https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660 ICSC15 2015 The Canadian Society for Civil Engineering 5th International/11th Construction Specialty Conference provides the opportunity for Researchers and practitioners of construction from around the world sharing the most recent innovations and developments in the construction industry. Held at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, June 7-10, 2015 in partnership with the American Society of Civil Engineers Construction Institute (Construction Research Congress 2013 CRC), the US Con 60 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076427 During the past few decades, the construction industry has been exposed to “sustainable construction” processes, which address the triple bottom line (TBL) that is the environmental, economic, and social dimensions of sustainability, during the entire life cycle of a building. Due to the importance of sustainable construction, it is imperative to comprehensively assess the sustainability of the built environment, such as buildings. A significant step to evaluate the sustainability of buildings is investigating the existing building sustainability performance indicators (SPIs). In this paper, a list of building SPIs, including environmental, economic, and social, has been developed through conducting a content‐analysis based literature review. The literature includes sustainable building rating systems such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Green Globes, Living Building Challenge (LBC), among others. In addition, other published literature related to sustainable construction is reviewed. Similar SPIs or those which have some overlaps are combined or modified. Finally, refined TBL SPI sets are created, which can be used for sustainability assessment of buildings. The results of this study indicate that among various environmental performance criteria used in different publications, 16 SPIs are the most significant ones. In addition, a total number of 9 SPIs and 12 SPIs are identified as the most commonly used criteria related to the life cycle economic and social performance of buildings, respectively. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076427 Sat, 18 Nov 2023 04:30:25 -0800 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0380326 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0380326 Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:02:19 -0800 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076324 This research aimed at revealing and characterizing the influence of change events or reasons on cost and schedule performances. The specific objectives were to assess the frequencies of various change reasons with respect to cost and schedule deviations, and to assess the impact intensities of such change events or reasons on performance. Initially, a team of industry experts identified a total of 36 change types and grouped them in 9 major change categories. Then, change log information for 135 completed projects was statistically analyzed to quantify the intensity, frequency, and impact of changes on cost and schedule performances. The most recurrent types of change events for both cost and schedule were associated with issues related to construction productivity; planning; supplier and subcontractor; scope errors and omissions; design or engineering errors and omissions; or engineering productivity issues. In addition, this study quantified the specific impact on cost and/or schedule from a change event or reason. Specifically, this study provides evidence that fairly infrequent change events tend to cause large impacts on performance. The results from this study are likely generalizable, since the retrospective project data was representative of multiple project types, sectors, and organizational roles, among other project facets. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076324 Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:02:16 -0800 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076322 Accurately forecasting cost is vital to the success of any construction project. Cost estimation encompasses uncertainty, since construction projects are exposed to many forms and degrees of risk. Materials price volatility and shocks constitute one aspect. Most current approaches for material risk assessment are deterministic and do not take into consideration material price fluctuation. The application of hedging, to mitigate the risk of construction material price fluctuations, is proposed in this research. Although it is known that using hedging as a risk management tool adds value to a financial firm, limited knowledge has been established about using hedging for construction material price risk mitigation. Hedging has also been a practice applied in the airline industry for a long time, and substantive research has been completed in the field of airline fuel hedging. The objective of this research is to identify best practices in the area of airline fuel hedging to provide an outline for implementation in the construction industry, and to develop a step-by-step guideline to applying materials hedging in the construction industry. This is considered to be the first attempt to match construction material hedging with the airline fuel hedging application. The guideline presented herein helps construction companies to apply hedging to mitigate the risk of construction material price fluctuations. This guideline improves construction companies’ ability to submit a very competitive bid on a specific project. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076322 Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:02:15 -0800 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076334 Linear programming is commonly used in earthwork hauling plan. However special expertise in forming and solving linear equations, along with considerable efforts in interpreting results, is required to apply these methods in practice. Moreover, previous methods mainly focus on cost estimation and thus largely ignore the constructability issues; this makes earthwork hauling plan impractical for construction planning. We aim to address these problems by introducing an intuitive graph based approach which optimizes the earthwork hauling plan using the minimum cost flow network. We choose the total traveling time as the objective function to be minimized in order to separate the earthwork hauling plan from other factors such as fleet combination. Our method directly connects adjacent sections allowing accessibility between them, instead of connecting the centers of cut and fill cells as potential haul routes as in previous methods. As a result, the proposed method is capable to handle constructability issues caused by “soft blocks” -which cannot be eliminated in establishing the standard flow network as their existence impose constraints on the grading plan. The graphic earth flow network can be used to guide the execution of the earthwork project and generate multiple grading plans, providing more flexibility compared to traditional methods. We present an earthmoving example with a reserved soft area and show that the proposed method is graphically intuitive, easy to establish and able to handle soft blocks. