Construction Engineering and Management Commons^™

Bs News July/August

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

National Culture And Business Resilience: An Exploratory Study Of Two Chinese Construction Firms Operating In Singapore, Low Sui Pheng, Gao Shang, Teo Wee Kiat Ken

Business Review

The study of national culture focuses on differences in values and beliefs among people of different nationalities. With the increasing globalization of economies around the world, the construction industry is inherently exposed to risk at an unprecedented level. This is particularly true for Chinese construction firms, which are aggressively setting up subsidiaries and branches all around the world as they partake in large-scale complex projects overseas. With the liberal foreign trade policies adopted by China after its reforms, domestic construction firms in China also face immense pressure from the international players that are now able to enter the Chinese construction …

Estimation Of Optimal Productivity In Labor-Intensive Construction Operations, Krishna Prasad Kisi

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

In an attempt to evaluate the efficiency of labor-intensive construction operations, project managers typically compare actual with historical productivity for equivalent operations. However, this approach toward examining productivity only provides a relative benchmark for efficiency and may lead to the characterization of operations as objectively efficient when in reality such operations might simply be comparably efficient.

Optimal productivity is the highest sustainable productivity achievable under good management and typical field conditions. Optimal productivity is useful in the determination of the absolute efficiency of construction operations because an accurate estimate of optimal labor productivity allows for the comparison of actual vs. …

A Microscopic Simulation Approach To Performance Evaluation Of Intelligent Transportation System Corridors: A Case In Michigan, Matthew Levi Clark

Masters Theses

A cost and benefit evaluation of the Michigan Department of Transportation’s (MDOT) Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) is performed through integration of analytical techniques and microscopic traffic microsimulation. Observed freeway corridor incident logs and characteristics are studied to determine representative incident management patterns on choice study corridors. The Quadstone Paramics microsimulation traffic package is used to model the selected corridors during various analysis scenarios and investigate the effects of ITS on freeway incident management performance.

Criticality And Risk Assessment For Pipe Rehabilitation In The City Of Santa Barbara Sewer System, Rossi Carmelo Rossi Ii

Master's Theses

Aging sewer infrastructure is posing greater and greater risk to the health and well-being of City residents. Issues can range from pipe blockages in sewer laterals to Sanitary Sewer Overflows. This thesis develops a risk analysis method that can be used by municipalities to maintain and rehabilitate sewer assets. Risk combines the effect of Likelihood of Failure (LOF) and Consequence of Failure (COF) to perform a complete two-dimensional analysis that allows for relative comparison between different pipes in the system. The LOF rating has been equated to pipe integrity while the COF rating was related to the environmental, economic, and …

Fragility Assessment Of High-Rise Reinforced Concrete Buildings, Hezha Sadraddin

Masters Theses

This research presents a probabilistic seismic responses analysis of high-rise reinforced concrete (RC) buildings using fragility assessment method. Three RC buildings, having the same plan dimension and height (12 story each) but different in structural configurations, were designed and their seismic responses were compared. First building is a Moment Resisting Frame (MRF), second is a MRF with exterior shear walls, and the third building consists most shear walls. Buildings were designed for high-seismic activity zone (i.e. Los Anglos) using the Equivalent Lateral Force (ELF) for seismic loading calculation. Sixteen real ground motion pairs were selected and scaled, then applied orthogonally …

Assessing The Repercussions Of A Mass Departure Of Building Inspectors From The Code Professional Industry In Utah, George Reese Williams

Theses and Dissertations

National studies suggest that eighty percent of existing code professionals are expected to retire within the next fifteen years. As part of this research, it was determined that approximately half of all licensed building inspectors in the State of Utah will reach retirement age within the next ten years. As building inspectors make up a large part of the Code Professional Industry this demographic was selected as the focus of this research. The purpose of this research project was to assess the urgent need for new entrants into the Code Professional Industry in Utah. As part of this research, trends …

A Framework For Estimating Labor Productivity Frontiers, Nirajan Mani

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

The efficiency of construction operations is typically determined by comparing actual versus historical productivity. This practice is accurate if historical data reflects optimal values. Otherwise, this comparison is a gauge of relative rather than absolute efficiency. Therefore, in order to determine absolute efficiency, one must compare actual versus optimal productivity. Optimal productivity is the highest sustainable productivity level achievable under “good management” and “typical field conditions,” while the productivity frontier is the theoretical maximum achievable under “perfect conditions.”

The productivity frontier is an abstraction useful in the estimation of optimal productivity of construction operations. This research contributes to the body …

Assessing Gait And Postural Stability Of Construction Workers Using Wearable Wireless Sensor Networks, Houtan Jebelli

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

Falling accidents are a leading cause of fatal and nonfatal injuries in the construction industry. This fact demonstrates the need for a comprehensive fall-risk analysis that incorporates the effects of construction workers’ physiological characteristics. In this context, the objective of the thesis is to investigate and validate the usefulness of the gait- and postural-stability metrics in assessing construction workers’ fall risks. Diverse metrics that assess the capability to keep the body balanced and maintain coordination of body segments during locomotion (gait stability) and stationary postures (postural stability) have been introduced and used in clinical applications. However, their usefulness in the …

