Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Design, Schedule, And Cost Estimate For New Cal Poly Football Office Building, Kyle Mccallum Reid

Construction Management

Around the nation, college football programs are building new football facilities to help their current players, coaches, and staff members succeed. These facilities can be additions to current buildings or completely new structures that have multiple functions. A common facility that is built is the football office building. New football office buildings are beneficial for programs because it gives players, coaches, and staff members a central location where coaches can hold meetings and players can interact with each other and support staff. These structures help bring everything that goes on in a football program come together. Because of the importance …

The Efficacy Of Orange Lane Delineations In Highway Work Zones, Neetu Kaur Sidhu

Construction Management

With over 100,000 crashes in the work zone per year, it is essential that we as builders discover and implement innovative solutions to maximize field crew and public safety in high traffic areas. A recent trend in the Heavy Civil Construction industry has been the implementation of temporary fluorescent orange striping in active highway work zones. When traditional white or yellow lane markings are removed, a faint residue is left behind and as construction crews repeatedly shift lanes, multiple overlapping removal scars begin to create confusion for drivers that leads to an increased risk of crashes. To eliminate this confusion …

Determining Student Interest For A Virtual Reality Safety Training Course, Courtney Martin

Construction Management

The purpose of Cal Poly’s Construction Management Department is to provide students with the best education they can get so they can be prepared for the challenges they may encounter in their professional careers. This research paper analyzes students' prior knowledge of virtual reality (VR) and determines the interest in creating a Construction Management (CM) technical elective covering VR and safety training which can help educate and train students about safety, hazardous jobsite situations, and accident prevention measures. This paper also examines the advantages of a VR construction training course taught on campus compared to online training without VR. VR …

An Analysis Of Construction Estimating Software, Guilianna M. Lozano

Construction Management

There are various components that go into building a construction project. And regardless of the size of the project, construction projects have become increasingly expensive with cost escalations on the rise. The cost element of each construction project is critical to the success of the overall project. In today’s current industry, numerous resources are available that strive to assist the built environment with managing construction costs. Currently, construction firms are maintaining a competitive edge by using the technology that has been made available. The basis of this research, conducted using a quantitative survey, was to provide data that indicated which …

Gauging Student Interest In A Leed Ga Exam Preparation Technical Elective Course, Hailey Lancaster

Construction Management

Being a LEED Green Associate (LEED GA) demonstrates a fundamental understanding of sustainable building principles and practices. Since green building is at the forefront of construction, there is no better way for Construction Management students to enter the industry prepared in this area than by taking the LEED General Associate exam. This paper is a case study that obtains students’ perspectives on implementing a new Construction Management technical elective course that will prepare students to successfully take and pass the LEED GA exam. A survey was conducted to gauge student familiarity with sustainability, as well as their interest in earning …

Self-Performing Developers And General Contractors Working Together, Christian A. Blevins

Construction Management

One of the major goals for a general contractor during construction is to make a profit and for the owner, get the project built for the lowest amount possible. Just as general contractors have been opening self-performing divisions within their own company, owners are capable of self-performing certain aspects of a construction job as well. Owners have shown the capability to operate the project management aspect of construction in order to keep control of factors that are important to the owner and then form a joint venture or subcontract the entire construction management aspect of the project. The project management …

Construction Of Concrete Modular Foundations - Procurement And Quality Control, Jackson M. Runyan

Construction Management

This project details the material procurement and quality control processes throughout the construction of two concrete modular foundations. The project focused on constructing the blocks as they were designed to ensure they meet strength parameters to be used in the High Bay Lab at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) for various testing performed as part of the curriculum for the Architectural Engineering (ARCE) and Construction Management (CM) departments. The complex designs, encompassing one-hundred coupler attachments and a dense rebar cage, required extensive attention and hours of labor and quality control review. This paper will cover …

Landscape Storage Shed For Transitions-Mental Health Association, Jennifer Casey Knickerbocker

Construction Management

The purpose of this paper is to outline the process of planning, designing, and constructing a storage shed for the non-profit organization, Transitions-Mental Health Association (T-MHA). This project was developed through a Cal Poly Construction Management course, CM 420, Service and Experiential Learning. The goal of this class is to gain experience through physical construction by building a service project for an organization or person who needs it. For this project, T-MHA asked that a storage chest be built for their landscaper who maintains the on-site garden. Due to multiple change orders by the owner, what was originally going to …

