Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Engineering Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Construction

2019

Discipline
Institution
Publication
Publication Type

Articles 1 - 30 of 36

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Feasibility Of Collaborative Alliance Association For Non-Competitive Small Business Contractors, Brody Allen Gill Dec 2019

Feasibility Of Collaborative Alliance Association For Non-Competitive Small Business Contractors, Brody Allen Gill

Construction Management

Small business construction contracting firms around the country struggle with growing their business successfully. This is a result of unknown results from new business practices and few resources to initiate programs that can improve productivity and efficiency. A simple solution could give small business construction contractors the opportunity to share ideas, compare company analytics and promote professional networking in a non-competitive, collaborative alliance. The goal of this project is to determine if a collaborative alliance association using data benchmarking would be an effective solution for non-competitive small business contractors to grow their businesses. Thereafter being proven effective, is such an …


Stem And The Skilled Labor Shortage In The United States, Nicolo Tetsuo Hoshizaki Dec 2019

Stem And The Skilled Labor Shortage In The United States, Nicolo Tetsuo Hoshizaki

Construction Management

There is a growing shortage of skilled labor in the United States construction industry. As the baby boomer generation prepares to leave the workforce, this problem is getting exponentially worse. As Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics programs have become the U.S. Department of Education’s top priority, more young adults are pursuing higher education and entering the STEM workforce. Using quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, this paper provides an explanation as to why a logical method to assuage the labor shortage in construction is to employ vocational programs that prepare young adults to enter the industry similar to how STEM programs …


Online Platform For Construction Management Internship Reviews, Erica Zetterquist Dec 2019

Online Platform For Construction Management Internship Reviews, Erica Zetterquist

Construction Management

This paper discusses the process I went through to develop a website for Construction Management students to review their internships. The scope of the project was to create an online platform similar to “Polyratings” and “Rate My Professors” for Cal Poly Construction Management students to review internships. Reviews from peers would be accessible to students to help them through their job search process. Relative information such as salary, company culture, and other information collected in my survey allows peers better context of the internship experience. Part of the creating process of my website included research into web design sites like …


The Need For A Real Estate Development Capstone Course, Will Robert Kieckhefer Dec 2019

The Need For A Real Estate Development Capstone Course, Will Robert Kieckhefer

Construction Management

Cal Poly has extremely well-known programs in Construction Management, Business, Engineering, and Architecture. All of these programs have contributed multiple leaders to the building industry every year yet have neglected to integrate the different disciplines that overlap within the industry. The research the author has collected to support the need for a real estate development capstone course included in-person interviews, online research, personal experience, and team surveys. The research concluded the need for a real estate development capstone course that would integrate students from the school of Business, Architecture, and Construction Management. In order to build a successful project, all …


Interdisciplinary Studio Pavilion [Isp] 2019, Albert J. Gutierrez Dec 2019

Interdisciplinary Studio Pavilion [Isp] 2019, Albert J. Gutierrez

Construction Management

Historically Cal Poly’s motto has been ‘Learn by Doing’ and the College of Architecture and Environmental Design (CAED) is one of the leading examples of this. Many students gain valuable hands-on and real-world experience through collaborative projects and assignments. Through this learn by doing philosophy and collaborative learning approach Cal Poly construction management, architecture and architectural engineering students worked together in 8 separate studio teams to design and construct a portable pavilion for the Wine History Project of San Luis Obispo County. Acting as a client they requested that we design a portable pavilion space that will be used to …


Application Of Modern, Effective Materials In Rail Road Reinforced Bridge Elements, U.Z. Shermuxamedov, F.Z. Zokirov Nov 2019

Application Of Modern, Effective Materials In Rail Road Reinforced Bridge Elements, U.Z. Shermuxamedov, F.Z. Zokirov

Journal of Tashkent Institute of Railway Engineers

The article is about reducing the construction costs of railroad bridges and the effective use modern building materials. The article compares the technical characteristics of composite fittings and metal fittings and their proportionality. Indeed, recourse saving of metal and composite fittings, as well as factors of localization of construction is compared


Method Of Calculation Of Self-Stressed Concrete Slabs Supported Along The Contour, S.S. Salixanov Nov 2019

Method Of Calculation Of Self-Stressed Concrete Slabs Supported Along The Contour, S.S. Salixanov

