Key Assessment Indicators for the Sustainability of Infrastructure Projects

Infrastructure projects have major effects on implementing the principles of sustainable development. Infrastructure projects will continue to be developed in the coming years, particularly in developing countries such as China and India; therefore, it is important to find methods and solutions for improving the sustainability of them. Although existing studies have suggested various methods for practicing sustainable development principles in the process of implementing infrastructure projects, effective assessment indicators are unavailable, which presents a barrier to the effective assessment of infrastructure project sustainability. This study introduces key assessment indicators (KAIs) for assessing the sustainability performance of an infrastructure project. The research data used for analysis were collected from a questionnaire survey given to three groups of experts, including government officials, professionals, and clients in the Chinese construction industry. The fuzzy set theory was used to establish KAIs. A procedure for using the KAIs is demonstrated by a case study. These research findings provide an alternative solution to appraise the sustainability of infrastructure projects.     

Feasibility Study of an Automated Tool for Identifying the Implications of Changes in Construction Projects

Because of the fragmented nature of project information, decisions on changes in construction projects are usually based on project design instead of project requirements. This research proposes a new approach for coping with changes in construction projects: A change control tool (CCT) that will identify implications of a change as soon as it is proposed. The tool will ensure that the stakeholders involved in the decision process in which change proposals are evaluated will know in advance if a change could cause the project to stray from its original goals, as expressed in the requirements. The proposed CCT uses the building program as a link between client requirements and the building design and traces the different relationships that exist between the requirements in the project. The relationships are traced using requirement traceability capabilities on the level of a specific space in the project and on the level of the entire project. A preliminary CCT model was developed and pilot studies implementing the model have been conducted. The pilot studies have given positive results, indicating that the CCT could identify the scope of the proposed changes’ implications.     

Effect of Delivery Methods on Design Performance in Multifamily Housing Projects

Existing studies on the performance evaluation by the delivery method generally indicate that the design build (DB) method is superior to the design-bid-build (DBB) method in terms of construction duration, cost, and quality. As opposed to the performance of construction duration and cost, where quantitative evaluation is relatively possible, most performance evaluations of quality are based on interviews with the owners. Therefore, this paper aimed at evaluating the level of design performance to conduct a quantitative evaluation on the performance of quality. To achieve this goal, this paper analyzed the impact of delivery methods on design performance in terms of the quantitative evaluation based on the case studies analyzing construction drawings and specifications of public multifamily housing projects delivered through the DB and DBB methods since 2000. The Delphi and analytic hierarchy process methods were used to develop objective standards and contents for evaluating the design performance. An analysis of variance test was conducted to analyze which delivery methods would have an effect on the design performance. Construction industry practitioners can use the results of this study in selecting a delivery method appropriate to the project characteristics.     

Demystifying Moderate Variables of the Interrelationships among Affective Commitment, Job Performance, and Job Satisfaction of Construction Professionals

Project goals expressed in terms of time, cost, and quality requirements are seldom disputed. However, it is not easy to ensure that the defined goals will be implemented by all parties involved in the implementation process as goal commitment is one of the key variables in project success and participant satisfaction in construction projects. In order to ensure professional commitment in the management process and optimize construction performance in the complex situation, it is necessary to identify the moderate variables and clarify the interactions among affective commitment, job performance, and job satisfaction of construction professionals. A questionnaire survey was conducted in Hong Kong. Both correlation analysis and hierarchical regression models were applied. The results revealed that both job acceptance/contribution and specificity/teamwork are moderate variables influencing the relationships between affective commitment and job performance and between job performance and job satisfaction. A series of conditional relationships is revealed in detail in this study and some suggestions, such as formal briefing sessions, regular formal meeting, and value engineering workshop, are recommended.     

Review of the LEED Points Obtained by Canadian Building Projects

The expansion and advancement of businesses, cities, municipalities, and populations in Canada are increasingly demanding the effective usage of land and resources in building development. Companies, organizations, and individuals are seeking to construct more environmentally responsible buildings to help minimize the negative effects that structures place on the natural environment, as well as on the people that have either direct or indirect contact with them. In an effort to set a benchmark for what constitutes a green building, the Canada Green Building Council provides a certification system called Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), which is a point scheme that seeks to measure sustainability. Many stakeholders in the construction industry in Canada are increasingly employing this system to validate their achievement in sustainable development. This paper reviews the usage of the LEED system in Canadian building construction and the potential challenges and barriers associated with LEED implementation that specifically pertain to Canadian circumstances. Information from 42 new construction projects across Canada that achieved LEED certification were collected and analyzed. The points most often awarded, as well as those that are granted the least frequently, were tabulated. The percentages of points obtained were compared to American projects. Credit frequency indicators (CFIs), which were used to depict the achievement of credits by each project, can provide decision makers with information on credits awarded in the past and insight into credit implementation in future projects with similar goals. The energy and atmosphere and materials and resources categories proved to have the lowest CFIs, whereas the innovation and design process and water efficiency categories yielded the highest CFIs. The study also found that there were differences in the points obtained by LEED projects in Canada and the United States as some credits are influenced by climate, such as weather and temperature, as well as regional location.     

