Journal of Construction Engineering and Management

Best-value (BV) procurement is increasingly used in conventional design-bid-build (DBB) delivery, which raises questions regarding the influence of qualifications-based evaluation criteria when selecting construction contractors. The objectives of this study are to (1) examine BV procurement outcomes that can be expected from DBB projects, (2) determine which evaluation criteria have the greatest dispersion among competing contractors, and (3) identify whether a relationship exists between cost- and qualifications-based proposal submissions. A sample of 162 public institutional BV-procured DBB projects was collected that include evaluation results of 684 contractor proposals. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used, including coefficient of variation and correlation analysis of evaluation criteria. The results show that BV-selected contractors offer substantial qualifications benefits in comparison with lowest- and average-bidder alternatives. Certain qualifications-based criteria, such as technical proposals, contractor interview scores, and safety proposals were found to have a greater dispersion among competing bidders than cost proposals. Contributions of this study to the body of knowledge include a sizable empirical data set of BV-procured DBB projects in the vertical sector and a unit of measure that considers dispersion among competing contractor proposals. In current construction industry practice, it is recommended that project owners consider BV for complex DBB projects and prioritize certain qualifications-based criteria that are well-suited for differentiating between competing contractor proposals.

Normal distribution has been commonly accepted as the probability function for whole project duration estimation. Nevertheless, this assumption does not hold in complex projects with many activities and paths, particularly when there are several paths with similar mean duration to that of the critical path (dominating paths). In such cases, Extreme Value distribution has been suggested in the literature as a good fit, but the tests carried out in this paper show that its practical utility is limited. In this context, this paper develops a strategy to find another candidate distribution function. The methodology to do this consisted of three phases: (1) an extensive set of tests to corroborate whether Normal and Extreme Value distributions actually fit simulated data; negative results were obtained; (2) a new set of tests were performed to determine the mean and standard deviation of simulated data from the project parameters, and the Gamma distribution was proposed as a new candidate; and (3) a new set of tests was performed in order to validate the proposed model. All data have been taken from the Project Scheduling Problem Library (PSPLIB). The results show a good fit of the Gamma distribution in most of the cases, especially when Beta distribution is the underlying distribution of activity durations. The main contribution of this new approach is to give project managers the potential to obtain a more accurate project duration estimation using the same parameters as other traditional methods with no computational cost increase. The proposed model avoids time underestimations and overestimations, which could result in additional project execution costs.

In facing an intensifying labor shortage, construction organizations that can maintain a stable skilled workforce will have a stronger competitive advantage. Using a multiwave survey conducted in the Philippines, this paper investigated the interactive effects of construction workers’ perceptions of supportive leadership and top management teams’ charismatic vision on their job satisfaction, retention intentions, and actual retention. The results revealed that workers are more satisfied with their jobs when they perceive their supervisors as supportive. Job satisfaction, in turn, increased their retention intentions and actual retention behavior. Top management teams’ charismatic vision further enhanced these mediated relationships. Thus, to maintain a stable workforce, construction organizations are advised to invest resources (e.g., establishing education and mentoring programs) in developing supervisors’ supportive leadership skills, ensure the top management team communicates clear organizational vision, and regularly monitor construction workers’ job satisfaction. This research adds to the literature focusing on the antecedents of construction workers’ behavioral and performance outcomes by empirically examining the effect of supervisors’ supportive leadership as well as the critical role of top management team charismatic vision.

Employees hold a range of attitudes and beliefs about their work life. This paper’s contribution to the overall body of knowledge is to further the understanding of how construction professionals’ work values are influenced by generational status. Improved understanding of the relationship between work values and generations can inform construction companies’ support for current employees and recruitment of new employees. This study collected survey data to investigate the work values of construction professionals. The data were explored to examine similarities and differences in responses based on membership in a specific generation (e.g., baby boomer or Generation Xer). Prior research regarding work values and generational status presents mixed findings, with some studies reporting differences and others finding no differences among generations. Analysis of this survey data revealed very few differences among generations, suggesting that construction companies adapting practices based solely on generational status may be doing so to their detriment. The results contribute to the growing body of research that explores generational differences in work values.

The traditional practice of comparing actual productivity versus historical productivity only provides relative efficiency data rather than absolute efficiency data. Innovatively, a two-prong strategy for estimating optimal labor productivity by quantifying systematic and operational inefficiencies allows project managers to estimate the absolute efficiency of their labor-intensive operations and compare actual productivity against an objective benchmark. Although this two-prong strategy was previously validated for a simple task with a single worker performing sequential actions, no study has confirmed the feasibility of applying this approach to complex operations involving multiple workers or sequential and/or parallel tasks and actions. Because adding more workers increases not only the complexity of the construction operation but also the complexity of calculating optimal productivity, this study expands the current body of knowledge by augmenting the two-prong strategy’s methodology to apply the approach to a complex, multiworker operation necessitating both sequential and parallel tasks and actions. The feasibility of the expanded methodology is tested using a case study involving the fabrication of sheet metal ducts that includes 8 workers performing 8 tasks and 45 actions. This paper reviews relevant literature; tests the feasibility of the two-prong strategy on a complex, labor-intensive operation; analyzes the data; evaluates the strategy; and confirms the framework as a tool for accurately estimating optimal productivity in complex construction activities. The success of this framework better enables project managers to measure and manage the productivity of their labor-intensive construction operations.

The Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao bridge–related Hong Kong (HZMB-HK) project consists of a set of boundary crossing facilities and transport links that connect the main bridge (HZMB) to the Hong Kong territory. It is a featured large-scale public infrastructure project that involves construction works done above or near the sea. A number of accidents have occurred since the commencement of the project in November 2011. This study aims to analyze the construction accidents that occurred in the HZMB-HK project during the period from 2012 to the first half of 2017. The methodology comprises both quantitative and qualitative approaches. First, the safety performance of the project was quantitatively measured using three indicators: accident, fatality, and lethality rates. In this regard, it was identified that the safety performance of the project was worse than that of public work contracts and the construction industry in general. It was also found that fall and caught in-between were the deadliest types of accidents in the project. Second, eight fatal incidents that resulted in nine fatalities were qualitatively analyzed on the basis of relevant accident investigation reports. In this regard, it was found that of the nine decedents, five died from drowning. This indicates that working above or near the sea poses a high risk of drowning to construction workers. Furthermore, measures to prevent accidents in large-scale infrastructure projects such as the HZMB-HK project were analyzed in this study. This study adds to the construction safety body of knowledge by analyzing the accidents in a large-scale infrastructure project that involves both land- and sea-based construction works. The lessons from this study could help stakeholders, such as policy makers and practitioners, improve the safety performance of large-scale infrastructure projects worldwide.

Competitive dialogue (CD) is a relatively new procurement procedure introduced in 2004 by the European Parliament for particularly complex contracts. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) has limited experience with the procedure, but they are planning to use it in several future projects. Limited research was found concerning the practical issues of CD. This paper explores the experiences of Norwegian practitioners to identify such issues and suggests measures for the success of future projects using the procedure. In addition to a literature study, a document study and 22 semistructured in-depth interviews with key informants from six cases selected from the Norwegian public infrastructure projects were carried out. Both the client and the suppliers value the potential of CD. However, several challenges were identified, such as lack of practical experience with CD, ethical challenges, determining the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT) criteria, evaluation based on the MEAT criteria, and varying market interest. This paper contributes to construction engineering and management practice to increase the understanding of CD by suggesting what kinds of measures ought to be taken for the success of future projects using the procedure.