Engineering Commons^™

Implementation, Design, And Cost Analysis Of A Concrete Washout System, Omar Adina

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

With the increase of environmental pollution in today’s world, many strategies and regulations are being enforced. These enforcements come from the state and federal governments, but public awareness is often overlooked. Stormwater regulations here in California have dramatically changed over the last decade, as the topic is investigated more often.

This senior project encompassed the design prototype and cost analysis of a permanent concrete washout station for the BioResource and Agricultural Engineering Department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The design parameters given were to construct a steel bin for the excess concrete to be dumped into during …

Flexible Residential Test Facility Instrumentation Plan, Florida Solar Energy Center, Robin Vieira

FSEC Energy Research Center®

This report provides the status of the instrumentation and a test plan for the facility. As this is the first Building America (BA) report on the facility, a description of the design and construction is included as well.

Analysis Of Uncontrolled Concrete Bridge Parapet Cracking, Jeffrey D. Bazzo

ETD Archive

The Ohio Transportation has recently identified the problem of wide-spread premature cracking of concrete bridge parapets throughout its District 12 region (Northeast Ohio). Many of the bridge decks that contain these prematurely cracked parapets are of relatively recent construction. In severe cases, replacement of the parapet may be required before replacement of the bridge deck itself. This incurs a sunk cost upon the bridge owner, as the parapets will again be replaced during the regularly scheduled replacement of the bridge deck. In a recent instance, the replacement of a cracked parapet (without replacing the deck) cost District 12 approximately $140,000. …

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.

Construction And Demolition Debris Recovery And Recycling In Orange County, Fl, Michael Stephen Toth Ii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 2008, the State of Florida established a recycling goal of 75% to be achieved by 2020. In response to the Florida goal Orange County (OC), Florida has made the development and implementation of an efficient strategy for landfill diversion of its solid waste a top priority. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) estimated that 23 % of municipal solid waste was generated by construction and demolition (C&D) activities in 2009, with only 30 percent of C&D debris being recycled. Therefore, OC decided to create a solid waste integrated resource plan (SWIRP) initially focused on the recovery and recycling …

A Framework For Process Data Collection, Analysis, And Visualization In Construction Projects, Reza Akhavian

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Automated data collection, simulation and visualization can substantially enhance the process of designing, analysis, planning, and control of many engineering processes. In particular, managing processes that are dynamic in nature can significantly benefit from such techniques. Construction projects are good examples of such processes where a variety of equipment and resources constantly interact inside an evolving environment. Management of such settings requires a platform capable of providing decision-makers with updated information about the status of project entities and assisting site personnel making critical decisions under uncertainty. To this end, the current practice of using historical data or expert judgments as …

Safety Issues Among Hispanic Construction Workers Along The Wasatch Front In Utah, Phavel Israel Loayza Chahuayo

Theses and Dissertations

During the last few decades immigration by foreigners seeking work in the construction industry in the United States has increased dramatically. Of those seeking jobs in construction, Hispanics represent the largest and fastest growing population. The proportion of reportable accidents among Hispanic on-site construction workers in the United States is higher than that of non-Hispanics. This trend of on-site construction accidents is evident not only in states that have traditionally high populations of Hispanics, such as New York, Florida, California, Arizona, and Texas, it is also manifested in the State of Utah. This research focused on causes of accidents among …

Combined Heat, Air Moisture And Pollutant Simulations (Champs) For Buildings, Jianshun Zhang, Menghao Qin

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering - All Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Improved Bridge Expansion Joints, Sudhir Palle, Theodore Hopwood Ii, Bobby W. Meade

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) has both open and closed bridge expansion joints and associated details that are problematic. Several state highway agencies (SHA) have joints that they believe are superior performers to other types and have prepared guidance documents for their use. A literature search indicated that several previous research studies, including national surveys, addressing SHA joint practices have been conducted over the past 10 years. For up-to-date information, a new set of surveys were developed and distributed to all the SHAs by email through the AASHTO Subcommittee on Maintenance-Bridge Technical Working Group chairman in June 2010. There were …

Fate And Transport Of Escherichia Coli Within Sediment Basins On Active Construction Sites, Elizabeth Tempel