Developing a Performance Index for Relationship-Based Construction Projects in Australia: Delphi Study

Over the past decade, an increasing trend of client organizations has been observed to adopt relationship-based approaches to run their building and construction projects internationally. Since there are numerous benefits of adopting relationship-based projects in construction, it is important to conduct research in the area of key performance indicators (KPIs) because it can help set a benchmark for measuring the performance of relationship-based projects. Nevertheless, few, if any, comprehensive and systematic research studies in this area have been conducted. This paper reports an empirical study which applies the Delphi survey technique to formulate a model to assess the success of relationship-based construction projects in Australia. Four rounds of Delphi survey questionnaires were conducted with 22 construction experts in Australia. The Delphi survey selected eight KPIs to evaluate the success of relationship-based projects in Australia. These KPIs included: (1) client’s satisfaction; (2) cost performance; (3) quality performance; (4) time performance; (5) effective communications; (6) safety performance; (7) trust and respect; and (8) innovation and improvement. A statistically significant consensus on the eight selected KPIs was also obtained from the Delphi experts. A formula for calculating a performance index for relationship-based projects in Australia has been finally derived. Construction senior executives and project managers can use the index to measure, monitor, and improve the performance of their individual relationship-based projects. It also broadens the existing body of knowledge of both academics and practitioners in the construction industry because the research method could be replicated in other geographical locations to create similar indices for international comparisons, thus assisting in the understanding of managing relationship-based projects across different countries.     

Using Weibull Analysis for Evaluation of Cost and Schedule Performance

Large amounts of money are lost each year in the construction industry because of poor schedule and cost control. Few contractors specify and follow systematic schedule monitoring practices. Traditionally, the earned value method (EVM) is used to control and monitor schedule performance using the schedule and cost performance indices which compare the budgeted cost of work performed to what was originally scheduled or what is actually expended. This paper presents a statistical approach, namely Weibull analysis, to evaluate stochastically the schedule performance of construction or design projects. The approach can be used in conjunction with the EVM to enhance the evaluation and control of schedule performance. Weibull analysis is a common method for failure analysis and reliability engineering used in a wide range of applications. In this paper, the applicability of Weibull analysis for evaluating and comparing the reliability of the schedule performance of multiple projects is presented. The various steps in the analysis are discussed along with an example in which two projects are analyzed and compared. The authors conclude that Weibull analysis has several advantages and provides a relatively robust and effective method for construction managers to better control and monitor their projects.     

Six Sigma-Based Approach to Improve Performance in Construction Operations

Many researchers and project managers have attempted to improve project performance by applying new philosophies such as lean principle, just-in-time, pull scheduling, and last planner. However, very little research has been conducted on setting definite quantitative goals for performance improvement while considering the defect rate involved in the construction operations. This research explores practical solutions for construction performance improvement by applying the six sigma principle. This principle provides the metrics required to establish performance improvement goals and a methodology for measuring and evaluating improvement. The proposed approach is expected to achieve more reliable workflows by reducing process variability to fit in a desirable range—thereby improving the overall performance through the evaluation of the quality level in current construction operations. To verify the suggested methodology, two case studies have been presented and process simulation analyses are performed to observe the performance changes based on the six sigma principle. Critical total quality control, as the sigma level rises, is also discussed.     

Empire State Building Project: Archetype of “Mass Construction”

Analysis of historical projects, with the dual benefits of hindsight and modern concepts of construction systems, can help fill the gaps in our theoretical understanding of production in construction, which have increasingly been identified as a barrier to progress in improving construction project management. The richness of the historical record describing construction of the Empire State Building provides a unique opportunity to analyze and compare it with the paradigms of craft, industrialized, and lean construction. Its size and its record rate of construction, which has not been broken since for tall buildings, make it of prime interest. The project progress was reconstructed using line-of-balance software and its different flows were assessed. The results lead to the conclusion that it is an archetypal example of what we propose be called “mass construction.” This enables a richer understanding of the taxonomy of production systems in construction, and should aid theoreticians and practitioners alike to devise better production systems for construction projects.     