Journal of Tashkent Institute of Railway Engineers

The paper presents the developed method for calculating the contour-supported slab of self-stressed concrete. Reinforced concrete slab on the tension cement replaces the traditional construction of the bridge. In this article, in order to exclude reinforcement, the problem of determining the stress-strain state of self-stressed concrete slabs supported along the contour is considered. The values of stresses in the upper and lower faces of the concrete slab, as well as the bending moment in the middle section of the slab


Construction Features Of Transport Tunnels In The Mountain Areas Of Uzbekistan, M.Х. Miralimov, Sh.U. Normurodov Nov 2019

Construction Features Of Transport Tunnels In The Mountain Areas Of Uzbekistan, M.Х. Miralimov, Sh.U. Normurodov

Journal of Tashkent Institute of Railway Engineers

The paper provides information about the transport tunnel 19,2 km long which was recently completed on new electrified railway line “Angren-Pap” in the mountain area of Uzbekistan. It is noted that the most actual for transport tunnels is account of seismic activity of geological environment in the process of design, construction and maintenance. There are given the effects of earthquakes on underground structures and regularities of displacement and stress distribution in the tunnel linings under seismic impacts. The accumulated experience of earthquake-resistant construction in Uzbekistan shows the need to consider several design schemes for the interaction of tunnels in the …


Competitive Strategies In Small And Medium Sized Enterprises (Sme's): A Cross- Case Analysis Of Irish Construction Professional Service Firms, Oluwasegun O. Seriki, Roisin Murphy Sep 2019

Competitive Strategies In Small And Medium Sized Enterprises (Sme's): A Cross- Case Analysis Of Irish Construction Professional Service Firms, Oluwasegun O. Seriki, Roisin Murphy

Conference papers

Strategy formulation aims to attain strategic fit between an organisation and its business environment in pursuit of competitive advantage. Although competitive strategy research is long established within industries such as manufacturing, financial services and IT, strategy within construction is still under-investigated by comparison. For construction professional service firms (CPSFs), the dearth of academic inquiry is even more apparent, partly due to the intangible nature of their service offerings, highly customised nature of their services and reliance on intellectual capital. The Irish construction sector is experiencing stable growth since following a prolonged recession, thus understanding the strategy process within professional service …


Design, Construction, And Preliminary Investigations Of Otta Seal In Iowa, Sharif Y. Gushgari, Yang Zhang, Ali Nahvi, Halil Ceylan, Sunghwan Kim, Ali Arabzadeh, Charles T. Jahren, Charles Øverby Aug 2019

Design, Construction, And Preliminary Investigations Of Otta Seal In Iowa, Sharif Y. Gushgari, Yang Zhang, Ali Nahvi, Halil Ceylan, Sunghwan Kim, Ali Arabzadeh, Charles T. Jahren, Charles Øverby

Ali Nahvi

Faced with limited financial resources, pavement engineers constantly seek more durable and economical technologies for road preservations and rehabilitations. Consequently, there have been many efforts to study resurfacing strategies, including various types of sealing for local roads. Among different sealing methodologies, Otta seal is a technique that has not yet been sufficiently studied in the U.S.A. For this investigation, the first Otta seal site in the state of Iowa was constructed using a double-layer Otta seal design over 6.4 km of cracked asphalt pavement. Otta seal design and construction details are documented and discussed, and test sections using various aggregates …


Nchrp Synthesis 499: Alternate Design/Alternate Bid Process For Pavement-Type Selection. A Synthesis Of Highway Practice, Douglas D. Gransberg, Ashley F. Buss, Ilker Karaca, Michael C. Loulakis Jul 2019

Nchrp Synthesis 499: Alternate Design/Alternate Bid Process For Pavement-Type Selection. A Synthesis Of Highway Practice, Douglas D. Gransberg, Ashley F. Buss, Ilker Karaca, Michael C. Loulakis

Ilker Karaca

Highway administrators, engineers, and researchers often face problems for which information already exists, either in documented form or as undocumented experience and practice. This information may be fragmented, scattered, and unevaluated. As a consequence, full knowledge of what has been learned about a problem may not be brought to bear on its solution. Costly research findings may go unused, valuable experience may be overlooked, and due consideration may not be given to recommended practices for solving or alleviating the problem. There is information on nearly every subject of concern to highway administrators and engineers. Much of it derives from research …


Assessment Of Project Risks In Fast-Track Construction Projects, Claudia Garrido Martins Jul 2019

Assessment Of Project Risks In Fast-Track Construction Projects, Claudia Garrido Martins

