Construction Engineering and Management Commons^™

Synergising Bim And Real-Time Data For Improved Efficiency: An Irish Case Study, Ahmed Hassan, Ankur Mitra, Alan Hore, Mark Mulville

Conference Papers

The evolution of 3D visualisation and the Internet of Things (IoT) presents a substantial opportunity for integrating real-time data with Building Information Models (BIM) to improve its functionality and construction workflow efficiency. Integrating real-time data with BIM can enhance the digital representation of construction buildings’ physical and functional characteristics and provide recordable status of on-site operations. Nevertheless, the integration between Visualisation and IoT technologies with BIM remains in its preliminary stages and faces a myriad of technical and operational challenges. Furthermore, developing advanced solutions to facilitate this complex integration requires a considerable understanding of the viability and feasibility of merging …

International Information Management And Bim Best Practice Report, Ted Mckenna, Davitt Lamon

Reports

In order to inform the Digital Leadership and Cultural Change pillar of the Build Digital, a study of international best practice in digital adoption within the built environment sector globally was undertaken and is presented here-in. In order to identify key learnings for Ireland in the context of digital transformation, eight countries were included in this study, namely, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom (UK), New Zealand, Australia and Singapore. These countries were selected for various reasons, including the level of digital maturity, the scale of the built environment sector and geographic spread. Key data for each country is included …

Sustainability And Circular Economy Horizon Scan And Needs Analysis, Sadaf Dalirazar, Mark Kelly, Derek Sinnott, James O'Donnell

Reports

The construction industry plays a crucial role in addressing the climate crisis as it is the largest global consumer of raw materials and contributes significantly to global energy consumption and emissions. Considering the world’s continuous population growth and the imperative to address infrastructure and housing demands the construction sector needs to adopt further sustainable strategies in its activities to reduce the pressure on natural resources. In addition, the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) sector is responsible for generating substantial amount of waste known as Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW), which is projected to increase due to the future construction developments. …

Information Management And Bim Standards And Supports Inventory, Ryan Dempsey, Barry Mcauley, David Burke

Tools

The Digital Standards pillar consists of industry experts who champion the benefits of common rules, guidelines, and workflows that facilitate the improvement of information flow and information management across asset life cycles. Digital standards provide a common language that can be translated to technical specifications enabling clients, designers, contractors, and facilities managers, irrespective of their preferred tools, to communicate efficiently and reduce cost, rework, and disputes. Working closely with the Digital Procurement and Digital Education and Training pillars, this pillar is developing and delivering Irish Information Management/BIM (Digital Construction) guidelines for the sector.

This report summarises existing digital construction standards, …

Digital Construction Annual Survey 2022 Report, Davitt Lamon, Ted Mckenna

Reports

The Annual Survey 2022 was conducted to assess the state of digital transformation in the Irish construction and built environment sector. This report presents the analysis of survey data, with a focus on implications for the Build Digital project and Build Digital’s five pillars: Digital Leadership & Cultural Change, Digital Standards, Digital Education & Training, Digital Procurement, and Sustainability & Circular Economy. Key findings from the survey indicated that a significant number of organisations have started their digital transformation journey, with many identifying themselves as proactive and possessing a clear business-focused strategy. However, a considerable cohort of respondents are keen …

Industry Colloquium Report, Robert Moore

Reports

In the ever-evolving landscape of the construction industry, digital transformation has emerged as a pivotal force reshaping the way projects are conceived, executed, and delivered. This transformation, fuelled by cutting-edge technology and innovative practices, holds the promise of greater efficiency, sustainability, and collaboration within the construction sector.

This report offers a comprehensive summary of the Build Digital Project colloquium. It provides actionable insights and recommendations for clients, supply chain partners, and for prioritisation within the Build Digital Project pillars. As the industry partners seek to build a more efficient, sustainable, and collaborative construction sector, understanding and harnessing the invaluable insights …

Skills Matter – Up-Skilling Across Construction Stakeholders For Emerging Roles, Avril Behan, Paul Mccormack, Barry Mcauley

Conference Papers

The EU’s Climate Target Plan To 2030 (European Union 2020b) of achieving at least 55% reduction in Green House Gas emissions from 1990 levels, delivering towards a climate-neutral economy by 2050, requires systems-level change in the way we design, construct, and operate our built assets. Funding initiatives, such as co-ordinated by BUILD UP Skills, aim to deliver upskilling to the market but targets set by the European Skills Agenda may not be reached at current achievement levels. This paper presents the results of one completed and the progress of one ongoing Horizon 2020 funded project, BIMcert and ARISE, respectively. Learning …

