Search results for: construction firms

Authors: Kenneth O. Otasowie, Matthew Ikuabe, Clinton Aigbavboa, Ayodeji Oke

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The practice of feasibility studies plays a huge role in the success of construction projects. Feasibility studies according to several research should be the reason for embarking on any project. However, it has been discovered that in South Africa (SA), feasibility studies are mainly done in the private sector construction but skipped in the construction of most public projects. Hence, this study aims to evaluate the barriers to feasibility studies practice in public projects and the implications. A survey design was adopted. A total number of One hundred and fifty (150) questionnaires were administered to Quantity Surveyors, Construction managers, Construction project managers, Project managers, Architects and Civil and Structural engineers in Guateng Province, SA and ninety (90) were returned and found suitable for analysis. Collected data was analysed using percentage, mean item score, standard deviation, one-sample t-test. The findings show that political interference and corruption are the most significant barriers to feasibility studies practice in the public construction projects in SA, while late project completion, poor quality infrastructure are among the implication of not conducting feasibility studies in SA public projects. Therefore, the study recommends the development of a framework for public projects execution that will reduce the interference of the political class in the country, that way the risk of late project completion and poor quality infrastructure will be mitigated.

Keywords: arriers, feasibility studies, public construction, South Africa.

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Authors: Reshma Raskar-Phule, Abhay Shinde, Manesh Konkani, Rohit Nighot, Shrirang Mahajan, Viraj Thorat

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Sustainability in construction projects can be considered from three dimensions - environment, economy and society. Key concepts of sustainable construction include the protection of the natural environment, choice of non-toxic materials, reduction and reuse of resources, waste minimization, and life cycle analysis. The present paper attempts to identify and analyze the use of sustainable construction materials for a new college hostel building in terms of sustainability development indices (SDIs). Low SDI materials, say as composite fiberglass reinforcement (SDI 4074.96), compressed earth blocks (SDI 0.47), and fiber-reinforced doors (SDI 0.13) are the proposed sustainable materials for the hostel building. Indian Green Building Certification (IGBC) is applied for the hostel building and it earns 5 points out of total 16 points for criterion 5 – Building Materials and Resources of IGBC.

Keywords: sustainable development, construction materials, IGBC, hostel building

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Authors: Zohreh Hajiha

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Culture affects the ability of the organization in expressing and achieving the goals. Organizational culture influences the selection of instruments applied in the management of organizations. All the instruments applied in organizations to control, promote and create innovations are influenced by organizational culture. This research studies organizational culture based on the cultural model of Muijen and its relationship with applying management accounting innovations in Iranian listed firms. Management accounting innovations of this study include activity-based costing, activity-based management, balanced scorecard, target costing, standard costing, quality costing, Kaizen costing and dimensions of organizational culture include support orientation, innovation orientation, rules orientation and goal orientation. 105 questionnaires were sent to financial executives of production companies and 73 questionnaires were returned. The findings show that there is a significant difference between organizational culture of firms that have applied management accounting innovations and those which have used these innovations less. Also, dimensions of support orientation and culture goal orientation are the highest in groups that apply management accounting innovations. The findings suggest that proper organization culture could promote the use od management accounting tools in Iranian firms.

Keywords: organizational culture, innovation, management accounting, muijen model

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Authors: C. Noknoi, W. Boripunt, K. Boomid, S. Suwitphanwong

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This research studies the factors influencing the wages of native workers in Thailand's construction industry. The sample used comprised some 156 native construction workers from Songkhla Province, Thailand. The utilized research instrument was a questionnaire, with the data being analyzed according to frequency, percentage, and regression analysis. The results revealed that in general, native Thai construction workers are generally married males aged between 26 and 37 years old. They typically have four to six years of education, are employed as laborers with an average salary of 4,000–9,200 baht per month, and have fewer than five years of work experience. Most Thai workers work five days a week. Each establishment typically has 10–30 employees, with fewer than 10 of these being migrant workers in general. Most Thai workers are at a 20% to 40% risk from work, and they have never changed employer. The average wage of Thai workers was found to be 10,843.03 baht per month with a standard deviation of 4,898.31 baht per month. Hypothesis testing revealed that position, work experience, and the number of times they had switched employer were the factors most affecting the wages of native Thai construction workers. These three factors alone explain the salaries of Thai construction workers at 51.9%.  