San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden Children's Learning Center Deck - The Preconstruction, Dakota Reynolds

Construction Management

This project team consisted of three construction management majors and one architectural engineering student. The goal of this project was to build a deck at the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden, but due to setbacks in design, permitting, and communication with the owner, the group was unable to achieve this goal. The goal then shifted, and this group focused on delivering a preconstruction package that would be given to new students to build the deck. In addition, the architectural engineer will still be a part of this new group to make sure the project runs smoothly. This pre-construction package includes …

Firstfruits Farm Tractor Shed, Gerardo Martinez, Kiana Dehpanah

Construction Management

Preconstruction lays the foundation for the overall outcome of a construction project. This project phase includes a detailed schedule, outlines the scope of work, and provides an overall estimate for the project. Devoting a sufficient amount of time and effort into the preconstruction phase is crucial. Preconstruction is an important component of what makes the entirety of a construction project successful. Preconstruction work also includes finding funders to cover the costs of material. Preconstruction and the construction for a tractor shed were completed for FirstFruits Farm in San Luis Obispo. The construction portion of this project relied on the successful …

Refining The Construction Communication Cal Poly Technical Elective Course, Anna Dissman

Construction Management

Communication is one of the most necessary parts in what makes a project successful in the construction industry. Normally, successful communication skills are developed through experience over time in this industry. When looking into the Construction Management (CM) program at California Polytechnic State University of San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly), a lack of direct focus on multiple key communication skills is present. Furthermore, a new CM communication technical elective should be taught to focus and reinforce the communication skills needed for careers of future students post graduation. By crafting and distributing a well-thought out survey, new knowledge from the perspectives …

Cvaf: Service Dog Kennel Construction, Spencer G. Allen

Construction Management

The California Veterans Assistance Foundation Service Dog Kennel Construction gave back to our country’s veterans by constructing new kennels for their service dogs. The previous kennel on the veteran residential site needed an upgrade due to the increased number of service dogs at the shelter. A team of two Cal Poly Construction Management students consisting of Spencer Allen and Luke Terrio worked to design, estimate, coordinate, and construct a new kennel structure for the site. The roles were divided on the project between the preconstruction and construction phases. During preconstruction Spencer’s role was to schedule the job and create the …

Girls Build Summer Academy Leadership Summit, Itzell Ruiz

Construction Management

This paper highlights the activities and presentations that will take place during the women in construction leadership summit prior to the Girls Build Summer Academy for high school girls. The leadership summit is a two-day event that will consist of presentations on important leadership and construction topics. The presentations will cover topics such as confidence, safety, leadership assessment activity, tool shop training, emerging trends, career paths, jobsite visit, and a women’s panel. This leadership summit will be implemented in the summer of 2023 and will take place at Cal Poly’s campus in the Construction Innovations Center. The scope of this …

Expanding On Leadership And Professional Skills For A Girls Build Summer Academy, Claire M. Gress

Construction Management

The construction industry has historically been male-dominated. Despite efforts by organizations and companies to encourage women to join the industry, there has been little progress in encouraging more women to enter the industry and getting them to stay. The construction management program at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo is developing and hosting a Girls Build Summer Academy to familiarize and encourage high school girls to explore construction as a career path. One segment of this boot camp includes leadership modules that will give the girls confidence and the skills they need to be successful leaders in construction. …

Design And Preconstruction Services For The Construction Of A Visitor Deck At City Farm Slo, Lane Lagomarsino

Construction Management

This paper will outline the process of designing and planning the construction of a visitor deck at City Farm of San Luis Obispo, which is a local non-profit. The deck was built for the purpose of providing an area for visitors to observe the agricultural land where City Farm educates the community on ecology, nutrition, and sustainable farming. The construction of the deck was completed by three fourth-year Construction Management majors: Lane Lagomarsino, Eric Cederstrom, and Brett Jones. Each project team member was responsible for their own aspect of the project planning and all members collaborated throughout the entire building …

Shallow-Water Wind Turbine Foundation, Andrew Walker, Nico Nani, James Cusanelli, Zachary Dunkelberger

Mechanical Engineering

Over the 2021-2022 academic year, we, the Shallow Water Wind Turbine Foundation senior project team, designed, manufactured, and tested a fixed bottom, sand mounted turbine foundation for the Cal Poly Wind Power Club’s Collegiate Wind Competition turbine. The foundation was restricted to certain material, installation, and geometric constraints outlined in this report, and needed to support the turbine under operating conditions including 22 m/s wind speeds. The design was analyzed using primarily a bearing capacity geotechnical analysis to determine final geometry and weight. The foundation was then manufactured using welded, custom carbon steel parts.