Construction Semantics And Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (Gpt) Language Models, Ankur Mitra, Ahmed Hassan, Mark Mulville

Articles

The article explores the impact of ChatGPT, a powerful language model developed by OpenAI, on the construction industry. ChatGPT, with its ability to provide contextually accurate responses to a wide range of queries, has the potential to enhance safety, scheduling, and knowledge dissemination in construction. While it shows promise in tasks like hazard recognition and project scheduling, the article emphasizes the need for cautious optimism and human oversight. The construction industry could benefit from ChatGPT's digital assistance to boost productivity and address skills shortages, but it is essential to recognize the value of human expertise alongside AI advancements.

The Infrastructure Metaverse Already Exists, Ankur Mitra, Ahmed Hassan, Mark Mulville

Articles

The construction industry is currently undergoing a profound digital transformation, primarily driven by the innovative concept of digital twins. The United Kingdom's National Digital Twin Programme (NDTp) stands as a visionary initiative striving to establish a cohesive digital ecosystem wherein all forms of infrastructure, both existing and newly constructed, are replicated in the digital realm. Digital twins are not merely static visual representations; they serve as the cornerstone for a comprehensive information management framework that enables real-time data sharing. This data-sharing capability spans the entire lifecycle of construction projects. What makes this technology particularly powerful is its capacity to facilitate …

Guest Editorial: Building Performance And Sustainable Infrastructure: Unsustainable Return To Practice, Christopher Gorse, Colin Booth, Lloyd Scott

Articles

The abrupt decline in global carbon emissions experienced during the pandemic was not sustainable. Overwhelmingly, this is evidenced by the advanced economies’ swift return to close to pre-pandemic levels and, of greater concern, the total global use of fossil fuels has rebounded to their highest level in history (IEA, 2021; Jackson et al., 2022). Unfortunately, post-pandemic, the anthropic life threating activities have resumed.

Synergising Bim And Real-Time Data For Improved Efficiency: An Irish Case Study, Ahmed Hassan, Ankur Mitra, Alan Hore, Mark Mulville

Conference papers

The evolution of 3D visualisation and the Internet of Things (IoT) presents a substantial opportunity for integrating real-time data with Building Information Models (BIM) to improve its functionality and construction workflow efficiency. Integrating real-time data with BIM can enhance the digital representation of construction buildings’ physical and functional characteristics and provide recordable status of on-site operations. Nevertheless, the integration between Visualisation and IoT technologies with BIM remains in its preliminary stages and faces a myriad of technical and operational challenges. Furthermore, developing advanced solutions to facilitate this complex integration requires a considerable understanding of the viability and feasibility of merging …

The Impact Of Various Safety Leadership Styles On Construction Safety Climate: A Case Of South India, S. Senthamizh Sankar, K. S. Anandh, Sathyanarayanan Rajendran, K. N. Sen

Engineering Technologies, Safety, and Construction Faculty Scholarship

The Indian construction industry is the second-largest job-providing sector in the country, which comprises many investments. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) report, India is a significant contributor to construction site accidents and fatalities among world nations. The poor Safety Leadership (SL) style and the diminished leader's commitment to quality safety outcomes have caused misfortunes in construction sites. This paper aims to identify the impact of various safety leadership styles on the Organisational Safety Climate (OSC) predictors and propose a conceptual model explaining the relationship between SL styles and OSC. The study identifies six leadership styles from the works …

An Investigation On The Effects Of Psychological Contract (Pc) Towards Site Safety In The South Indian Construction Industry, M. G. Soundarya Priya, K. S. Anandh, Sathyanarayanan Rajendran, K. N. Sen

Engineering Technologies, Safety, and Construction Faculty Scholarship

The construction sector is India's second-largest industry, contributing to the country's economy and providing many job opportunities. However, construction has been described as a hazardous industry with a high rate of injuries, accidents, and fatalities compared to other sectors worldwide. The "psychological contract of safety (PCS)" is one of the safety climate (SC) variables that influence worker safety behavior (WSB) actions on construction sites to improve safety. This research investigates the influence of SC factors on PCS and PCS on WSB in construction site safety. A quantitative research method has been adopted in this study, and the data is collected …