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076334 Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:02:14 -0800 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076335 Maintenance of highway bridges built during the high economic growth period is performed based on their design drawings and as-built drawings. For these elevated highway bridges, however, drawings were produced on paper media at the times of design and completion; therefore, in many cases they have already been disposed, making it difficult to perform maintenance. In such a case, regenerating the detail design of the current status is required, but it takes huge cost. For this problem, a large number of researches have been made on automatic generation of three-dimensional models for maintenance of highway bridges from point cloud data obtained through MMS (Mobile Mapping System). However, it is hard to use the models generated in these researches because engineers do not consider the original geometric information of highways. Thus in this research, we aim to regenerate the CAD drawings of the superstructure of an elevated highway bridge, and propose a method for extracting alignment information of the elevated highway bridge from point cloud data of MMS. We verify the usability of our method and system by comparing the experimental data with surveyed drawings in our experiments. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076335 Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:02:13 -0800 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076370 Worker injuries and fatalities have long been problematic in the construction industry. To address this ongoing concern, recent research has focused on risk-based approaches to proactive safety management. Although the quantity and quality of safety risk data has improved in recent years, available data do not link directly to natural principles and are, therefore, limited in their application and scientific extension. This study offers a new explanation of safety risk using the concept of energy where the underlying proposition is that all hazards are truly defined by the exposure to one or more of ten distinct forms of energy (e.g., gravity, motion, electrical). This concept of safety energy was introduced by William Haddon, was operationalized in a past Construction Industry Institute (CII) research team, and is currently being tested by an active CII research team. The present study aims to link energy transfer to safety risk for the first time. Inspired by natural disaster modeling, the concept of energy is translated to risk by defining the severity of a potential event as the ratio of the magnitude of the energy to the resiliency of the impacted human body part and the pressure exerted on impacted body part. Additionally, the likelihood component of risk is defined by the combination of human, social, technological, and other factors that contribute to the chance that there is an unwanted transfer of energy. To test this proposition, energy-based risk data were extracted from two sources: (1) a random sample of 40 injury reports taken from a larger database containing approximately 7,250 injury reports obtained from 281 private construction organizations and (2) a random sample of National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (NIOSH FACE) reports. For each report, a combination of manual and automated content analyses was used to extract the following data: the chief energy source(s) contributing to the incident, the quantity of energy involved, the part of the body affected, and the severity of the outcome. Generalized linear models derived from initial results demonstrate that energy possesses legitimacy in predicting the severity of an injury that will result from a particular hazard, tentatively confirming the proposed theory. This research indicates that energy-based safety risk analysis is a promising line of scientific inquiry with predictive validity that has the potential to increase our understanding of the natural phenomena that contribute to injuries. This research corroborates previous hazard recognition research that introduced the energy principle of hazard classification but challenges the scientific merit of past safety risk data. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076370 Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:02:13 -0800 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076340 According to the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA 2012), 140 Billion CAD is required to maintain, rehabilitate, and replace subway infrastructure between the years 2010 and 2014. However, transit authorities are faced by a fund scarcity problem which is hindering them from addressing all the network rehabilitation requirements in an efficient manner. The solution according to the 2013 America’s infrastructure report card is to adopt a comprehensive asset management system to maximize investments. This research develops a risk assessment model for subway stations. Probability of failure of different subway elements are developed using Weibull reliability curves. Consequences of failure are measured against three predefined attributes these are financial, operational, and social impacts of failure. Finally, a criticality index measures the respective station criticality derived from its particular size, location in proximity to different attraction types, and, nature of use. A qualitative approach with the help of expert judgment is adopted to integrate the indices using the Fuzzy Analytic Network Process with application to Fuzzy Preference Programming. The three models are integrated into a fuzzy rule based risk index model to compute element and station expected risk index. The output of the model is a comprehensive risk index that can be used to prioritize elements across stations for rehabilitation. The model is verified through an actual case study comparing elements across six stations and computing probability of failure, consequence of failure, criticality and the risk index. This paper illustrates the general framework of the proposed methodology which will help decision makers prioritize stations and elements across stations for rehabilitation based upon their risk index. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076340 Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:02:11 -0800 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076353 Much research has been conducted on capital project sustainability in the last two decades, but most of the findings only provide guidelines for its implementation during facility planning or design. This nearly exclusive focus on early project phases has left the industry with the need for more detailed guidance on implementing construction sustainability practices during jobsite execution. With this need in mind, the Construction Industry Institute (CII) chartered Research Team (RT) 304, "Sustainability Practices and Metrics for the Construction Phase of Capital Projects", to develop this missing practical guidance. This paper overviews the findings and products of the research team. The team developed a catalog of 54 Construction Phase Sustainability Actions (CPSAs) for onsite implementation during the construction phase to increase overall project sustainability. Each CPSA is characterized in terms of corresponding construction functions, potential sustainability impact, influence on project performance (i.e., cost, schedule, quality, and safety), ease of implementation, barriers to implementation, conditions that leverage benefits, and output metrics. The research team also developed two spreadsheet-based tools—the CPSA Screening Tool and the CPSA Implementation Index—to facilitate CPSA implementation during construction. The screening tool enables users to prioritize the 54 CPSAs according to project characteristics, while the index tool assesses CPSA implementation levels. Through its validation efforts, the team determined that the current level of CPSA implementation across the industry is at approximately 60 percent, and that this rate should increase with the regular use of the CPSA catalog, screening tool, and implementation index. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076353 Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:02:10 -0800 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076342 Construction is one of the most dangerous job sectors over the world. Any accidents that happen on the construction sites will bring the sufferings to the workers and their families and incur the delays and costs to the projects. Therefore, it is necessary for the contractors to monitor potential site safety issued and comply with existing safety regulations all the time. One of fundamental safety regulations is hardhat wearing. The wearing of the hardhats is always mandated and should not be violated anytime on the construction sites. In this paper, a novel method is proposed to facilitate the monitoring of whether any persons on the construction sites are wearing hardhats as required by the safety regulations. The method is built upon computer vision techniques. Under the method, human bodies and hardhats are first detected in the video frames captured by real-time on-site construction cameras. Then, their pair-wise matching is found. For those persons without the matching of the hardhats, they are identified as not wearing hardhats. The proposed method has been tested on real site videos. The test results showed that multiple persons could be monitored even if they are not wearing any real-time location sensors or tags. The test results demonstrate the potential of using live streaming or time-lapse construction site videos to facilitate the safety monitoring work on construction sites. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076342 Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:02:09 -0800 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076326 Construction projects are complex systems and their behaviors are extremely dynamic throughout their life cycles. This complexity and dynamism makes them perfect candidates for system dynamics modeling for management purposes. However, ill-known variables, a lack of historical data, uncertainties, subjectivity, and the use of linguistic terms in defining construction variables all complicate the application of system dynamics in construction. Fuzzy logic is an artificial intelligence technique that has the ability to model vague, incomplete, linguistically-expressed, and subjective data in a precise way. Since the quality of system dynamics modeling relies significantly on the accuracy of the data, integrating system dynamics with fuzzy logic makes for a powerful construction project simulation tool. Integrated fuzzy system dynamics models can effectively capture the dynamic characteristics of construction projects and simulate them more precisely by using fuzzy logic to capture subjective and linguistically-expressed information. In this paper, we illustrate how fuzzy logic and system dynamics can be integrated for use in construction project simulation. Moreover, we present a review of potential applications of integrated fuzzy system dynamics models in construction. Finally, we compare the performance of system dynamics with integrated fuzzy system dynamics for a construction-related problem adopted from the literature, and discuss how integrating fuzzy logic can enhance system dynamics capabilities for construction modeling. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076326 Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:02:08 -0800 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076405 Poor workstation design in a manufacturing facility negatively impacts the health and safety of workers, which hampers productivity. A systematic tool, Physical Demand Analysis (PDA), is utilized in a case-study project to quantify and evaluate physical labour and body posture for various production line tasks in a window and door manufacturing company. This paper presents the implementation PDA focusing on the design of the PDA form template, plant observation, and ergonomic risk identification. The data collection methodology and the implementation of time studies for plant observation are described. Four main ergonomic risks are identified: static whole body posture, manual material handling, sensory problem, and awkward body postures. Detailed observation findings, risk assessment method, analysis results and suggested corresponding corrective measures with regard to these four risks are described in this paper. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076405 Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:02:07 -0800 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076321 Construction project management requires various knowledge, skills, techniques, and applications. Therefore, project management (PM) degree programs have to equip future project engineers and managers accordingly. However, literature has provided limited understanding about how extensive these knowledge areas (KAs) have been offered in these degree programs. The goal of this paper is to explore to what extent different KAs are taught in PM Master’s degree programs with emphasis in the construction industry. A survey was conducted with respondents who were academic staff responsible for these programs. Most of these programs under the current study were at institutions located in the U.K. and the U.S.A. Six KAs that had high percentage (50% or more) of construction programs offering more than ten teaching hours were time management and risk management (65%), procurement management, sustainability, and legal and ethical aspects (55%), and cost management (50%). In terms of relative teaching priority within a program, time management, risk management, sustainability, and cost management were frequently the top focus in these programs. Project scope, quality, and stakeholder management had the least teaching priorities among the PM KAs. While relative teaching priorities of many KAs were anticipated, the lowest teaching hours and priorities of project scope and quality management, and occupational safety and health were not expected as they were identified as major competencies for construction graduates. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076321 Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:02:06 -0800 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076358 Extensive time and effort are spent on inspecting and documenting construction defects for facilities under construction or in use. The goal of this study is to provide construction engineers and experts with a smart mobile application to efficiently record and document construction defects. This study first investigated typical inspection processes, data, and reports which were used in site inspections in practice. An Android-based mobile application called InSite Inspector (Intelligent Site Inspector) was then developed to facilitate site inspection and documentation. This smart app is able to: (i) take images and catalog details of construction defects such as defect types, construction trades, building components, and date and time; (ii) automatically locate defects using the global positioning system (GPS); and (iii) produce various types of reports for different inspection purposes such as punch lists and defect reports. The inspectors are allowed to customize the app features such as text entries, type of data to be recorded and/or reported to meet their specific inspection requirements. Additionally, the InSite Inspector allows engineers and experts to manage different construction sites, inspections, and to keep track of past and ongoing inspections. Finally, the app can be used to save, email, or upload the resulting reports to cloud-based repositories. An inspection case study was used to demonstrate the application and utilities of this development. The InSite Inspector is expected to significantly streamline site inspection and documentation processes. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076358 Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:02:05 -0800 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076355 Construction incidents have numerous root causes, but one of the most frequent is worker behavior. Therefore, construction safety management systems should be designed to maximize the number of safe behaviors by workers, and focus on the execution of construction safety management to achieve excellent safety performance. Operational excellence, a safety concept from the chemical processing industry, is defined as doing the right thing, the right way, every time – even when no one is watching. Good operational excellence results in effective reinforcement of appropriate safety systems, and significantly reduces the rate of unsafe behaviors. Researchers managed to embed the concept of operational excellence into construction safety management. Through an extensive literature review, discussions with industry experts on the topic, and subject matter expert validation, the researchers have developed an operational excellence model designed to evaluate and improve safety performance for construction organizations. This paper describes the model development process and the key elements included in the Operational Excellence Model (OEM). The primary contribution to the overall body of knowledge is developing a practical operational excellence model for practitioners to assess and improve safety performance through behavioral and cultural elements. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076355 Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:02:04 -0800 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076349 The construction public sector in Egypt, like most countries in the world, is tendering its projects through the traditional paper-based tendering procedure, which has many weaknesses including bureaucracy and lack of transparency. Due to the considerable volume of projects tendered each year, it was essential to study the possibility of implementing another more efficient mechanism “E-Tendering” that overcomes the drawbacks of the paper-based tendering procedure. This on-going research examines the readiness of the construction industry in Egypt to adopt E-Tendering for public tenders and provides recommendations to improve its uptake. This paper provides a model of the barriers, challenges and concerns of the Egyptian tenderers towards accepting and adopting E-Tendering. This is accomplished through extensive review of the literature together with expert identification and analysis. 