The foundation was inspected for geometric …

Effects Of Experimental Scale On The Adsorption Of Two Pharmaceutical Drugs Detected In Municipal Wastewater Effluent, Michael Moore

Master's Theses

Pharmaceutical drugs are being produced and consumed in increasing quantities every year and are poorly treated by conventional wastewater treatment processes, leading to increasing detection of such compounds in surface water, groundwater, and municipal drinking water. Soil aquifer treatment (SAT) is a promising method for treating these emerging compounds through combined adsorption and degradation of target compounds in soil. This thesis examines the consistency of results from typical studies like adsorption isotherms and soil columns utilized in analysis of SAT performance, across varying experimental scales. The adsorption behavior of two pharmaceuticals was investigated as a function of experimental scale and …

Design, Fabrication, And Testing Of Mechanical Hinges With Snap-Fit Locking Mechanisms In Rigid Origami Structures, Colby James Scanlon

Master's Theses

The ancient art of ‘origami’ has recently become the source of inspiration for engineers to create structures that can unfold from a compact state to a fully deployed one. For instance, researchers have currently adopted origami designs in various engineering disciplines, including aerospace engineering, robotics, biomedical engineering, and architecture. In particular, architects have been interested in designing origami-inspired rigid walled structures that can be deployed as disaster-relief shelters. This type of design has three main advantages: transportability, constructability, and rigidity. Although there has been increased interests in deployable structures, limited research has been conducted on evaluating their structural performance, specifically …

Paso Robles Police Department Shooting Range Shade Structure, Evan Marshall Cogswell

Construction Management

The Paso Robles Police Department has been a partner for multiple senior projects working to develop improvements for their shooting range. The shooting range is used extensively by officers year-round, with the climate being hot in the summer and rainy in the winter. We wanted to provide a shade structure located between the two shipping containers used for storage so that the officers would have a sheltered place to provide instruction, clean their weapons, and rest in between rounds on the range. This type of project was new to all three of us in the group – Parker Smith, Kevin …

Electrochromic Windows: Return On Investment Analysis, Thomas Michael Caprio

Construction Management

In recent years, sustainability in construction has become a topic of undeniable interest. With sustainability certifications becoming more prominent and desirable, members of the construction industry have begun to seek alternatives for standard systems to keep up with market trends. One of the main issues that the construction industry faces is accessibility of technology. While there are new products and technologies being released frequently, members of the construction industry lack knowledge on the specific details and implications of working with newer systems. One piece of technology that was recently introduced is electrochromic glass, or smart glass. Electrochromic windows analyze sunlight …

Precast Concrete Manufacturing Business Plan, John F. Will Jr.

Construction Management

The Central Coast of California has been under development since the Great Recession of 2008. Throughout this development, there has been an exceedingly high demand for precast concrete products, specifically in the civil sector of the construction industry. These products are being utilized by more and more by contractors around the world. This demand has emerged from the lack of concrete product manufacturers in this region of California. This project introduces a business plan for a new precast concrete product manufacturer by the name of J.W. Concrete Products LLC. The objective of this business plan is to reflect the benefits …

Installation Of Electrical System For Paso Robles Police Department, Jacob M. Studebaker, Peter D. Strykers

Construction Management

This paper outlines the process that Peter Strykers and Jacob Studebaker went through to set up the lighting and power system for the Paso Robles Police Department gun range located off highway 46. Before our installation, the gun range had zero lighting so the officers could not use it after sunset. We allowed the officers to light the gun range with outdoor LED lights, light up both the storage units on site, and have access to multiple outlets inside and out of the storage units. The power source that the electrical system runs on comes from a Kubota generator because …

Installation Of Electrical System For Paso Robles Police Department, Peter D. Strykers, Jacob M. Studebaker