Civil Engineering ETDs

Fast-tracking has been extensively used to respond to demands for reduced construction project delivery times. Unique risks arising from the overlapping of activities can threaten the project. A framework is proposed to assess project risks in fast-track construction projects to better understand the intersection of fast-track, risks, and construction. The research used a commercial construction renovation project as a case study, semi-structured interviews, simulation and optimization methods to identify risks of overlapping activities, classify the risks, evaluate the impact of risks and risk mitigation actions, and optimal combinations to minimize the risk impact and mitigation costs. This study resulted in …


Top-Down Construction Cost Estimating Model Using An Artificial Neural Network, Douglas D. Gransberg, H. David Jeong, Ilker Karaca, Brendon Gardner Jun 2019

Top-Down Construction Cost Estimating Model Using An Artificial Neural Network, Douglas D. Gransberg, H. David Jeong, Ilker Karaca, Brendon Gardner

Ilker Karaca

This report contains the information and background on top-down cost estimating using artificial neural networks (ANN)_to enhance the accuracy of MDT early estimates of construction costs. Upon conducting an extensive review of MDT’s budgeting and cost estimating efforts, and following a survey of agency experts on the identification of the most salient project attributes with the dual-objectives of low effort and high accuracy, a rational method for top-down variable selection is proposed. Selected variables were further tested in their explanatory power of construction costs through the application of two cost estimating methodologies—multiple regression and artificial neural network methodologies. Both methods …


Inception Through Inspection: Quality Control In The Simspon Strong Tie Materials Demonstration Lab, Allyson G. Forster Jun 2019

Inception Through Inspection: Quality Control In The Simspon Strong Tie Materials Demonstration Lab, Allyson G. Forster

Construction Management

The purpose of this senior project is to create a quality control program in the Simpson Strong Tie (SST) Materials Demonstration Lab using BIM 360. The goal of this program is to help streamline the building process of the six-foot by eight-foot tiny home in Residential Construction Management. The SST laboratory activities have been developed in the true spirit of “learn by doing” and serve as a way for Construction Management (CM) students to interact with the building process directly. Students in the CM department are taught that quality begins at the inception of a job and should be monitored …


Investigation Of Grout - A Comparison Of Standard Grout Mix To Self-Consolidating Grout Mix, Rachel Garcia Chandler Jun 2019

Investigation Of Grout - A Comparison Of Standard Grout Mix To Self-Consolidating Grout Mix, Rachel Garcia Chandler

Architectural Engineering

Masonry is a major structural material for low rise buildings, however the design of masonry buildings is rarely taught as a formal course at most universities. As part of the educational experience and to become familiar with the specifications and testing procedures for grouted masonry, a student run experiment on varying the water to cement ratio of masonry grout was conducted. The purpose is to report on the effects of changing the water-to-cement (W/C) ratios in a standard grout mix. The typical W/C ratio is approximately 0.80:1.00. In order to show the effects of increasing water in a grout mix, …


Training Curricula For The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Department Of Highways, Nancy Albright, Bryan Gibson, Chris Van Dyke, Jeff Jasper, Doug Kreis Jun 2019

Training Curricula For The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Department Of Highways, Nancy Albright, Bryan Gibson, Chris Van Dyke, Jeff Jasper, Doug Kreis

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Most state departments of transportation (DOTs) offer their employees professional development opportunities (e.g., training courses) so they can build their expertise and in doing so facilitate agency efforts to fulfill their business mandates. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) is no different in this regard. While professional development opportunities are invaluable, and while the Cabinet offers a number of trainings to its staff, currently there exists no comprehensive training curricula to help professionals and paraprofessionals systematically grow their knowledge and skills and ensure KYTC maintains a robust portfolio of technical competencies across the organization. The inconsistent and ad hoc manner in …


Zero Emission Zero Waste Construction Sites In California Commercial Construction: A Case Study, Joseph E. Anderson Jun 2019

Zero Emission Zero Waste Construction Sites In California Commercial Construction: A Case Study, Joseph E. Anderson

Construction Management

Zero emission refers to the absence of waste products that pollute the environment or disrupt the climate from any engine, motor, process, or other energy source systems. CO2 emissions through equipment and machinery, along with toxic chemicals, carcinogens, ash and dust are founded most common in the Construction Industry. Although these findings may not raise an eyebrow, it is quite overlooked, and the numerical data is staggering. Zero waste is also examined in this paper—the conservation of all resources by means of responsible production, consumption, reuse, recovery of products and materials without burning and with no discharges to land, water, …