Keywords: construction industry, native workers, Thailand, wages

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Authors: Mona Rashidirad, Hamid Salimian

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Dynamic capabilities, as the most considerable capabilities of firms in the current fast-moving economy may not be sufficient for performance improvement, but their contribution to performance is undeniable. While much of the extant literature investigates the impact of dynamic capabilities on organisational performance, little attention has been devoted to understand whether and how dynamic capabilities create value. Dynamic capabilities as the mirror of competitive strategies should enable firms to search and seize new ideas, integrate and coordinate the firm’s resources and capabilities in order to create value. A careful investigation to the existing knowledge base remains us puzzled regarding the relationship among competitive strategies, dynamic capabilities and value creation. This study thus attempts to fill in this gap by empirically investigating the impact of dynamic capabilities on value creation and the mediating impact of competitive strategy on this relationship. We aim to contribute to dynamic capability view (DCV), in both theoretical and empirical senses, by exploring the impact of dynamic capabilities on firms’ value creation and whether competitive strategy can play any role in strengthening/weakening this relationship. Using a sample of 491 firms in the UK telecommunications market, the results demonstrate that dynamic sensing, learning, integrating and coordinating capabilities play a significant role in firm’s value creation, and competitive strategy mediates the impact of dynamic capabilities on value creation. Adopting DCV, this study investigates whether the value generating from dynamic capabilities depends on firms’ competitive strategy. This study argues a firm’s competitive strategy can mediate its ability to derive value from its dynamic capabilities and it explains the extent a firm’s competitive strategy may influence its value generation. The results of the dynamic capabilities-value relationships support our expectations and justify the non-financial value added of the four dynamic capability processes in a highly turbulent market, such as UK telecommunications. Our analytical findings of the relationship among dynamic capabilities, competitive strategy and value creation provide further evidence of the undeniable role of competitive strategy in deriving value from dynamic capabilities. The results reinforce the argument for the need to consider the mediating impact of organisational contextual factors, such as firm’s competitive strategy to examine how they interact with dynamic capabilities to deliver value. The findings of this study provide significant contributions to theory. Unlike some previous studies which conceptualise dynamic capabilities as a unidimensional construct, this study demonstrates the benefits of understanding the details of the link among the four types of dynamic capabilities, competitive strategy and value creation. In terms of contributions to managerial practices, this research draws attention to the importance of competitive strategy in conjunction with development and deployment of dynamic capabilities to create value. Managers are now equipped with solid empirical evidence which explains why DCV has become essential to firms in today’s business world.

Keywords: dynamic capabilities, resource based theory, value creation, competitive strategy

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Authors: Hesham A. Khalek, Shafik S. Khoury, Remon F. Aziz, Mohamed A. Hakam

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Slipforming operation’s linearity is a source of planning complications, and operation is usually subjected to bottlenecks at any point, so careful planning is required in order to achieve success. On the other hand, Discrete-event simulation concepts can be applied to simulate and analyze construction operations and to efficiently support construction scheduling. Nevertheless, preparation of input data for construction simulation is very challenging, time-consuming and human prone-error source. Therefore, to enhance the benefits of using DES in construction scheduling, this study proposes an integrated module to establish a framework for automating the generation of time schedules and decision support for Slipform construction projects, particularly through the project feasibility study phase by using data exchange between project data stored in an Intermediate database, DES and Scheduling software. Using the stored information, proposed system creates construction tasks attribute [e.g. activities durations, material quantities and resources amount], then DES uses all the given information to create a proposal for the construction schedule automatically. This research is considered a demonstration of a flexible Slipform project modeling, rapid scenario-based planning and schedule generation approach that may be of interest to both practitioners and researchers.

Keywords: discrete-event simulation, modeling, construction planning, data exchange, scheduling generation, EZstrobe

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Authors: Oluwatayomi Daniel Fadumo, Chinyere Celestina Esimone

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The construction industry, as a massive human capital-related sector, requires an always motivated workforce. The inability to maintain this state has been found to hamper productivity which ultimately leads to poor project delivery, infrastructural development decline, and low morale among citizens. The need to develop an approach to keep this set of people inspired before, during, and after work becomes a necessity; this paper aims to evaluate the key benefits and cautions in integrating music on construction sites in Nigeria to improve effective project delivery. In attaining this, the study identified the advantages of music on construction sites, evaluated the key considerations in introducing music on construction sites, and recommended measures for the effective integration of music on construction sites in Nigeria. The study is a descriptive research through the use of secondary data gleaned from relevant literature, journals, and research sites. The study concluded that different forms of music genres can be implemented ranging from Pop music, rock, metal, and classical music. Introducing music has the advantage of industrial branding, improving workers` morale, setting the pace for working, helping in information retention, and improving mental health and happiness. The key consideration, however, is to provide the right volume and music that doesn’t pose health and safety challenges. The study finally recommended that for effective integration of music on construction sites in Nigeria, policies should be drafted regulating its use, specific radio customized for the site be introduced and that research-based music, proven to have previously helped, should be given to a group of workers.

Keywords: music, construction sites, workers, construction industry, construction management practice

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Authors: Jasem Al-Safran

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Nowadays Oil and Gas industry considered as one of the biggest industries around the world although it caused a lot of pollution to the world and it caused many damages to the mankind and the other creatures around the globe it still one of the biggest industries, it create millions of careers around the globe which reduced the poorness level and make the mankind life’s much more comfortable you may compare the humans life before the exploration of the oil and after the oil industries development. Construction project’s consist of 3 major sections also we call them EPC projects the first section is the detailed engineering, the second section is the procurements section and finally is the Construction section, each section required a specialized work force with a different skills in order to handle the work load for example in the oil sector and depending on the nature of the project and the project size the Construction team required mechanical engineer, civil engineer, electrical engineer and instrumentation engineer, also a work site supervisor for each disciplines also a huge number of labors, technicians and many equipment’s.

