs) for stakeholder management in construction projects. In an attempt to fill this research gap, a questionnaire survey was conducted in Hong Kong to collect the opinions of construction practitioners regarding the relative importance of CSFs for stakeholder management. Findings from this study show that all 15 selected CSFs are regarded as critical by most respondents for the success of stakeholder management in construction projects. The factor regarding social responsibilities is considered most important for managing stakeholders. Although correlations between CSFs and types of projects and organizations were statistically significant, these were not particularly strong. Also, even though there is a general consensus on the rankings of the CSFs among different respondents, the detailed pairwise comparisons actually show the existence of a few differences in perceptions on the relative importance of the CSFs. Therefore, the working priorities of project managers for managing stakeholders are context specific, depending on the nature, client sector, and cost of the project, and also on their organizations and management levels in the organization. These findings should help project managers become more aware of their responsibilities and the relative importance of issues for management stakeholders.

Since redundant relationships in an activity-on-node (AON) project network indicate that the schedule is more complex than it actually is, they should not be considered when evaluating the schedule complexity. However, identifying the relationships that can be removed while maintaining the project logic is not an easy task. For this purpose, this paper proposes a methodology, adapted from interpretive structural modeling, that basically transforms an AON project network into a network called minimum-edge diagraph which contains no redundant relationships. The methodology steps are explained through a demonstrative example of a simple hypothetical project. The application of the methodology to the AON network of a real construction project shows that it is easy to use yet effective in removing redundant relationships.

The large-scale and catastrophic impacts of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 challenged the efficacy of traditional postdisaster temporary housing methods. To address these challenges, the U.S. Congress appropriated $400 million to the Department of Homeland Security to support alternative housing pilot programs, which encourage innovative housing solutions that will facilitate sustainable and permanent affordable housing in addition to serving as temporary housing. Facilitating and maximizing the sustainability of postdisaster alternative housing is an important objective that has significant social, economic, and environmental impacts. This paper presents the development of a novel optimization model that is capable of (1) evaluating the sustainability of integrated housing recovery efforts under the alternative housing pilot program and (2) identifying the housing projects that maximize sustainability. An application example is analyzed to demonstrate the use of the developed model and its unique capabilities in maximizing the sustainability of integrated housing recovery efforts after natural disasters.

The design of formworks for holding fresh concrete possesses a difficult engineering challenge. Present standards assume fresh concrete to have a nonviscous fluid behavior when calculating the lateral pressure to which the formwork walls will be the subject. This paper describes a finite-element model to determine these pressures, taking into account the interaction between the fresh concrete and the formwork wall. The use of this numerical model shows that present standards may underestimate the lateral pressures that can be exerted particularly with respect to tall formworks. The paper also discusses the influence of different mechanical variables on the results returned by the proposed model. The proposed model may be of use to practicing engineers and of interest to researchers examining load distributions in formworks.

The internal rate of return (IRR) is a common financial indicator for private finance initiative (PFI) projects. Due to the long and complicated cash flow nature of PFI projects, more plausible IRR techniques are necessary for appropriate project evaluation and ranking. However, not all the published articles researching on IRR techniques are reliable. Given the importance of computing the profitability of PFI projects, this paper is intended to introduce three reliable IRR methods, which are proven to be consistent with net present value. Examples are used to illustrate their utility. The paper is of high value as it guides industry’s practitioners to use proper IRR methods for selecting PFI projects. It also provides academic researchers a platform to explore more robust methods.