Replacement of the Movable Span of the Thames River Bridge: How 19th Century Technology Impacted 21st Century Construction

The replacement of the Thames River Railroad Bridge between Groton and New London, Connecticut, was a challenging task on many levels, some of them anticipated, some of them not. The effort culminated with an outage that stopped the most heavily used passenger rail service in the United States for 4?days and blocked navigation for industrial and national defense waterway users. Unanticipated foundation problems added an additional set of challenges. All challenges were successfully overcome with a spirit of cooperation and innovation by all involved. Advances in information technology after completion of the project led to the discovery of lost information that could have warned the project team of problems to come had that knowledge been available at the start of the project.     

DRB Enhanced Partnering on the Marquette Interchange: Case Study

Completion of the Marquette Interchange Reconstruction project by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) under budget, ahead of schedule, and with no construction claims at the end of construction was a significant achievement and details of how it was accomplished provide valuable lessons for other public works projects. A standing Dispute Review Board (DRB) ensured that disputes did not linger and affect working relationships, use of partnering ensured effective communication between WisDOT and the contractor, and combining the two by having the DRB chair as an active participant in the partnering effort were identified as being vital to the success of the Core project. This paper describes the contractual establishment of the DRB, the formation and operation of the panel throughout the duration of the project, details of partnering participation requirements and utilization, and then identifies how the two programs were linked by mutual agreement between WisDOT and the prime contractor and worked jointly.     

Infrastructure of Partnering for Construction Projects

This paper highlights the importance of establishing an infrastructure for partnering. First, a structure of partnering is suggested. The structure represents the ability to develop and disseminate resources that can be shared among involved parties in the partnering organization. Second, an infrastructure of partnering is described. It has some core functions, such as receiving, storing, retrieving, coding, etc., and supports the running of partnering in a real environment as well as a virtual environment. Workshops are essential for face-to-face contacts in a real environment while computerization helps to facilitate interaction between parties in a virtual environment. Also, a computer-based network terminal and a codification system are presented. Finally, two cases are presented to illustrate the current practices of construction partnering and justify the functions of the infrastructure. Some practical implications are provided to make the infrastructure more available to the construction industry.     

Achieving Partnering Success through an Incentive Agreement: Lessons Learned from an Underground Railway Extension Project in Hong Kong

Over the years, it has been observed that partnering has been ineffectively implemented in the public sector of Hong Kong. Contributing factors to this lack of success are nature and the large size of bureaucratic organizations and commercial pressure compromising the partnering attitude. The Mass Transit Railway Corporation Limited (MTRCL), one of the prominent pioneers in adopting project partnering in the infrastructure sector of Hong Kong since 1999, however, implemented the partnering principle with significant success. This paper, based on a recently completed research project funded by the Construction Industry Institute?Hong Kong in late 2004 and a followup in-depth interview meeting with senior executives of MTRCL in early June 2005, analyzes the rationale behind the successful development of partnering culture in the infrastructure sector of Hong Kong through a case study—the Tseung Kwan O Railway Extension (TKE) Contract 654—platform screen doors. The project comprises the supply and installation of platform screen doors along the whole MTRCL’s TKE with five stations. This project was analyzed by means of the project documentation and face-to-face interviews with the project representatives, comparisons with another five partnering case studies, and a followup in-depth interview meeting with another two senior executives of MTRCL. After the analysis, it was found that the implementation of partnering together with an incentive agreement (IA), a kind of target cost (TC) contract, underpinned the partnering success of this project. Therefore, it is recommended that partnering together with TC contracts, such as IA, greatly assists in the achievement of construction excellence, and can provide a workable model for enhancing overall project performance in electrical and mechanical projects.     