19 challenges are highlighted and categorized into 4 categories: security challenges, user acceptance and staff resistance, accessibility issues and legal barriers. These challenges are then examined and ranked with respect to their importance by a panel of academic and industry experts to reflect the Egyptian public tendering context. The most important highlighted barriers are the SMEs access difficulties, the expected technical malfunctioning of the portal, the reluctance/resistance to change and the breach of confidentiality of information. These findings present a cornerstone in the development of a framework that presents practical solutions to the success of E-Tendering for the construction public projects in Egypt. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076349 Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:02:03 -0800 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076347 Adequate lighting is a necessity on construction sites not just for work completion, but also for the work quality, worker safety, and project productivity. This paper discusses the problems associated with traditional temporary lighting on construction sites and presents a case study on using LED temporary construction lighting as a potential solution. Various studies have shown that the traditional methods of providing temporary lighting are inadequate due to their non-compliance with OSHA requirements; visual discomfort; constant maintenance; and impacts to productivity, safety and health. On the other hand, studies have shown that using LED as a source of temporary construction lighting provides benefits over the traditional lighting system, even though such uses are still rare within the industry. Using LED for temporary construction lighting, however, is subject to the high initial materials cost and other drawbacks. To this end, the objective of the research is to provide a deeper understanding of LED temporary construction lighting and ascertain its benefits and limitations through a case study. The study involves the University of Washington’s Bothell Science and Academic Building Project. The study involves interviews with both the lighting system vendor and onsite project personnel; survey questionnaire distributed to the field workers; and cost analysis of the LED temporary lighting system. The case study concluded that the benefits of using LED temporary construction lighting outweighed its limitations, but the individual cost savings may belong to different parties and may not necessarily be passed on to the owner depending on the contractual arrangements. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076347 Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:02:02 -0800 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076419 Recent studies have attempted to automate monitoring progress of construction projects using 3D laser scanning or image based reconstruction methods. This paper presents a new methodology for monitoring using mobile hand-held devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. This is done by proposing a new developed android application called “BIM track” that the end-user can use to record the progress of activities (actual dates, percentage complete, and actual cost) from a remote location. BIM track is cloud-based which ads in speeding up the production of construction progress reports and improves data accuracy as it’s connected with Google drive using fusion tables that make the user able to combine/edit the data on the internet. As such, it is capable to collaborate, visualize, and share data through the internet to export the results into an Excel spreadsheet from the mobile application to a remote computer. In addition, the data can be imported to the Navisworks to update the project’s 5D model. Accordingly, time schedules, cost performance (CPI) and schedule performance index (SPI) can be calculated easily. In addition, such results can be shown in 5D model using Navisworks to compare actual progress versus the planned progress. BIM track android application can have an access to any uploaded project’s 3D model using Autodesk 360 as this application is integrated with BIM track. A case study is presented below to demonstrate the use of the proposed methods to track the project and to make a comparison between the actual and the planned progress of the project. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076419 Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:02:01 -0800 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076412 The Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA) estimated that transit infrastructure needed a total of 53 Billion Canadian Dollars in 2013. Subway networks form an essential part of the public transportation infrastructure. Several surface defects may develop on subway infrastructure facilities, of which the most commonly identified are cracks, scaling, spalling, delamination, moisture marks, and efflorescence. These distresses participate not only in degrading the structure aesthetically, but in increasing the deterioration mechanisms of its components, taking into account the severe environmental conditions and continuous heavy loads that the structure is subjected to during its service life. High deterioration rates may cause the closure of subway system, therefore condition assessment of subway networks represents a crucial yet challenging task in the sustainability of a sound concrete infrastructure. Visual inspection techniques are considered the principal methods used in the condition evaluation of civil infrastructure. These methods are time-consuming, expensive, and depend inherently on subjective criteria. Several models have been proposed by previous researchers to assess the condition of subway systems. However, all of the developed methods were dependent on the visual inspection reports, hence they lacked the objectivity in quantifying and estimating the severity of defects. Therefore, a robust model that can detect the distresses and compute their severity needs to be developed. This paper defines the details of the recently introduced procedure based on image processing and assessment techniques. A five phased process is presented for accurate condition assessment of subway networks. The developed methodology utilizes data acquisition tools for collecting images of different elements in subway networks. Multiple algorithms are utilized to detect, interpret and measure surface defects, such as binary transformation, histogram equalization, image dilation, and hole filling. A case study from Montreal subway system was used to exemplify the application of the developed method. The results prove the potential benefits of the proposed methodology in identifying and quantifying surface defects. This research concludes the reliability of image-based data model in terms of accuracy, efficiency, and ease of analysis. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076412 Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:02:00 -0800 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076386 Assessment of true project progress and performance is of critical importance in the successful delivery of construction projects. Major challenges related to measuring project progress and performance are the lack of consistent, reliable, and objective metrics and indicators and the lack of appropriate interpretation of these data for establishing suitable corrective action plans. The objective of this paper is to provide a review of existing applied knowledge and practices pertaining to methods, metrics and indicators for progress measurement, performance assessment and forecasting, as well as performance influencing factors, evaluating the shortcomings of the current approaches, and providing recommendations for improvement. The findings of this paper are primarily based on a comprehensive literature review and limited discussions with industry experts in the following areas: (1) methods and metrics used for progress measurement, (2) metrics and indicators used for performance assessment and forecasting, and (3) other metrics that can influence project progress and performance (e.g., risk, safety, and quality). Several industry and academic publications are reviewed including the reports from the Construction Industry Institute (CII), guidelines developed by professional organizations (e.g. Project Management Institute, Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering International), and scholarly publications. Industry experts serving on the CII research team (RT-322) also provide their insights. Based on the extensive review of the relevant literature, this paper identifies limitations of various measures, metrics and indicators across different project control levels. A framework depicting the current project control process is provided along with a gap analysis related to the problems associated with this approach. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076386 Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:01:59 -0800 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0371597 Panelized construction offers benefits to the construction industry including energy savings and reductions in carbon emissions and waste. This research addresses the sustainability of panelized residential construction during the framing phase, which consists of panel fabrication in the plant, transportation to the site, and on-site assembly. This study is conducted in collaboration with Landmark Building Solutions (LBS), a panel manufacturer in Edmonton, Canada. Two tasks with respect to assessing the sustainability of panelized construction are carried out in this research: (1) The positive impact of panelized construction on the construction schedule is evaluated by utilizing archived schedule data. In this task, the cycle time of framing for panelized construction is investigated; the results are compared with those of conventional stick-built construction, and the impact of framing cycle time on on-site winter heating is addressed. (2) The benefits of panelized construction are measured in terms of construction waste reduction by quantifying the recyclable and non-recyclable waste. The results are compared with those of the stick-built method, and the impact on embodied emissions in material waste is addressed. The primary data source is archives of the industry partner, including accounting records and construction records. A literature review and comparison are carried out to provide the necessary context for achieving the research objective. The preliminary results support the sustainability of panelized construction compared with the conventional stick-built method. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0371597 Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:01:58 -0800 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076497 The article deals with issues of the use of photoreactors with growing algae as an element of urban construction. Using microalgae photobioreactors can solve multiple tasks: getting a third-generation biofuels, carbon dioxide recycling, wastewater disinfection, oxygen regeneration, and water purification from nutrients. The paper considers a wastewater purification plant where the major element is such a photoreactor. As examples of such a kind of facilities, we could mention as follows: BIQ House, Hamburg International Building Exhibition; Urban Algae Canopy Module by ecologic Studio; photoreactors at the incineration plant, Alcéade Nantes, France; etc. Unlike the existing projects, we study all the system as a whole. Considered treatment facility includes an algae photobioreactor, a bacterium mineralizer and a desilter as well as a control system that regulates concentration of biogens, oxygen, and carbon dioxide by governing flow between devices. The article investigates the opportunity of incorporation of the photobiological treatment facilities into a building’s architectural shell. Structurally, we propose to make the main technological nodes from the translucent membrane of Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE). Photoreactors with algae are placed on the building facade. That location significantly reduces the required area and provides optimal natural lighting. It also allows using solar radiation for heating and adaptive lighting. The construction form is optimized with using a genetic algorithm. The engineering solution which is given in this article can be used for already existing treatment plants as well as for urban structure directly. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076497 Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:01:57 -0800 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076505 Working on a construction project requires making important decisions quickly and frequently. Most of these decisions are made under risk in that the outcomes are not known, but their probabilities and impacts can be estimated, however imprecisely. Deciding to pave, given temperature predictions, is an example of such a decision. When the impacts are aggregated, they can represent a non-negligible amount compared to project budgets. Understanding project leaders’ behaviour when they make such decisions under risks may create opportunities to avoid future losses that result from suboptimal choices. As those decisions are numerous on a construction project, it might be difficult for the project leaders to always make the best choice. By using a questionnaire referring to potential construction project situations, this study shows how some behavioural tendencies can influence the choices of construction leaders. This paper mainly focuses on one aspect of the study, which is the impact of the certainty effect on projects leaders’ decision making. It demonstrates how project leaders are sensitive to the behavioural tendency associated with the certainty effect. This observation leads to the question of how to detect those problems and, how to correct them so as to avoid non-negligible loss of money for construction projects https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076505 Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:01:56 -0800 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076500 Natural disasters leave the impacted regions with financial burdens both on the individual and governmental levels. Thus, the goal of the associated stakeholders is to maximize the host communities’ welfare through minimizing their post-disaster financial burdens. Accordingly, this paper attempts to find a post-disaster insurance plans equilibrium so as to mitigate the financial impacts associated with the natural disasters. Utilizing an evolutionary game theory approach, the equilibrium is investigated between three different players including: resident families purchasing insurance plans; insurance companies offering different insurance plans; and the government agency that implements post disaster relief financial plans. The authors determined a set of decision actions as well as utility functions for the aforementioned stakeholders. Moreover, the authors created a hypothetical sample of 1,000 heterogeneous income level resident families, three insurance companies offering three unique and different insurance plans per company and two post disaster financial relief plans to be utilized by the government agency. The proposed model was implemented on NetBeans IDE 7.4 platform using JAVA programming language on the hypothetical case study simulating resident family evolutionary learning process in reaching an equilibrium. The results indicate that: (1) resident families tend to prefer insurance plans with the least premium value and coverage; (2) insurance plans with the most comprehensive coverage received the least demand; and (3) the evolutionary stable strategy path oscillates between chosen plans and insurers over time as a result of the stochastic and dynamics nature of the factors associated with disaster management. Currently, the authors are working to develop the model further to better account for simultaneous actions by all stakeholders (not only resident families), population growth and changes in financial and income standards. Ultimately, this evolutionary game theory model will be tested on real post natural disasters data representing physical damages in coastal Mississippi Counties post Katrina, so as to determine the significant increase in the host community welfare. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076500 Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:01:55 -0800 https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076501 The architecture, engineering, construction and owners (AECO) industry plays a vital role in a country’s economy, and has a great impact on its society and on the local and global environment. Focussing on the performance and the impact of their respective AECO industries, government bodies around the world are increasingly pushing to transform current practices to maximise the value generated by this industry. Recent innovative approaches, notably building information modeling (BIM), integrated approaches (either integrated project delivery (IPD) or integrated design processes (IDP)) and Lean construction, show promise in providing many improvements. However, many challenges and obstacles are hindering the deployment of these approaches; a lack of strong client demand chiefly among them. In response to this, many countries have developed strategies to encourage and accelerate the pace of adoption of these innovative approaches. This often is prompted by requirements for suppliers to implement one or more of these innovations on all their publicly procured projects. The various levels of governments in Canada however have yet to follow suit in this regard. As a consequence, the Canadian AECO industry is seen to be lagging in its adoption of BIM and integrated approaches to project delivery. While certain projects have emerged as beacons of enlightened practice in the Canadian context, it remains that the vast majority of projects are still being delivered in a traditional fashion, with the well-known limitations this entails. This paper investigates the contextual challenges in adoption and implementation of BIM and integrated approaches in the Canadian AECO industry. The objective is to identify challenges and opportunities to create favourable context that ensures that the Canadian AECO industry remain competitive in the face of increasing global competition by leveraging the potential significant benefits of these innovative approaches. This paper is based on a review of the literature of various initiatives around the world. The paper lays out six key factors, which are seen as drivers for the adoption and implementation of BIM and integrated approaches in other countries, and discusses their implication in the Canadian context. Notably, the need for a national policy that structures the adoption and implementation BIM and integrated approaches; the need for leadership from the public sector; the importance of constituent organizations acting as a voice for industry; and the need for investments in research and development. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/52660/items/1.0076501 Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:01:54 -0800