Construction Engineering and Management Commons^™

Slope Stability Monitoring Using Remote Sensing Techniques, Omar Alberto Conte Robles

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

During the past six years the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department (AHTD) has spent over nine million dollars repairing slope failures that have occurred in the state of Arkansas. Specifically, higher than average precipitation in 2004 and 2008 led to large quantities of slides, all of which were repaired. Two highways, within the state of Arkansas, with known historical movements along or across the highways are being monitored using traditional surveying techniques and advanced remote sensing techniques. These slides, both of which are located in fill slopes. One a 500-foot long slide located north of Chester, Arkansas, within the …

Curriculum Development For Recession Displaced Workers In Green Construction Industries, John Earl Killingsworth

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

More than 8 million U.S. jobs were lost during ‘The Great Recession’, pushing unemployment from 4.4% in 2007 to 10.2% in 2009. Nearly half of all job losses occurred among lower-skilled workers in construction and manufacturing industries. During this same period, however, jobs in energy efficiency and renewable energy industries grew an unprecedented 9%. As part of a $4.8M grant from the U.S. Department of Labor, the University of Nebraska began development of a workforce transition program to ‘retool’ recession displaced workers for career opportunities in new and emerging green industries. To date, the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) of …

Efficient Precast/Prestressed Floor System For Building Construction, Eliya E. A. Henin

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

Precast floor systems provide a rapidly constructed solution to multi-story buildings that is economical, high quality, fire-resistant, and with excellent deflection and vibration characteristics. Conventional precast concrete floor system cannot compete with cast-in-place post tensioning flat slab floor systems when high span-to-depth ratio and flat soffit are required. This is due to the significant depth of standard precast beams, and use of column corbels and beam ledges. This research presents the development of a new precast concrete floor system that eliminates the limitations of conventional precast floor system and provides a competitive precast alternative to cast-in-place flat slab floor systems. …

Bs News May/June

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Framework Development For Construction Safety Visualization, Kishor Shrestha

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Throughout the history of the construction industry, many fatalities and injuries have occurred in construction sites. One of the major causes of accidents is unsafe site conditions; basically, this is due to inadequate supervision. To improve upon the traditional supervision approach, this study proposes a `Framework Development for Construction Safety Visualization' approach. In addition to this, a computer vision Edge Detection Algorithm was developed and tested to convert construction site still images into edges of the objects in the images. The framework development of this study uses computer vision, robot vision, image compression, pattern recognition, internet transmission, network communication, and …

Legal Issues In Green Construction, Namrata Shrestha

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The most recent "green construction movement", made a significant impact on the design and construction industry in the United States. Organizations such as the American Institute of Architects (AIA) have lobbied governmental entities to provide financial incentives to promote green construction. The green construction community also promotes the notion that a healthier working and living environment is achieved. Due to finical incentives coupled with projected long-term energy cost savings, many owners of new construction are considering green construction as an option. Accompanying the "green construction movement", new kinds of legal issues, particularly relating to green aspects such as certification, energy …

Framework Developmant For Construction Safety Visialization, Kishor Shrestha

College of Engineering: Graduate Celebration Programs

Throughout the history of the construction industry, many fatalities and injuries have occurred in construction sites. One of the major causes of accidents is unsafe site conditions: basically, this is due to inadequate supervision. To improve upon the traditional supervision approach, this study proposes a 'Framework Development for Construction Safety Visualization' approach. In addition to this, a computer vision Edge Detection Algorithm was developed and tested to convert construction site still images into edges of the objects in the images. The framework development of this study uses computer vision, robot vision, image compression, pattern recognition, internet transmission, network communication, and …

Smart Home Prototype, Logistics & Planning, David G. Guzman^, Virgilio Gonzalez*

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Spring 2012

No abstract provided.

Asset Management: Roof Maintenance And Facility Energy Retrofits, Joseph P. Dirosario

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Air Force (USAF) needs aggressive new techniques to compliment its asset management of its real estate portfolio. Air Force officials are experiencing budget cuts that have led to degraded facility infrastructure. Two areas of operations in which there are opportunities to improve the asset management of Air Force facilities are roof maintenance and energy retrofits. Information obtained via a geospatial information systems analysis revealed that the current state of the rooftop maintenance program was deficient and supported strategic sourcing as a potential solution to the program's deficiencies. In addition, two methodologies were created to gauge the effectiveness …

Firm Fixed Price And Cost Plus Fixed Fee Construction Contracts In Iraq And Afghanistan, Lindsay M. Jaszkowiak

Theses and Dissertations

Firm Fixed Price (FFP) and Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF) contract types have been utilized the most for construction in the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters. Often construction occurs in contested regions that are known to be particularly challenging, unpredictable, and unstable. The objective of this study was to analyze the performance of these two contract types in the contingency environment, and to determine what internal and external factors influence contact success the most. First, the author evaluated existing construction performance data using bivariate analysis and analysis of variance to identify differences in contract type. Next, a quantitative/qualitative questionnaire was administered …

Analysis Of Leadership In Energy And Environmental Design® Construction In The Air Force, James M. Rozzoni