Integrated Project Delivery Case Study: Guidelines for Drafting Partnering Contract

This paper presents a case study through which a multinational contracting firm aimed to introduce integrated project delivery through strategic partnering into its industry operations. The study reports on a research carried out by the author on behalf of the firm to set out series of principles and guidelines to consider when drafting a standard partnering contract whereby the owner, contractor, suppliers, and manufacturers collaboratively work together under the same terms and conditions. A partnering contract would never, on its own, change the culture and environment of the construction process and thus, strategic partnering should be promoted not only at project specific activities but at all organizational activities. Based on this project, the paper presents a list of ten managerial and contractual issues to promote strategic partnering. The author hopes that the results of this case study would foster legal professionals toward drafting a modern partnering contract, which should help in developing a more effective and efficient contracting environment.     

Partnering Mechanism in Construction: An Empirical Study on the Chinese Construction Industry

Partnering and its principles have increasingly been introduced to the construction industry to improve the efficiency of project delivery. However, little research outlines the mechanism behind its application. This paper presents the findings of a study that was conducted to develop and test a partnering model that reveals the relationships between the critical success factors (CSFs) of partnering and demonstrates their importance to construction. With support of data collected from the Chinese construction industry, this study has revealed strong correlations among partnering CSFs, risk management, total quality management (TQM), use of incentives, and project performance. It is concluded that project success is the outcome of the interaction between a variety of techniques, and that partnering, associated with incentives, is a basic management method through which risk management and TQM can be strongly improved.     

Exploring Critical Success Factors for Partnering in Construction Projects

The construction industry is a very competitive high-risk business. Many problems, such as little cooperation, lack of trust, and ineffective communication resulting in adversarial relationships between contracting parties, are facing the construction industry. Partnering is perhaps one of the most innovative developments in delivering a project efficiently and reducing construction disputes. It provides a sound basis for a “win-win” climate and synergistic teamwork. Project partnering in the Hong Kong construction industry has gained in popularity since 1994. A number of potential factors contributing to partnering success have emerged and deserve further study. This paper presents a review of the development of the partnering concept in general and identifies critical success factors for partnering projects from the Hong Kong perspective in particular. Through a postal questionnaire survey geared toward project participants with hands-on partnering experience, the opinions of various parties—clients, consultants, and contractors were sought and evaluated in relation to partnering success factors. The relationship between the perception of partnering success and a set of success factors hypothesized in the study was derived using factor analysis and multiple regression. The results indicated that certain requirements must be met for partnering to succeed. In particular, the establishment and communication of a conflict resolution strategy, a willingness to share resources among project participants, a clear definition of responsibilities, a commitment to a win-win attitude, and regular monitoring of partnering process were believed to be the significant underlying factors for partnering success. Such an identification of success factors could well formulate effective strategies for minimizing construction conflicts and improving project performance.     

Efficacy of Partnering on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project: Empirical Evidence of Collaborative Problem-Solving Benefits

This paper examines the large body of partnering rating data collected during more than 8 years of partnered construction contracts on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge replacement project. The writers report that partnering efficacy, as measured by “collaboration,” was not predetermined by bid results or regional/national distinctions between construction contractors. The data show that good partnering is strongly associated with team satisfaction with budget and schedule results. The correlation among these indicators is not “proof” of the effectiveness of partnering. However, had the analysis shown negative correlations where positive correlations were expected, enthusiasm for construction partnering would certainly have suffered a blow.     

Enhancing Total Quality Management by Partnering in Construction

Total quality management (TQM) has increasingly been introduced into the construction industry across many countries as an improvement strategy, but there are many barriers impeding its effectiveness in implementation. Many researchers pointed out that partnering can facilitate TQM application, yet the quintessential nature on the linkage between the two techniques is still not clear due to a lack of rigorous verifiable empirical evidence. With support of the data collected from a survey of the Chinese construction industry, together with a case study of the Three Gorges Dam Project, this study reveals the mechanism of how partnering, associated with incentives, can enhance the implementation of TQM into the construction industry. It is concluded that partnering can enhance TQM largely due to enhancing the links across the boundaries of organizations within a trust environment; and the impacts of incentives on TQM are through both aligning strong motivations to encourage participants using the established links efficiently and aligning the necessary financial resources for participants to directly assist the investment on improving TQM. Further studies should be conducted to build optimum links and alignments among all project participants to ensure intraorganizational TQM activities are congruent with the interorganizational interactions, which require future project organizations to change in order to fit this.     

