A risk management approach to safety assessment of trenchless technologies for culvert rehabilitation

Proper functioning of culverts is not only critical to protecting the transportation system from flooding but also critical to maintaining the expected service life of the overall transportation system. During the service life of culverts, they deteriorate due to many reasons such as corrosion caused by road salt, blockage by debris and sediment, poor construction techniques, etc. Trenchless technologies have been used by several State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) to rehabilitate deteriorated drainage structures without disrupting the traffic and within a relatively short span of time. These technologies provide many benefits in terms of cost, time, quality, and expected service life. However, the safety aspects of these techniques have not been discussed and documented in detail probably due to the complexity and the lack of safety standards and specifications directly associated with the techniques. This paper discusses the application of a risk assessment framework to assess potential safety issues of currently available trenchless technologies for culvert rehabilitation. The findings of the study will provide additional information to improve the decision making process in selecting and planning culvert rehabilitation projects.     

Applying Process Simulation Technique to Value Engineering Model: A Case Study of Hospital Building Project

Applying value engineering (VE) in a construction project has proven to be an effective way to save the cost of a project. Different VE models have been developed and used in construction projects in the past. One common attribute of construction projects is the dependence of a highly qualitative decision making process: capturing, interpreting, and quantifying expert's subjective judgment. This study proposes an advanced five-phase VE model, each phase of which consists of a series of steps to better quantify subjective opinions of VE team members. Construction simulation technique, the Cyclic Operation Network, is used as a means to minimize subjectivity in estimating the value of different alternatives in terms of time and cost savings. A case study shows that the advanced five-phase VE model improves analysis, assessment, and decision on VE. This new approach has a great potential to minimize subjectivity during VE process and improves VE decision-making process by using quantitatively derived data from the simulation analysis.