Cost-Benefit Analysis Of Studying Spanish And Construction In Tandem, Daniel Joseph Eide Jun 2019

Cost-Benefit Analysis Of Studying Spanish And Construction In Tandem, Daniel Joseph Eide

Construction Management

Does Spanish bilingualism have measurable fiscal value in the U.S. construction industry? Studying and becoming proficient in Spanish is feasible, affordable, and can be accomplished at Cal Poly in conjunction with a Construction Management major. In a dynamic industry that values versatile employees, where communication is key to success, the capability of speaking Spanish is a substantial value-add in the workforce. Using qualitative and quantitative data analysis, it is concluded that individuals who possess English and Spanish-speaking abilities in the U.S. construction industry can expect a 3 percent wage premium when compared to English-only speakers. This study weighs the costs …


Operations Constructed - Jobsite Material Delivery Website, Lorcan Yeung Jun 2019

Operations Constructed - Jobsite Material Delivery Website, Lorcan Yeung

Construction Management

Operations Constructed is a program a couple students developed to help enhance the material delivery process on-site through innovation. Through partnering a construction management student and a computer engineering student the team developed Operations Constructed which modernized the material delivery process. Through industry research, Cal Poly Entrepreneurship mentorship, and faculty input the team produced a program that is simplistic enough for the old-school construction industry. Presently many construction companies use white boards or excel sheets to schedule their material deliveries whereas Operations Constructed would provide an automated means of coordination, confirmation, and execution of the same deliveries. The final product …


Implementing Ipd Principles On Custom Residential Projects: Tools And Best Practices, Giuseppi K. Jenkins Jun 2019

Implementing Ipd Principles On Custom Residential Projects: Tools And Best Practices, Giuseppi K. Jenkins

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to see how Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) principles and practices can be used on high end custom residential construction projects to increase the collaboration and efficiency of the project team. A case study was conducted on a custom home project to observe how and what IPD principles were used. Observations, interviews and a survey were used as part of that case study to gain insights. This research found that IPD principles and practices could be used on residential projects. In addition, the research found that those involved found the experience positive and beneficial to …


Confronting Retainage And Its Disruptive Effects On The Business Practices Of Commercial Concrete Subcontractors, Arlen Karl Hartoonian Jun 2019

Confronting Retainage And Its Disruptive Effects On The Business Practices Of Commercial Concrete Subcontractors, Arlen Karl Hartoonian

Construction Management

This paper aims to explore the extent of the damage that retainage is capable of inflicting on the financial health of commercial concrete subcontractors and strategies which can be utilized to mitigate or avoid damage to their financial health. The methodology implemented to conduct this exploration is a series of interviews with commercial concrete subcontractors. An analysis of these interviews in conjunction with a thorough literature review demonstrates that retainage does indeed impact financial health of commercial concrete subcontractor though the scale of the operation does make a difference in the severity of this impact. Whether or not the construction …


Development Of A Topics Course For Construction Management, William Harrison Wygal Jun 2019

Development Of A Topics Course For Construction Management, William Harrison Wygal

Construction Management

The Cal Poly Construction Management program has been proven to produce some of the most prepared graduates heading into new careers in every facet of the construction industry. Speaking with faculty member Tom Kommer, we have concluded that there is a need for an increased focus on construction risk management within the curriculum. In order to develop a course which would suitably educate Cal Poly Construction Management students in the topic of risk management, I performed a literary review during which I determined which risks are most prevalent within the construction industry and how firms in the construction industry manage …


Feasibility Of Utilizing Autonomous, Trenchless Tunneling Technology, Thomas Arthur Fuentez Jun 2019

Feasibility Of Utilizing Autonomous, Trenchless Tunneling Technology, Thomas Arthur Fuentez

Construction Management

The construction industry as a whole has not increased its productivity level as much as other industries in the world. Professionals are constantly trying to think of new ideas and methods to improve the efficiency of construction through new technology. One area in which productivity needs improvement, is in land development. Trenching for underground utilities and services uses a lot of time in a project’s schedule as well as costs which can be reduced with the use of autonomous, trenchless tunneling technology such as the “BADGER”, (RoBot for Autonomous unDerGround trenchless opERations). This technology is being designed to use a …


Develop An Mep Based Scheduling Learning Module With Industry Support And Guidance To Understand The Impact On The General Contractor, Andy S. Rios Jun 2019

Develop An Mep Based Scheduling Learning Module With Industry Support And Guidance To Understand The Impact On The General Contractor, Andy S. Rios

