269 publications from this institution
In this study, neural networks were used to predict the outcome of construction litigation. Disagreements between the owner and the contractor can arise from such considerations as interpretation of the contract, changes made by the owner, differing site conditions, acceleration and suspension of work, and so forth. When there are disagreements between the contractor and the owner, the result is the inefficient use of resources and higher costs for both the owner and the contractor, as well as damage to the reputation of both sides. Neural networks may help to predict the outcome of construction claims that are normally affected by a large number of complex and interrelated factors. Data composed of characteristics of cases and circuit and appellate court decisions were extracted from cases filed in Illinois appellate courts in the last 12 years. A network was trained using these data, and a rate of prediction of 67% was obtained. If the parties to a dispute know with some certainty how the case would be resolved if it were taken to court, it is believed that the number of disputes could be reduced greatly.
The accurate prediction of the future condition of bridge components is one of the vital parts of any bridge management system (BMS). Two different methodologies are proposed to determine the deterioration rates of bridge components after improvement works. Ratings data associated with 2601 bridges for which records were available in the Illinois Structure Information System database in the period 1976 to 1998 were analyzed and the results of the two methodologies are compared. Both methodologies consistently showed that the rate of deterioration of reconstructed bridge decks is remarkably faster than the rate of deterioration of new decks.
This paper discusses the findings of a study conducted under the direction and supervision of the ASCE Committee on Management Practices in Construction (MPIC) to investigate the expectations of the parties involved in the construction process including designers, general contractors, subcontractors, owners, construction managers (CMs), and educators, relative to construction managers' duties and responsibilities. Statistical analysis was conducted to investigate if consensus exists among the parties and to highlight the agreements and disagreements between them. The findings were compared against the findings of an identical study also commissioned by MPIC 10 years before this study was performed. This study raises awareness among project participants about the fact that they should reconcile their differences and have a common understanding of CM duties over all phases of the construction project since general agreement over CM duties makes CM scope negotiations all the easier.
The difficulties that are met in construction projects include budget issues, contractual time constraints, complying with sustainability rating systems, meeting local building codes, and achieving the desired quality level, to name but a few. Construction researchers have proposed and construction practitioners have used optimization strategies to meet various objectives over the years. They started out by optimizing one objective at a time (e.g., minimizing construction cost) while disregarding others. Because the objectives of construction projects often conflict with each other, single-objective optimization does not offer practical solutions as optimizing one objective would often adversely affect the other objectives that are not being optimized. They then experimented with multi-objective optimization. The many multi-objective optimization approaches that they used have their own advantages and drawbacks when used in some scenarios with different sets of objectives. In this chapter, a review is presented of 16 multi-objective optimization approaches used in 55 research studies performed in the construction industry and that were published in the period 2012–2016. The discussion highlights the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches when used in different scenarios.
Age-dependent failure in the construction industry is explored over two 11-year periods (1973-1983 and 1984-1994) by analysing the age distribution of failed construction companies in each year and computing age-specific failure probabilities over a 10 year period (1985-1994). The conflicting perspectives of organizational theory are reconciled by taking advantage of the complementary nature of the adaptationist and organizational ecology theories while the effects of the characteristics of the construction industry are also considered. The research findings reveal an age-dependent business failure pattern in the US construction industry where the risk of failure increases initially with increasing age, reaches a peak point and decreases thereafter as companies grow older. Newness of a construction company which implies lack of organizational learning and lack of legitimacy, appears to be the main factor explaining this pattern.
Learning lessons from past experiences, thereby avoiding the same mistakes and repeating successes achieved in the past can enhance a construction company's competitiveness in the marketplace. Almost every existing lessons learned system in the construction industry either tries to solve design-related problems or is limited to a specific type of project. The construction industry has been inadequate in capturing the lessons learned from its projects relative to construction management practices. The objective of this study is to create a lessons learned system that allows a construction company to acquire, store, retrieve, and disseminate lessons learned about construction management practices. For this purpose, construction management practices were categorised into 12 main categories that were in turn broken down into five hierarchical levels of subcategories; the relationships between the subcategories were systematically identified; and the information was organised into a database named 'CMAID' that allows easy input and retrieval of construction management-related lessons.