Construction Management

This paper outlines the process that Peter Strykers and Jacob Studebaker went through to set up the lighting and power system for the Paso Robles Police Department gun range located off highway 46. Before our installation, the gun range had zero lighting so the officers could not use it after sunset. We allowed the officers to light the gun range with outdoor LED lights, light up both the storage units on site, and have access to multiple outlets inside and out of the storage units. The power source that the electrical system runs on comes from a Kubota generator because …

Impacts Of Pandemic-Induced Material Price Escalation On Construction Estimation And Bidding, Chancellor G. Giessinger

Construction Management

The COVID-19 pandemic introduced new severe supply chain bottlenecks in the construction industry. These bottlenecks reduced the availability of a wide variety of critical construction materials, which created a scarcity that has raised material prices at an unprecedented rate and extended lead times for some materials by months. This poses new challenges for contractors with pressure from owners to deliver ongoing contracts with fixed, pre-pandemic contract pricing and for estimators seeking to bid new projects with unforeseeable future material pricing. The objective of this research to focus on contractors operating within the state of California and their primary challenges in …

Assessing The Impact Of Bicycle Infrastructure And Modal Shift On Traffic Operations And Safety Using Microsimulation, Katherine E. Lee

Master's Theses

A transportation system designed to prioritize the mobility of automobiles cannot accommodate the growing number of road users. The Complete Streets policy plays a crucial part in transforming streets to accommodate multiple modes of transportation, especially active modes like biking and walking. Complete streets are referred to as streets designed for everyone and enable safety and mobility to all users. A strategy of complete streets transformation is to connect isolated complete street segments to form a complete network that improves active mobility and public transit ridership.

This research assessed the impact of efficiently and equitably connecting and expanding the biking …

Living Off The Grid With Renewable Energy: A Case Study, Jake Reid O'Balle

Construction Management

The trend towards green, sustainable living is on the rise and the benefits are continuing to make noise in the world of homeowners. In this project, the benefits of renewable energy and consumer preferences were analyzed and applied to off-grid living in the form of a case study. It was found that the majority of homebuyers are concerned about the environment and wanted an environmentally friendly home but are not willing to pay more in order to achieve these desires. This information spurred the need for a detailed assessment of the feasibility of sustainable off-grid living. After conducting extensive research, …

A Case Study Comparing Panelization And Modularization Construction Methods, Tuukka Juhani Jaakkola

Construction Management

Construction industry is notoriously inefficient industry with a lot of room for improvement. Construction companies are constantly looking to increase their efficiency. NCC Finland decided to explore the method of modular construction as part of the efforts to increase production. NCC also happened to build a similarly sized project with the more traditional method of panelization and tilt-up construction. This Case study explores the experience of NCC as the general contractor of both projects. The aim is to understand the differences of the challenges and benefits experienced by the team from NCC. The findings show that Modular construction offers wide …

Investigating Student Interest In The Addition Of A Construction Law Topics Course, Flint D. Merrill-Gehrke

Construction Management

In the Construction Management program, our goal is to prepare for the responsibilities imposed upon us during a construction project. A major responsibility among these is navigating the complex legal relationships inherent to a construction project. While Cal Poly offers one Construction Law course, students are underprepared for what they will face. This project is designed to gauge interest from the Cal Poly Construction Management student body in the addition of a Construction Law topics course. It also aims to understand if additional legal studies would better prepare students for their entrance into the industry. Students were asked to answer …

Creating A Demolition Topic Course, Eli Jeremiah Lipton

Construction Management

Demolition is as old as construction itself and has always played an integral role in the construction process. That is, however, not the reality of the Construction Management (CM) program at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly). The current curriculum covers a wide range of topics and prepares students to be able to join any residential, commercial, and heavy civil projects. These projects all have something in common, the demolition process. Undergraduates are not prepared with the basic demolition knowledge to be successful in the industry. Demolition is overlooked at Cal Poly and is not a primary focus in any …

The Development And Evaluation Of A New Trench Safety Equipment, Joshua D. Clesi

Construction Management

One of the most dangerous works in construction is trench work and excavation. Fatalities that range from permanent injuries to death happen to construction workers every day, not having a lot of alternatives to prevent unfortunate incidents such as cave-ins and shoring failures. What this paper is proposing is a new invention that may solve this ongoing problem with trench safety. The idea is a crane-like lift attached to the back of a pick-up truck that will vertically lift people out of the trenches in a matter of seconds before shoring collapses or the trench caves in. This project primarily …