All Theses

The conventional method of controlling sediment-laden runoff on construction sites is the use of sediment basins. These basins slow the velocity of runoff and allow the particles to settle from the water column before discharge to surface waters offsite. This best management practice, however, may create a reservoir for pathogenic bacteria. Sediment is known to provide protection for bacteria; therefore, while these basins decrease sediment loadings to water bodies downstream, they may introduce harmful levels of pathogenic bacteria into these surface waters. In addition to causing human health risks, these high bacteria levels alter natural biological makeup of downstream ecosystems. …

A Financial Impact Assessment Of Ld 1725: Stream Crossings, New England Environmental Finance Center, Muskie School Of Public Service

Water

This report looks at the potential financial impact of LD 1725 on the estimated 30,000 stream crossings in the State of Maine that would be affected by the law. Our research for this report included the analysis of nearly 2000 stream crossings and the data collection necessary for the development of extensive stream crossing replacement cost models. We found that the 1.2 bankfull requirements in LD 1725 would result in a 75% ‐ 250% increase in structure widths for stream crossing projects across the state. An upsize of this magnitude would increase the cost of replacing stream crossings statewide by …

A Financial Impact Assessment Of Ld 1725: Stream Crossings (Presentation), New England Environmental Finance Center, Muskie School Of Public Service

Water

This report looks at the potential financial impact of LD 1725 on the estimated 30,000 stream crossings in the State of Maine that would be affected by the law. Our research for this report included the analysis of nearly 2000 stream crossings and the data collection necessary for the development of extensive stream crossing replacement cost models. We found that the 1.2 bankfull requirements in LD 1725 would result in a 75% ‐ 250% increase in structure widths for stream crossing projects across the state. An upsize of this magnitude would increase the cost of replacing stream crossings statewide by …

Characteristics And Causal Factors Of Claims In Michigan Highway Construction Projects, Abel K. Sahlool

Wayne State University Dissertations

The US highway system is the largest road network system in the world. MDOT administers about 9,722 route-miles, (28,000 lane-miles) of roadway networks in Michigan. Every year, hundreds of projects worth millions of dollars are let by the State Transportation Agency (STA).

Majority of these projects are successfully completed within the original scope of work, budget, schedule, and without litigation. However; some projects end up in litigation and disputes costing tax payers a great amount of money and the STA a great amount of resources. The number and cost of these construction claims has been substantially increasing in recent years. …

Bs News January/February

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Culvert Material Cost Comparison, New England Environmental Finance Center

Water

The following tables provide a detailed look at the role that culvert material and culvert diameter play in the overall cost of a culvert replacement project.

Bs News November/December

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Rapid Construction Of Pacific Street Bridge, Kromel E. Hanna, George Morcous, Maher K. Tadros

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.

A Stochastic Hybrid Embodied Energy And Co2_Eq Intensity Analysis Of Building And Construction Processes In Ireland, Adolf Acquaye

Doctoral

Given a general lack of research on Irish construction greenhouse gas emissions, a subsectoral embodied carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-eq) analysis of this sector has been undertaken with the aim of overcoming some methodological challenges such as system boundary constraints, input-output aggregation, double counting of energy inputs and a general lack of data. Using this extended methodology, it is estimated that total embodied CO2-eq intensity of Irish construction in 2005 was 1,364gCO2-eq/€ with direct sub-sectoral embodied CO2-eq intensity averaging 56 gCO2-eq/€. Some 215gCO2-eq/€ is estimated to arise from domestic sources including 160gCO2-eq/€ from domestic indirect emissions. International arising emissions constituted 84% …

Bs News September/October

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Construction Cost Models, Barry Dikeman

Economics and Finance

The following are a series of cost estimate models similar in format to a typical engineer’s estimate that were developed in support of our financial impact assessment report for LD 1725. The models us current material costs, labor costs, and equipment costs for the region to provide a comparative cost analysis of seven culvert replacement scenarios. The models provide information about what the cost impact of LD 1725 would be for typical culvert replacements in Maine. However, due to the inherent restrictions of the cost modeling framework we were not able to include the abundance of variables that would be …

Bs News July/August

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Best Practices For Dealing With Price Volatility In Utah Commercial Construction, Justin Earl Weidman