Collaboration is an important requisite in the multi-participant building design environment. The performance of a building as an end product is enabled via the collaborative efforts of project participants. The main objective of this paper is to identify the factors that affect the collaboration among the participants in the building design process. The related data is collected from the growing literature on collaborative design. Recent technological developments that serve a higher level of collaboration and the construction industry's efforts to improve building performance are also considered. A conceptual model is proposed to address the collaborative relationship between the participants of the building design process. The challenge is to enable collaboration by integrating the work performed by participants with diverse backgrounds, varying levels of expertise, and different perspectives. The implication of this research is that a good understanding of the factors that enhance collaboration between the parties involved in design not only enhances building performance, but also improves the competitiveness of building design firms.
Abstract: This article introduces a system called Construction Quality Management Audit (CQMA) Expert that assesses the performance of a quality management system (QMS) implemented in a construction firm. CQMA Expert is programmed by using MATLAB's GUI components and its Fuzzy Logic Toolbox. CQMA Expert's rule base is constructed using information obtained from auditors of QMSs. CQMA Expert imports the quality requirements relative to the many quality management processes specified in ISO 9000, processes audit inputs, and generates consistent decisions relative to conformance to standards. It provides an interactive user interface for recording evidence collected during the audit and clearly states the reasons for the conclusions. It contributes to continuous quality improvement because (1) it enhances the maintenance of a QMS by quantifying its performance, (2) it assists with and facilitates the implementation of the duties of auditors in charge of assessing the performance of a QMS, (3) it simplifies the burdensome process involved in keeping track of the audit results of the many quality management processes investigated, and (4) it reduces the impact of the variability caused by the use of different auditors assessing different quality management processes. Case studies based on Section 4.11 of the ISO 9000 standard entitled "Control of inspection, measuring and test equipment" are used to illustrate the system and verify its usability and validity.
Increased student enrollment and the current poor state of the educational infrastructure require the construction of more school buildings and the renovation of many of the existing ones. The large number and magnitude of change orders in these projects constitute an impediment to the rapid and economic delivery of these projects. A total of 6,585 change orders filed in a school district's projects in the 5 1/2 year period from 1999 to 2004 were analyzed in five categories including owner-directed changes, code compliance issues, errors/omissions in contract documents, discovered or changed conditions, and others. The results of the study indicate that the dollar value of change orders relative to the original contract can be reduced if preventive measures are taken. These measures include choosing the right construction management firm, emphasizing the definition of project scope early in the project, and effectively managing the precontract activities by conducting value engineering and constructability reviews. The results indicate that school projects can be completed with change orders not exceeding 5% of the contract value if these measures are taken. This study is of relevance to practitioners involved in school design and construction projects.
All efforts for handling resources, including extraction, processing, transportation, and manufacturing require energy. Thus, energy is a very valuable, albeit an indirect resource in the development of any country. Dependence on energy has a direct impact on the environment as well as the cost of products. Sustainability efforts focus on minimizing environmental impacts within a reasonable cost. Green building rating and certification systems around the world handle energy-related issues by considering the regional priorities of the country where they were first introduced. Certification systems rely on standards that are in effect locally. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) was first introduced in the U.S. and is currently the most widely preferred green building certification system around the world. The “energy and atmosphere” category in LEED v4 NC amounts to 33 points, which corresponds to approximately 26.2% of the total points that a building can receive. Because LEED was first introduced in the U.S., it heavily relies on U.S. standards such as ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA, which limit its applicability in countries other than the U.S. In this study, the standards that are referred to in the energy-related categories of the Pearl Building Rating System (ESTIDAMA) of Abu Dhabi and LEED-India are analyzed and compared to the standards referred to by LEED v4 NC. It is hoped that the outcome of the study will provide valuable knowhow for professionals in other countries where efforts are underway to improve existing standards and/or to introduce new ones.