Connected Simulation For Work Zone Safety Application, Vahid Balali

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

Every year, over 60,000 work zone crashes are reported in the United States (FHWA 2016). Such work zone crashes have resulted in over 4,400 fatal and 200,000 non-fatal injuries in the last 5 years (FHWA 2016, BLS 2014). Apart from the physical and emotional trauma, the annual cost of these injuries exceeds $4 million-representing significant wasted resources. To improve work zone safety, this research developed a system architecture for unveiling high-risk behavioral patterns among highway workers, equipment operators, and drivers within dynamic highway work zones. This research implemented the use of a connected virtual environment, which is an immersive hyper-realistic …

Instructional Design Framework For Construction Materials Training, Hazem Jadallah, Carol J. Friedland, Isabelina Nahmens, Charles Pecquet, Charles Berryman, Yimin Zhu

Faculty Publications

The construction industry is suffering, in part, from a lack of training programs offered to the construction workforce. Unfortunately, most construction training and education research focuses on university student education. Integrating education science theory into construction workforce training has the potential to improve industry training but there is a dearth of studies that present details of this integration process. To address this gap, a training framework was developed to educate material stakeholders on material properties, selection, and installation. This framework is based on andragogical and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles. An assessment method evaluates training agendas to improve upon …

Introduction To Prefabrication And Automation In Construction, Luciana Debs, Jiansong Zhang, Yunfeng Chen

School of Construction Management Technology Open Educational Resources

New developments and recent advances in construction methods have the potential to change the future of the architecture, engineering and construction industry. Prefabrication, along with modular construction, provides a safe and controlled environment for the production of building construction elements and raises the need for improved collaboration and coordination from design to manufacturing and from transportation to final assembly. Prefabrication also provides relief from the skilled construction labor shortage while opening up new opportunities for mass customization within the building industry. Prefabrication and modular construction automation are emerging expansion routes for the construction industry. In addition, integral to developing the …

Meta-Network Analysis Of Complex Construction Systems: Improving Project Efficiency Using Novel Computer-Based Analytic Methodology, Ethan Cummiskey

Honors Scholar Theses

The objective of this study is to build upon the framework of a meta-network approach to assessing vulnerabilities in construction projects. By viewing these complex environments as configurations of various nodes and links, it is possible to show the relationship between each entity in the project and the overall completion that is achieved from these connections. To expand upon previous studies, the vulnerabilities measured from this approach will be used to optimize the current network to eliminate any shortcoming in the project model. By investigating the congruence of different agents on the project, resources and informational nodes can be supplied …

Applications Of Biomimicry In Construction And Architecture: A Bibliometric Analysis, Mugdha Praveen Kshirsagar Mrs, Sanjay Kantrao Kulkarni Dr, Ankush Kumar Meena Mr, Danby Caetano D’Costa Mr, Sushant Sunil Bhavsar Mr

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Biomimicry can be considered to be a way of connecting the environment created by man to the natural world. Biomimicry is a science that, as a model, a measure and a tutor, looks to nature. Via site work, construction and everyday operations, biomimicry can be used to enhance the way the built environment is constructed. The main objective of this paper is to perform a bibliometric study of biomimicry-related literature in order to discover the growth of biomimicry as an architectural method in recent years. The time frame considered for this survey is between 1990 and 2020. The findings, however, …

United States Department Of Defense (Dod) Real Property Repair, Alterations, Maintenance, And Construction Project Contract Data: 2009–2020, Tyler Stout, Adam Teston, Brent T. Langhals, Justin D. Delorit, Carlton Hendrix, Steven J. Schuldt

Faculty Publications

Nearly one-half of all construction projects exceed planned costs and schedule, globally [1]. Owners and construction managers can analyze historical project performance data to inform cost and schedule overrun risk-reduction strategies. Though, the majority of open-source project datasets are limited by the number of projects, data dimensionality, and location. A significant global customer of the construction industry, the Department of Defense (DoD) maintains a vast database of historical project data that can be used to determine the sources and magnitude of construction schedule and cost overruns for many continental and international locations. The selection of data provided by the authors …

Novel Adhesive Anchoring System Through Engineered Interface, Hua Liu, Jian Zhao

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Articles

This report describes a study of an innovative adhesive anchoring system. The weak link in the load transferring path of adhesive anchors is at adhesive-concrete (A-C) interface; hence, the innovation is about creating threads/grooves in drilled holes in concrete before the holes are filled with adhesive and anchors are installed. The new anchoring system is expected to improve the robustness of A-C interface and the consistence of adhesive anchors.