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force uses the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system as a third party verification system to ensure sustainable and resource-conscious facilities. The Federal Government has implemented several mandates in recent years that require certain milestones be met for energy reduction, water conservation, renewable energy use, and so forth. This research aims to determine how the Air Force has implemented LEED through credit analysis, and to better understand why LEED is being used in this way. Using a database of 172 military construction projects, the research evaluates the frequency of credit usage individually and by category. …

Improving Effectiveness Of Monetary Weapon Systems In Afghanistan, Seth M. Lorimer

Theses and Dissertations

Tenuous political and economic times call for increased oversight and improved results from military counterinsurgency programs in Afghanistan, programs that provide agile non-kinetic weapons, critical for commanders fighting in today's asymmetric battle space. This paper proposes a decision tool for construction projects executed under the Commanders Emergency Response Program, designed to meet the changing demands of fighting an amorphous insurgency among dynamic systems of stakeholders. The research first conducted a system analysis of the CERP project execution process identifying key findings addressing value adding inputs. The research then applies a Causal Chain, borrowed from the Emergency Management field to identify …

Bs News March/April

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Use Of Building Information Modelling In Responding To Low Carbon Construction Innovations: An Irish Perspective, Alan V. Hore

Conference papers

At present the Irish construction industry is facing one of its most uncertain and challenging periods and will see major cuts in all areas of the economy in 2012. Despite this, Ireland pushes forward in sustainability initiatives with the Government ruling that environmentally-friendly policies are to get priority in competing for State contracts worth up to €16 billion a year. This and further initiatives are in place, so as to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 20% by the year 2020. By the end of 2018 the public sector must own or rent only buildings with high energy-saving standards …

The Development Of An Integrated Residential Construction Management Course, Scott D. Kelting, Eric A. Holt

Construction Management

This paper presents the recent changes to different delivery methods for a residential construction management course at a major university. The project-based course was delivered similarly to a capstone course by combining Residential Methods, Estimating, Scheduling, and Contracts into one class with one overall final project. The course introduced students to land acquisition, land development, construction services, operations, finance, marketing, and sales. Information about the course’s 14 different delivery methods and the recent changes is provided in this paper. The recent changes are based on a survey that was conducted to obtain the students’ perspectives about the course delivery methods …

Tendering Procedures In Ppp: A Literature Review, Nunzia Carbonara, Louis Gunnigan, Roberta Pellegrino, Fabio Sciancalepore

Articles

Purpose – This paper aims at providing an overview about literature on tendering process in PPP, with particular regard to transportation PPP case.

Design/methodology/approach – The approach is based on the analysis of the pertinent publications on the theme.

Findings – Three main interest areas can be found in the literature: tendering procedures, evaluation methods and evaluation criteria. Social implications – Contract authorities have several tools in order to pre-qualify and select bidders and negotiate with them: they can choose the instruments which best fit to their market

Originality/value – The paper provides a complete overview on PPP tendering procedures …

Life Cycle Cost Analysis Under Ireland's Capital Works Management Framework, Dermot Kehily, Alan Hore

Conference papers

The Capital Works Management Framework (CWMF) is a structure that has been developed to deliver the Irish government’s objectives in relation to public sector construction procurement reform. This research provides practical guidance and assistance for construction cost professionals in carrying out Whole Life Cycle Cost Analysis (WLCCA) and producing Life Cycle Cost Models(LCCMs) under the CWMF. The research outlines how LCCA calculations can be carried out for cost planning purposes and recommends a standard methodology for presenting LCCMs under the CWMF. The CWMF states that Whole Life Costs (WLC) are an important consideration throughout the design process and should be …

2:1 The Paper Tube Project, Noel Brady

Articles

Review of applied technological solution to rapid building techniques using paper tube and analogous materials to create space enclosing geodesic systems.

A Case-Crossover Study Of Laceration Injuries In Pork Processing, Lina Lander, Gary Sorock, Terry L. Stentz, Lynette Smith, Murray Mittleman, Melissa J. Perry

Department of Construction Engineering and Management: Faculty Publications

Objectives— The authors estimated the associations between transient risk factors and laceration injuries in workers at two meatpacking plants in the Midwest.

Methods— The case-crossover design was used to collect within-subject transient work task and personal-level exposure information. RRs of laceration injuries were estimated by comparing exposures during the ‘hazard’ period (just before the laceration injury) with exposures in the ‘control’ period (the previous workweek). Stratified analyses were utilized to estimate the effects of gender, ethnicity, training and the number of adjacent coworkers on each transient risk factor.

Results— The authors interviewed 295 meatpacking workers with laceration injuries (mean age …

Microencapsulation Of Self-Healing Concrete Properties, James Gilford Iii

LSU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT Recent studies in the literature have demonstrated the ability of self-healing processes to be effective in enhancing the overall life of concrete. The main goal of this project is to evaluate and to control specific parameters for the production of an effective self-healing matrix that can be utilized within the application of self-healing concrete. Therefore, the project objective is to synthesize microcapsules using dicyclopentadine and sodium silicate and to evaluate the effects of pH, temperature, and agitation rate on microcapsule morphology. The microcapsule diameter, yield analysis, and shell thickness were characterized using scanning electron microscopy. During the experimental analysis, …