Digital Commons Network^™

Adaptation Of Project Finance To Small Contractor Financing, Ragunathan Venkateswaran

Masters Theses

One key reason for the poor performance of small construction establishments in securing a higher chunk of the annual project volume is funding. While construction industry does not require a large capital investment it does require a large working capital to start up the project and generate bills so that the resulting cash flow may take over the remaining funding requirements. Unfortunately for small contractors there are very limited options available from the banks or other lending institutions to cover this large working capital requirement in the absence of sufficient collateral. The "Project Finance" method, which has been used in …

Building Deconstruction Guidelines: Tools For Recovering Building Materials, Ali Ayedh Merzen

Masters Theses

The traditional method of tearing down building when its life cycle is completed is known as demolition, which means destroying most of the structures and burying it in the landfills. This is the most common practice in most countries, but in recent years there is a new movement toward using the components of these buildings. Burying usable or recyclable materials in landfills means more pollution and increasing the need for more landfills. The concept of reusing or recycling building materials is known as Deconstruction. This practice is relatively new in the construction industry and requires more research and studies to …

Electronic Data Collection For Rockfall Hazard Evaluation, Derrick Ladon Bellamy

Masters Theses

Rockfall field data collection traditionally has used conventional stationery tools, i.e. pencil and paper, for data collection. Traditional methodologies are being revisited with the advent of PDA’s (Personal Digital Assistants) or penbased computers. With the utilization of such technology, field data can be collected electronically. An electronic data collection system using PDA’s was developed for this thesis. The advantages of the PDA approach over pencil and paper data collection include automatic error and data integrity checks during data input, and the elimination of manual data entry. The PDA’s also allow automatic branching to solicit data input based on previous data …

Interface Behavior Of Water Saturated Limestone Rock Joints Using Hollow Cylinder Testing And A Case History Regarding Mine Roof Stability: Fort Hartford Mine Superfund Site, Roger W. Cecil

Masters Theses

Presented herein is a multi-part thesis prepared to partially meet the requirements for the Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Tennessee. Part I provides a brief introduction to the two primary thesis topics that are presented in Parts II and III, respectively.

Part II presents findings from a series of tests performed with a hollow cylinder combined axial-torsional testing apparatus to study the effects of confining fluid pressure on the shear strength of artificial rock joints for Holston Limestone. Tests were performed for confining fluid pressures of 0.14 MPa to 0.55 MPa and effective joint …

An Imaging System For Concrete Bridge Inspection, Mohammed Talal Al-Bataineh

Masters Theses

Bridges are the most important element in the road network because of, the strategic position a bridge occupies, its direct impact on safety, and its high cost. Therefore, a continuous maintenance and inspection should be performed. During the past years visual inspection has been the primary method of bridge inspection.

Pontis is a comprehensive bridge management system developed as a tool to assist in the challenging task of bridge management. Pontis stores bridge inventory and inspection data and formulates network-wide preservation and improvement policies for use in evaluating the needs of each bridge in a network.

The concrete bridge inspection …

Management Commitment To Construction Safety, Areen M. Shaar

Masters Theses

The objective of all businesses including construction is to make money and to be profitable. The costs resulting from personal injuries and equipment damage, combined with the associated financial impact resulting from schedule disruptions, insurance hikes, and workers compensation can definitely impact the profitability of any construction operation. Most times those costs can be minimized or avoided by giving safety more attention on construction job sites.

The main purpose of this research is to determine the correlation between management commitment to safety and its impacts on the frequency of injuries and illnesses. To achieve this, a survey was methodically developed …

An Evaluation Of The Impact Of Lane Use Restrictions For Large Trucks Along I-40 Near Knoxville, Vasin Kiattikomol

Masters Theses

This thesis is concerned with studies on an effectiveness and impact of lane restriction for large trucks from a left lane on Interstate 40 near Knoxville. The data collection was conducted in July to August 2001 and March to April 2002. The restriction was implemented on August 13, 2001. The lane distribution and individual speed of large trucks in each lane were then gathered to obtain patterns and characteristics of large trucks ‘before’ and ‘after’ the implementation. A database was developed, a data comparison was conducted, and a statistical test was applied. The findings reveal several significant changes of lane …

A Model For Optimizing The Selection Of Project Delivery Systems Using Analytic Hierarchy Process (Ahp), Arosha De Silva

Masters Theses

The project delivery systems applicable to the construction industry in the U.S. consist of different approaches. This study focuses on three main approaches, (1) Design-Bid-Build (DBB), (2) Design-Build (DB), and (3) Construction Management (CM). Since each construction project is unique, selecting the right project delivery system is a tough decision.

This study develops a decision making system, based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), for selecting the best delivery system for a given construction project. AHP is a decision making mathematical model developed by Thomas L. Saaty and consists of a hierarchical structure. It analyzes several alternatives for a given …