Theses and Dissertations

In the commercial construction industry, the problem of price volatility as it pertains to materials and labor is a consistent problem. The changing instability of market conditions presents a challenge for construction companies to accurately estimate and complete projects within budget. This volatility can lead to higher costs and more risk to suppliers, contractors, and owners which can cause financial distress for all parties involved in the construction process. As lump sum contracts are typically being used on many projects, the owners seem to have the upper hand and are forcing contractors to honor lump sum contracts even when prices …

Bs News May/June

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Data Analysis Of Utah's I-80 And I-215 Bridges - For The Use In The Development Of Accelerated Bridge Construction Standards, Erik S. Rosvall

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study discusses five bridges on Utah's I-80 that were replaced in the summer of 2008 using Accelerated Bridge Construction methods. Each superstructure was built offsite and moved into place with the use of Self-Propelled Modular Transporters. The bridges were instrumented and monitored during the moving process to investigate the effects of moving an entire superstructure into place. Collected data was analyzed to find the level of stress each superstructure experienced during lifting, moving, and placement of each bridge.

The change in supporting conditions from when the superstructure was built to being transferred onto Self-Propelled Modular Transporters caused significant stress …

Bs News March/April

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Cloud Computing And Its Application In The Irish Construction Industry, Alan V. Hore, Roger West, Alan Redmond

Conference papers

The significance of Irish Small to Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) being more effective and efficient with eBusiness solutions in the construction industry has never been more evident than in today’s global economy. Through the development of a strong and proactive network the Construction IT Alliance (CITA) hope to create a platform for implementing the use of eBusiness in the SME community. This network will provide SME companies with a direction on how to improve their efficiency and effectiveness through the use of technology. At present CITA has identified a potential business solution that would make construction software more accessible by …

Development Of A Cloud Solution For Smes In The Irish Construction Industry, Alan V. Hore, Alan Redmond, Roger West

Conference papers

There is a strong emerging trend within the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector for replacing traditional packaged desktop applications with Web based, outsourced products and services. The drive for this innovative solution is its contribution to enabling software to be developed, delivered and consumed in discrete chunks (known as services) liberating the users from traditional computing and providing services accessible across a range of devices and appliances. The objective of this paper is to report on the progress towards defining this Web based service, commonly known as ‘Cloud computing’, for Small to Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) in the Irish construction …

Building Support For Coud Computing In The Irish Construction Industry, Alan Redmond, Alan V. Hore, Roger West

Conference papers

The construction industry has been traditionally recognised as a fragmented sector associated with a poor level of implementation and penetration of Information Communication Technology (ICT) by Small to Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs). Cloud computing is a collective term that can facilitate the ability to collaborate within a central repository that can act as a base for interoperability between various construction disciplines and their software applications. Cloud computing is a new layer of internet architecture that creates an open opportunity to add better functionality to an increasingly global network. The characteristics of cloud computing, such as, shared infrastructure, on-demand applications, elasticity …

Change Orders And Lessons Learned, Paul Goodrum, Timothy R. B. Taylor, William Lester, Alex Mccoy, Mohammed M. Uddin, Yongwei Shan

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Many times, change is necessary for the success of a project. “Change, defined as any event that results in a modification of the original scope, execution time, or cost of work, happens on most projects due to the uniqueness of each project and the limited resources of time and money available for planning” (Hanna, Camlic, Peterson,& Nordheim, 2002). While change orders are necessary to address unforeseen conditions and other unavoidable or unanticipated occurrences, they tend to negatively affect construction. In most public works, change orders are the main reason for construction delays and cost overruns (Wu, Hsieh, & Cheng, 2005). …

The Relationship Between Information Technology And Construction Productivity, Dong Zhai

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Over the past decades, information technology has been impacting industries, economics, the way of life and even the culture throughout the world. Productivity has been attracting much attention as an important indicator of economics, and numerous researchers have investigated the relationship between information technology and productivity. Construction is one of the largest industries in the United States, but little research has been conducted to investigate the relationship between information technology and construction productivity.

The major objective of this dissertation is to determine the degree (if any) to which information technology usage, specifically the use of information technology to automate and …