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.     

Partnering Process Model for Public-Sector Fast-Track Design-Build Projects in Korea

The use of design-build project delivery in the public sector has increased rapidly since the early 1990s due to its advantages over traditional delivery methods, particularly in terms of shortening the overall project duration. Fast-track approaches are being applied to design-build projects to achieve the optimum schedule durations. While both fast-track projects and design-build project have been researched separately in the past, there is little published research on how they are truly integrated. Likewise, the research has shown the merits of partnering in design-build and fast-track projects separately, but not in an integrated model. The purpose of this study is to develop a fast-track partnering process model (FTPPM) that combines the fast-track approach with the partnering concept. The model is based on the analysis of the factors that influence successful fast-track processes. Seven key success vehicles were discovered using the factor analysis method. The FTPPM is composed of the preparation stage, the fast-track workshop stage, and the detailed design and construction stage. The activities for each stage for fast-track implementation are developed in consideration with seven key success vehicles for fast-track projects.     

Improved Subcontractor Selection Employing Partnering Principles

Despite the increasing extent of subcontracting in construction, the importance of subcontractor selection is frequently underestimated. While the subcontracting element needs more attention in contractor selection itself, subcontractor selection techniques themselves need considerable improvements. This paper examines how such techniques can beneficially draw from improved multicriteria contractor selection methodologies in general, and specifically from recent developments in client-contractor partnering. It is shown how partnering may be profitably extended further into the supply chain, i.e., into subcontractor selection. A European case study illustrates the development of a subcontractor selection process that incorporated partnering principles. Despite the longer and costlier selection process, it was found that subcontractor pricing levels were reduced by about 10% to account for anticipated efficiencies arising from the proposed partnering. Markedly better time and cost control was achieved on the pilot project. The relationships between all project participants were also found to have improved considerably. Such observations confirm the value (1) of expanding the partnering “envelope” to encompass subcontractors in general; and more specifically, (2) of assessing the potential for such extended partnering as an integral part of the subcontractor selection process.     

Contractor as Trust Initiator in Construction Partnering—Prisoner’s Dilemma Perspective

Partnering has been advocated for use in construction as a project-delivery approach to curb dispute and enable a cooperative contracting environment. Successful construction partnering is perceived to derive benefits to both developers and contractors. In view of significant implications to successful project delivery, there has been a surge of research and studies on construction partnering. These studies typically focus on the partnering process as well as the identification of critical success factors. Among the various success factors that underpin partnering success, establishing trust among partners is considered the most important. Moreover, skeptics have been swift to point out that establishing trust in construction is daunting. A better understanding of the role of trust and its manifestation in partnering efforts is therefore of both academic and practical value. In this study, motivating trust in construction partnering is described within the classic framework of “the prisoner’s dilemma,” which suggests the trust cycle can be kick-started if construction partners put cooperation before competition and self-interest. This paper reports a study that is designed to suggest a suitable candidate for the trust initiator. As such, the critical trust factors for two groups of construction partners in Hong Kong—developers/consultants and contractors—are first identified. It is found that “performance” and “permeability” of partners are the two most critical trust factors. “Performance” describes the partner’s competence and problem-solving ability as perceived by their counterpart. “Permeability” reflects the partner’s openness in sharing information. The result of a multiple-regression analysis further suggests that the contractor is in a position to initiate trust through competent performance and maintaining effective communication with the client. In this manner, the trust cycle can expand with reciprocal trustworthiness from the client.     