Construction Management Program

The typical limitations of the existing construction management programs are the lack of an integrated approach to managerial decisions in real life construction environment, not enough emphasis on engineering design, construction methods and communication skills, and poor coordination between the undergraduate and the graduate studies. An effective construction management program should. integrate teaching on undergraduate and graduate levels and research. On the undergraduate level it should provide the students with a good insight into all managerial tasks in civil engineering projects. On the graduate level it should allow specialization in the various areas of interest both to the practicing engineers and also to students who wish to pursue an academic career. The program should strongly interact with research and engineering practice.     

Web-Enabled System Dynamics Model for Error and Change Management on Concurrent Design and Construction Projects

Construction projects are uncertain and complex in nature often because of iterative cycles caused by errors and changes. These errors and changes impair project performance and, consequently, cause schedule and cost overruns to be prevalent. Iterative cycles are more detrimental when design and construction are concurrent and often force activities to proceed without complete information. In an effort to address this issue, this paper presents the information technology aspect of the dynamic planning and control methodology (DPM), which provides a mechanism that will analyze the impact of negative iterative cycles on construction performance. In order to guarantee a smooth application of this method to real-world projects, DPM has been developed by integrating several existing methods around a core system dynamic model for quality and change management and then implementing these methods into a web-based collaborative environment. A case project, applying the developed web-based DPM, shows great potential in facilitating on-site decision making by virtue of its support of data analysis as well as real-time information sharing.     

Multiperspective Approach to Exploring Comprehensive Cause Factors for Interface Issues

The severity of interface issues and the necessity of interface management (IM) have not received adequate recognition from both industry and academia. The understanding of interface issues is still insufficient and the proposed or employed measures are unilateral, which result in unsatisfactory IM performance in construction projects. After establishing IM’s importance in the construction industry, this paper presents a multiperspective approach that systematically explores comprehensive cause factors for various interface issues. From six interrelated perspectives, namely people/participants, methods/processes, resources, documentation, project management, and environment, hierarchical cause factors are identified and presented in a structured way. These cause factors are further converted into a series of interface management and control elements that allow for the development of an object data model and a systematic model-based IM strategy dealing with all interface issues. The multiperspective approach outperforms other research methods that analyze selected interface issues in a loose and isolated way. The findings contribute a holistic view of what causes interface issues as well as provide a solid theoretical basis for practitioners and researchers to seek all-around IM solutions.     

Causes of Bad Profit in Overseas Construction Projects

International construction projects do not necessarily produce a high level of profit, as opposed to what is generally expected of high-risk international attempts. Overseas construction projects tend to have various risk factors that can diminish project profitability. This paper provides a comprehensive hierarchical framework to investigate the cause-and-effect relationships of various profit-influencing factors for international construction projects. After long-term profitability trends are analyzed based on a total of 3,487 international projects performed by Korean global contractors during the last 4 decades, case surveys of 126 overseas projects are conducted to draw the criticalities of each factor and to develop a hierarchical framework. An in-depth comparative case study of 20 additional international projects is also performed to verify the applicability of the hierarchical framework. Finally, we present significant distinctions between successful and failed projects from the comparative case study.     

Isolated Collapsed But-For Delay Analysis Methodology

Schedule delays are common in construction projects. Although many methods have been developed for analyzing and measuring schedule delays for construction projects, each method has functional limitations and use prerequisites. No one method is acceptable for all project participants under all circumstances. This study presents the isolated collapsed but-for (ICBF) method, an innovative delay analysis method for construction projects. During analysis, the ICBF method requires as-planned and as-built schedules as well as identified liability documents with key delay events to perform its analysis approach. Based on its application to an illustrative case and comparisons with other methods, the ICBF method is effective for delay analysis. Results provided by the proposed method can be easily traced to the actual case in an as-built schedule.     

Project Delivery Systems and Project Change: Quantitative Analysis

Design/build has become one of the favored project delivery methods in the engineering construction industry. Numerous studies have advocated the use of design/build over the traditional design/bid/build delivery approach. A comprehensive analysis of 67 global projects from the Construction Industry Institute's database shows that design/build projects may not provide all the benefits to project performance. The study found timesaving was a definitive advantage of design/build project delivery, but, the positive effects of cost and productivity changes were not convincing. Based on the results of the study, the project management expertise and experience of the contractor may have a greater impact on project performance outcomes than focusing on project delivery strategy only.     