Construction Management

The Construction Management (CM) program at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo is recognized as one of the best construction programs in country. The curriculum does an extraordinary job at teaching how to utilize software and technology to create a project schedule. The one thing that the curriculum lacks is learning sequencing of events when it comes to scheduling, and where to look to obtain this information. Although learning sequencing for scheduling is hard to teach because it comes with years of industry experience, it is important to have a basic understanding of how things come together to create a functioning …


Interim Field Guide For Construction And Testing Of Concrete Shear Wall With Added Frp Layer, Carlos Alberto Espitia Jun 2019

Interim Field Guide For Construction And Testing Of Concrete Shear Wall With Added Frp Layer, Carlos Alberto Espitia

Construction Management

In Los Angeles, many of the hospitals are no longer up to code as they were built in the 1970’s. The shear walls that the hospitals were constructed on stand to experience major failures in the event of a seismic event and this is the issue that this student research team was assigned with. This project was to design, procure, and construct all necessary constraints to be able to test a wall that is fundamentally similar to that of the sheer walls in these hospitals. Once this was complete the goal was to test two walls with an added FRP …


Implementing An “Intro To Sst” Topics Course, Connor M. Cody Jun 2019

Implementing An “Intro To Sst” Topics Course, Connor M. Cody

Construction Management

This study is designed to gauge Cal Poly Construction Management students interest level in a potential new topics course, “Intro to SST”, that will feature small building projects and emphasize construction safety. With this course, students will be more experienced and safe with building in the SST prior to the Residential and Commercial building labs, as well as receiving a brief knowledge of what goes into the trade jobs on a day to day basis. Students were asked to answer ten questions – nine survey and one free response. These questions were designed to provide quantitative and qualitative data that …


Statistical Viability Analysis Of United States Air Force Estimating Cost Factor For Sustainable Construction, Philip A. Ramsey, Diedrich Prigge, Torrey J. Wagner, Alfred E. Thal Jr. May 2019

Statistical Viability Analysis Of United States Air Force Estimating Cost Factor For Sustainable Construction, Philip A. Ramsey, Diedrich Prigge, Torrey J. Wagner, Alfred E. Thal Jr.

Faculty Publications

Varying legislation and executive orders coupled with needs for energy resiliency have led the United States Air Force (USAF) to pursue sustainable construction. However, the limited understanding of initial costs to implement these changes have contributed to poor project cost estimating, resulting in 62 percent of USAF projects experiencing more than 5 percent cost growth. After reviewing 1628 USAF Military Construction (MILCON) construction projects in 922 category codes (CATCODEs), a twotailed t-test for populations with unequal variance was accomplished on the final normalized contract cost for 340 projects in 16 CATCODEs executed between 2002 and 2017. This analysis provides a …


Opportunities And Challenges Of Modular Construction In A Hospitality Centric Environment, Shreyansh Paliwal May 2019

Opportunities And Challenges Of Modular Construction In A Hospitality Centric Environment, Shreyansh Paliwal

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Modular construction techniques can substantially decrease project schedules and costs, effectively maintaining or increasing the quality of an end product by shifting a percentage of site-based work to an off-site fabrication shop. Modular construction can also significantly contribute to sustainability by reducing site disruption, reducing waste generated, creating better relocatability and reusability, causing less dust and noise pollution, and reducing the probability of loss, theft, and damage to equipment. The primary goal of this research is to identify the opportunities and challenges of implementing modular construction techniques in a hospitality-centric environment, by investigating the current situation and characteristics of modular …


Technology To Improve The Durability Of Concrete In The Dry Hot Climate Of Uzbekistan, R. Khamrakulov, Kh. Karakulov, A. Jabbarov Apr 2019

Technology To Improve The Durability Of Concrete In The Dry Hot Climate Of Uzbekistan, R. Khamrakulov, Kh. Karakulov, A. Jabbarov

Problems of Architecture and Construction

The article is devoted to the technology of concrete production in the conditions of dry hot climate of Uzbekistan, the methods and tools of construction technology are used to study this problem. The article analyzes the characteristic features of construction technology, taking into account the influence of various local resources. According to the result of the study, relevant recommendations and proposals were prepared for the decision maker (DM).


Standardisation In Construction Cost Control, Charles Mitchell Mar 2019

Standardisation In Construction Cost Control, Charles Mitchell

Other Resources

Poster presentation submitted as to the School of Surveying and Construction Management Research and Innovation Industry Evening, March 2019.