Quantitative Analysis of Partnered Project Performance

Partnering is a technique that has become the construction industry's application of total quality management and enjoys widespread use throughout the industry. This paper details the results of a statistical analysis of over 400 Texas Department of Transportation construction projects worth a total investment of nearly $2.1 billion. Half the projects were completed under partnering agreements. After comparing the two groups of projects, the paper concludes that partnering promises to furnish a means to control the two prime project performance indicators—cost growth and time growth. Additionally, in a large construction program the continuous application of partnering will result in improved project performance across the entire program.     

Establishment of Critical Success Factors for Construction Partnering

Research into the use of partnering in construction has become ubiquitous; however, a framework is needed that can be used to identify critical success factors (CSFs) that contribute to the successful use of partnering in projects. Based on a review of the partnering literature within the management discipline, a partnering framework has been developed to identify the CSFs for construction parties implementing partnering arrangements. The framework highlights the influence of contextual characteristics and management skills on partnering success. The CSFs identified and discussed in the framework are effective communication, conflict resolution, adequate resources, management support, mutual trust, long-term commitment, coordination, and creativity. The degree of success of partnering can be determined by subjective measures (e.g., perceived satisfaction of partners' expectations) and objective measures (e.g., cost variation and rejection of work). A case for initiating partnering is also presented, together with some general guidelines.     

New Project Procurement Process

In the United Kingdom, partnering was proposed by Sir Michael Latham as a means of achieving 30% cost savings in a suitable organizational climate. How this is achieved within the construction industry involves not only a mutuality of purpose between project personnel, but appropriately applied methods of process. This paper addresses the issues surrounding the way forward in partnering. By applying systematic processes to selecting partners on a short-term construction project, a case study demonstrates that cooperative working can be developed and conflict can be avoided. A unique and rigorous selection methodology known as the project delivery process was adopted for the Forton Lake Opening Bridge Millennium project in the United Kingdom, and demonstrates how significant improvements may be achieved in line with worldwide improvement targets.     

Application of solute drag theory to model ferrite formation in multiphase steels

In novel multiphase steels for automotive applications, alloying elements are usually employed to control the austenite-ferrite transformation, in order to produce microstructures with an excellent combination of strength and formability. A revised austenite-to-ferrite transformation model for low-carbon steels is proposed which is applicable to industrial heat-treatment conditions of commercial steels. In the model, the effect of alloying elements on the transformation kinetics is described from a fundamental point of view. In the framework of the mixed-mode model in which carbon diffusion in the remaining austenite is coupled to the interface reaction, the partitioning and drag effect of the solute elements are explicitly accounted for. The thermodynamic driving pressure is calculated assuming paraequilibrium conditions, and the solute drag theory of Purdy and Brechet has been modified to remove the artifact of residual solute drag at zero interface velocity. This rather complex model employs, similarly to the semiempirical Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov (JMAK) approach, four adjustable parameters. However, these parameters are now clearly defined in terms of their physics; i.e., they are pertinent to the interface mobility and solute-interface interaction. The model has been validated with experimental data for a C-Mn steel and two multiphase steels containing either Mo or Si as an additional alloying element. The physical relevance of the resulting solute drag parameters and the inherent challenges regarding their selection are discussed.     

Innovative Final-Year Undergraduate Design Project Course Using an International Project

This paper describes the organization and conduct of a 4th year capstone project for civil engineering students at the University of Calgary that embodied a very significant international component and the difficulties inherent to that component. The project design education process results in numerous contributions to university, industry, and society by permitting students to develop innovative design solutions that reflect multicultural influences, while also recognizing that Civil Engineering design is universal. This paper explains the novel approach adopted for the final-year civil engineering design course in 2002–2003 using the largest urban renewal project currently underway in Europe, for which the students had the opportunity to develop designs. The concept, structure, challenges, and contributions as well as the successful outcome of the civil engineering design course are also explained in the paper. Overall, this design project provided the students with valuable experience in communication, design, professional practice, and organizational skills that will be useful in their future careers, in addition to the challenges of dealing with a real and international client of a complex project.