The new adhesive anchoring system was verified in this study using both unconfined and confined pullout tests in uncracked concrete. The tests were divided into to two groups, one using traditional …

Trades And Apprenticeship Survey 2020: Focus On Wet Trades, Roisin Murphy

Reports

CIF commissioned the Trades and Apprenticeship Survey 2020 – Focus on Wet Trades report to investigate the causes and implications of the low numbers entering wet trades (Bricklaying, floor and wall tiling, Painting and Decorating and Plastering). The objective for commissioning expert research was to fully understand whether the current model is appropriate for the sector or simply requires a new approach.

The research, carried out by Dr. Róisín Murphy, undertook a multi-stakeholder analysis, to determine the causes and challenges facing wet trades and apprenticeship in Ireland.

The report proposes six recommendations and addresses an Apprenticeship model review, Education and …

Economic Analysis Of Productivity In The Irish Construction Sector, Kpmg, Fac, Róisín Murphy Dr, Avril Behan

Reports

Important strides to enhance productivity in the construction sector have been taken by both industry and Government in recent years. However, a collaborative, sectoral wide strategy to drive further increases in productivity is required, with the coordinated participation of all stakeholders across the full life cycle of a project. This report, commissioned by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER), produced by KPMG and Future Analytics Consulting Ltd. (FAC) and peer reviewed by TU Dublin, aims to understand and address the reasons for low levels of productivity in the Irish construction sector and identify specific recommendations and actions that …

Construction Labor Productivity Modeling And Use Of Neural Networks: A Bibliometric Survey, Shalaka Hire, Sayali Sandbhor

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Productivity of a project has a major impact on its cost and profitability. In spite of construction being labor intensive field with labor cost adding up to 30% to 50% of overall project cost, the productivity of labor is one of the least studied areas in the construction industry. It requires to be given due attention to the issues affecting labor productivity and design solution using soft computing techniques to improve the overall performance of the industry. This research paper aims to conduct a bibliographic survey of the literature available in the domain of Labor Productivity (LP) as well as …

Building Information Modelling For Building Services Engineering: Benefits, Barriers And Conducive Measures, Wai Yee Betty Chiu, Joseph H.K. Lai

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

Purpose – Mandating the use of building information modelling (BIM) in building projects has sprawled, but the uptake of BIM in building services engineering (BSE) remains sluggish. The purpose of this paper is to explore how to achieve wider adoption of BIM in BSE. Design/methodology/approach – Through an extensive literature review, the benefits of, barriers to and measures conducive to, using BIM for BSE were identified and classified. Built upon the review and a focus group meeting, a questionnaire was devised for an industry-wide survey in Hong Kong and the survey data were processed by statistical analyses. Findings – On …

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 …

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 …

Nawic Focus (January-March 2019), National Association Of Women In Construction - Maine Chapter Staff

Maine Women's Publications - All

No abstract provided.

A Study On Residential Construction Energy Code Compliance In Nebraska, Aaron Thompson

Department of Construction Engineering and Management: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Energy codes are easy to implement, but how effectively are they being followed? To determine energy code compliance of residential construction in Nebraska, a study was conducted in which seven key areas having the most effect on energy savings were analyzed. The study examined both urban and rural areas of the state and compared Nebraska to other states’ energy code compliance studies. The study found an eighty-eight percent average compliance in the key areas. Urban areas tended to be more compliant than rural areas. Nebraska is comparative in energy code compliance to other states. Yet, the state of Nebraska, code …

An Embedded Sensory System For Worker Safety: Prototype Development And Evaluation, Chunhee Cho, Jee Woong Park

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

At a construction site, workers mainly rely on two senses, which are sight and sound, in order to perceive their physical surroundings. However, they are often hindered by the nature of most construction sites, which are usually dynamic, loud, and complicated. To overcome these challenges, this research explored a method using an embedded sensory system that might offer construction workers an artificial sensing ability to better perceive their surroundings. This study identified three parameters (i.e., intensity, signal length, and delay between consecutive pulses) needed for tactile-based signals for the construction workers to communicate quickly. We developed a prototype system based …

Nawic Focus (December 2017), National Association Of Women In Construction - Maine Chapter Staff

Maine Women's Publications - All

No abstract provided.