Bs News May/June

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

The Development Of Key Performance Indicators To Monitor Early Facilities Management Performance Through The Use Of Bim Technologies In Public Sector Projects, Barry Mcauley, Alan Hore, Roger West

Conference papers

One of the biggest threats faced by governments in delivering greater efficiency on public works is the need for the public sector to have an enhanced physical environment to operate from. The physical environment can either enhance or impede worker productivity, therefore contributing to its bottom line profits and success of the organisation. This has now resulted in the AEC sector witnessing the development and adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM), so as to ensure a new level of functionality for the management of buildings. Despite enhanced Facilities Management (FM) being the goal of BIM, there is still reluctance and …

Descriptive Statistical Analysis Of Oshpd Quality Inspections On California Hospital Projects, Philip L. Barlow

Construction Management

California hospital construction projects are large, complex, and extremely difficult projects to execute and navigate successfully. One of the primary reasons for this is the OSHPD permit, review, and inspection process. The quality control rigor imposed by this third party inspection procedure has caused great angst amongst most general contractors and subcontractors. This study examined over 60,000 OSHPD inspections, spanning six California hospital projects and forty-one separate subcontractors. Specifically, this paper conducts descriptive statistical analysis on the total number of inspections conducted and the percentage of failed inspections (or re-inspections) that occurred. The analysis, conducted on major subcontractors working on …

State Of Accelerated Bridge Construction (Abc) In The United States, Mike Ofili

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this project is to develop a toolkit for the design and construction of bridges using prefabricated materials primarily to reduce the closure time and on-site construction time of newly constructed bridges or bridges undergoing renovation. The research focuses specifically on short span bridges in Georgia (40,60,80, and 120ft spans).

Areas of primary concern for this project were design, constructability, structural analysis, the use of concrete and steel girders, cost efficiency, and industry surveys. In this particular portion of the study, the surveys proved to be most effective when combined with information obtained existing research as well as …

Improving Energy Efficiency And Environmental Sustainability Of Commercial Insulation, Celine F. Manoosingh, James Mihelcic, Manjriker Gunaratne

Civil Engineering & Construction: Faculty Publications

With increasingly stringent energy standards set in place by the Department of Energy, energy efficiency is becoming a paramount concern to manufacturers of appliances. Additionally, the production and disposal of the voluminous amount of polyurethane foam commonly utilized as insulation in refrigeration units poses a significant environmental challenge. In this context, this study investigated an alternative insulation for use in commercial refrigerator/freezer units. A prototype exploring the use of evacuated packets of pyrogenic silica substituting for conventional insulation was assessed. Assessment criteria included experimental comparison of heat transfer characteristics and the energy efficiency of the new insulation as well as …

Organizational Learning In Commercial Construction: Lessons Learned From The 2007-2009 U.S. Recession, Evan Michael Danforth

Theses and Dissertations

Organizational learning seeks to proactively expand the knowledge base of an organizational entity by incorporating knowledge, skills, and experience into the collective conscience of the company through the development of routines rather than relying on individual employees for these traits. Valuable experience gained by individuals who weather economic downturn with their companies must be absorbed into the corporate structure in a meaningful way so that it may be accessible for use during future recessions. This research asks what was learned by individuals during the most recent recession, what mechanisms were employed to retain and utilize this knowledge, and what cultures, …

Analysis Of Air Force Wartime Contracted Construction Project Performance, Ryan M. Hoff

Theses and Dissertations

Using a dataset of 25 Afghan wartime projects, two questions were investigated: 1) What factors affect the success of construction projects; and 2) How do project outcomes differ based on the contract type? Current literature suggests that wartime projects may face the same cost and schedule factors as peacetime projects, with some notable additions. Project factors, health and safety compliance, quality of work, technical performance, work productivity, and external environmental factors were tested with contingency tables to determine dependency with schedule or cost performance. External environmental factors, including weather and wartime security, were not predictive of project performance. However, cost …

A Probabilistic Assessment Of Failure For Air Force Building Systems, Stephanie L. Alley

Theses and Dissertations

Deteriorating and failing federal facilities represent a cost to leaders and organizations as they attempt to manage and maintain these assets. Currently the Air Force employs the BUILDER^TM Sustainment Management System to predict the reliability of building components. At different system levels, however, the probabilities of failure are not predicted. The purpose of this research is to provide probabilistic models which predict the probability of failure at the system level of a building s infrastructure hierarchy. This research investigated the plumbing, HVAC, fire protection, and electrical systems. Probabilistic models were created for these systems by using fault trees with …

Simplified Pavement Design For Lpas: Introduction To Pavexpress, Dudley Bonte

Purdue Road School

Simplified Pavement Design for LPA's; An introduction to and use of PaveXpress, a simplified, free, web-based pavement design scoping tool for roadway and parking lot pavements. The system was developed by Pavia Systems in partnership with the National Asphalt Pavement Association. PaveXpress creates technical sound pavement structural designs for flexible and rigid pavements based on widely accepted industry standards from the Association of State Highway Officials (AASHTO). The simplified pavement design system is based on empirical equation from the 1993 AASHTO Guide for the Design of Pavement Structures. PaveXpress is intended for use by local agencies, engineers and consultants …

Full Issue, Volume 39, Number 1

The Professional Constructor

No abstract provided.

Bs News March/April

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.