Arbitral Tribunal Proceedings Case Study: Egyptian Large-Scale Construction Project

This paper investigates how arbitration is used as a dispute resolution mechanism in Egyptian large scale construction projects and what are the types of issues that construction professionals should address when they encounter claims in the Egyptian construction market. To meet the goals and objectives of this study, a research project was conducted to study the arbitration process for a dispute that was in excess of $31 million, which arose out as a result of the proceeds of a large-scale project with an original contact price of $85 million that was constructed in Cairo, Egypt. This research project analytically investigated the background of the conflicts, the arbitral proceedings, and the award issued by the arbitral tribunal. Based on such thorough study, it was concluded that arbitration did not provide a timely and cost-effective resolution for the said dispute. Moreover, the same study has raised questions in relation to the overall management of megaconstruction projects in Egypt namely: (1) the impartiality of project managers; (2) the magnitude of change orders and consequent delays; (3) the magnitude of claimed amounts; and (4) the level of management and administration of claims and disputes. It is perceived that this paper would trigger professionals to think of other suitable dispute resolution mechanisms, such as dispute review boards, for settlement of claims arising from Egyptian large scale construction projects. Furthermore, this study would be of value for contractors and owners who intend to work in the Egyptian construction market.     

Procurement Routes in Public Building and Construction Projects

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.     

Construction Planning Method Using Case-Based Reasoning (CONPLA-CBR)

During the construction process, there occur many unexpected events that hinder timely completion of a project. One plausible solution in formulating a robust plan against such uncertainties is to provide the proper construction duration by utilizing as-built schedules in which past events are stored for similar future projects. Many schedulers thus develop schedules based on similar past schedules, taking into consideration the dynamic construction environment. As a result, construction schedulers normally refer to similar past schedules for their current projects. Few studies on the reuse of past schedules using case-based reasoning (CBR) have been conducted, and those that are available are limited to specific areas of construction such as apartment-building construction and boiler manufacturing. This research has an emphasis on developing a CBR-based general planning tool with higher applicability, which consists of generic attributes with the capability to be customized to the given project. To address this issue, construction planning by CBR (CONPLA-CBR) is presented as a generic planning tool for various types of construction projects. CONPLA-CBR, with the dynamic case approach and construction schedule data mart, also developed in this research, helps schedulers to utilize past schedules. CONPLA-CBR was not only verified to be of practical utility by experts, but also, because it uses past cases to which the successor relationships pertain, it does not require users to input all relationships. Whereas the proposed CONPLA-CBR generates master schedules at the preconstruction stage, its concept can also be applied to the construction stages to generate more detailed, for example, weekly or monthly, schedules. Thereby, CONPLA-CBR would enhance construction performance through the increased application of CBR in construction.     

Partnering on Defense Contracts

Contracting on government construction projects has historically been structured and adversarial. The decade of the 1990s saw the advent of a new attitude in government contracting that emulated success stories from the private sector. After witnessing several high-profile success stories such as constructing the Atlanta Olympic Park, the government embraced the concept of partnering as a primary method of contract administration. The private sector consistently demonstrated an ability to contract for services while realizing a marked decrease in claims and litigation costs with partnering. Their success was founded in the building of trust within the project team by creating a common bond between previously dissociated parties. This was achieved through developing a mutual understanding of the other parties’ interests and goals in the project while maintaining a team focus on the ultimate goal of a successful project. The government espied partnering as a way to improve its relationships with contractors and reduce the volume of litigation that seemed to only be increasing in the industry. The government began a paradigm shift by instilling a new attitude of openness and communication with contractors as well as implementing several broad contract administration changes. This paper examines the process of partnering, its key elements and core competencies, and how various agencies apply these principles in their construction management. The paper further researches stakeholder goals and important issues when entering into a partnering relationship on government contracts and what barriers are perceived that preclude the process from working as effectively as possible.     

Reliability and Stability Buffering Approach: Focusing on the Issues of Errors and Changes in Concurrent Design and Construction Projects

This paper proposes a new buffering approach, reliability and stability buffering, as a means to reduce uncertainty caused by errors and changes, in particular, when concurrent design and construction is applied to an infrastructure project. The proposed buffering provides a proactive mechanism to protect the planned performance of a project with a flexibly located and systemically sized buffer. For its implementation, the reliability and stability buffering is incorporated into a dynamic design and construction project model, which simulates the impacts of errors and changes on design and construction performance and evaluates the effectiveness of the proposed buffers. Applying this buffering approach into the infrastructure project in Massachusetts, this paper concludes that (1) the amount of hidden errors and latent changes was reduced; (2) the flexibly located and distributed buffers helped identify the predecessors’ errors and changes in concurrent design and construction; (3) the impacts of hidden errors and changes were minimized, preventing their ripple effect on the succeeding activities; and (4) the quality of the coordination process was increased. Thus it shows great potential to protect design and construction performance against uncertainty in concurrent design and construction delivery of civil infrastructure projects. Such benefit obtained from the proposed buffering should be relevant to researchers and practitioners because it provides the base for future investigation for the strategic utilization of schedule buffers in an uncertain environment as well as the guideline for their effective use in practice.