Keywords: Construction, EPC, Project, Work force

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Authors: Archana Gandhi

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Indian apparel manufacturers see several benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). At the same time, they clearly face steep challenges in its implementation. From the perspective of the participants, the challenges tend to outweigh the benefits. The short-term expenses, misperceptions about the financial benefits of CSR and the additional burden of implementing CSR-related policies and activities tend to overshadow perceptions of the long-term benefits. CSR activities currently seen in the Indian apparel industry are primarily people focused, society-focused or environment-focused. However, most CSR activities focus on employee welfare, including teaching employees about health and safety awareness, creating opportunities for community building, and providing general education to employees. Employee retention is very high in socially responsible Indian firms as compared to non-CSR firms, largely because CSR plays a crucial role in overall employee satisfaction, which translates to worker loyalty and low turnover. Employee retention and commitment are not the​ only potential benefits of CSR in the Indian apparel industry. CSR can also enhance a company’s image. Although it is a long-term benefit, being socially responsible can build a company’s social reputation and help it to gain others’ trust. Buyers do not hesitate to do business with these companies, since it is difficult to find socially responsible firms in India.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, apparel industry, workers, improve work life

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Authors: Bifeng Zhu, Zhekai Wang, Chaoyang Sun, Bart Dewancker

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Under the tide of promoting sustainable development in the world, American universities that have been committed to sustainable practice and innovation, not only have its sustainable campus construction been in the forefront of the world, but also have developed STARS (The Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System), which is widely used in the world and highly recognized. At the same time, in the process of global sustainable campus construction, energy problem is often regarded as one of the most important sustainable aspects, even equivalent to the sustainability of campus. Therefore, the relationship between campus energy and sustainability is worth discussing. In this study, four American universities with the highest level evaluated by STARS are selected as examples to compare and analyze the campus energy consumption and the use of new energy, GHG emissions and the overall sustainability of the campus, in order to explore the relationship between campus energy and sustainable construction. It is found that the advantages of sustainable campus construction in the United States are mainly focused on the "software" of management, education, activities, etc. Although different energy-saving measures have been taken in campus energy, the construction results are quite different. Moreover, as an important aspect of sustainable campus, energy can not fully represent the sustainability of campus, but because of the various measures it takes, it can greatly promote the sustainable construction of the whole campus. These measures and construction experiences are worthy of summary and promotion, and have positive reference significance for other universities even communities around the world.

Keywords: sustainable campus, energy consumption, STARS assessment, GHG emissions

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Authors: Mamoon Mousa Atout

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Projects managers in construction industry usually face a difficult organizational environment especially if the project is unique. The organization lacks the processes to practice construction management correctly, and the executive’s technical managers who have lack of experience in playing their role and responsibilities correctly. Project managers need to adopt best practices that allow them to do things effectively to make sure that the project can be delivered without any delay even though the executive’s technical managers should follow a certain process to avoid any factor might cause any delay during the project life cycle. The purpose of the paper is to examine the awareness level of projects managers about construction management processes, tools, techniques and implications to complete projects on time. The outcome and the results of the study are prepared based on the designed questionnaires and interviews conducted with many project managers. The method used in this paper is a quantitative study. A survey with a sample of 100 respondents was prepared and distributed in a construction company in Dubai, which includes nine questions to examine the level of their awareness. This research will also identify the necessary benefits of processes of construction management that has to be adopted by projects managers to mitigate the maximum potential problems which might cause any delay to the project life cycle.

Keywords: construction management, project objectives, resource planing and scheduling, project completion

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Authors: Latif Karimi, Yasuhide Mochida

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The purpose of this paper is to study Modern Methods of Construction (MMC); specifically, the prefabrication technology and check the applicability, suitability, and benefits of this construction technique over conventional methods for building new houses in Afghanistan. Construction industry and house building sector are a key contributor to Afghanistan’s economy. However, this sector is challenged with lack of innovation and severe impacts that it has on the environment due to huge amount of construction waste from building, demolition and or renovation activities. This paper studies the prefabrication technology, a popular MMC that is becoming more common, improving in quality and being available in a variety of budgets. Several feasibility studies worldwide have revealed that this method is the way forward in improving construction industry performance as it has been proven to reduce construction time, construction wastes and improve the environmental performance of the construction processes. In addition, this study emphasizes on 'sustainability' in-house building, since it is a common challenge in housing construction projects on a global scale. This challenge becomes more severe in the case of under-developed countries, like Afghanistan. Because, most of the houses are being built in the absence of a serious quality control mechanism and dismissive to basic requirements of sustainable houses; well-being, cost-effectiveness, minimization - prevention of wastes production during construction and use, and severe environmental impacts in view of a life cycle assessment. Methodology: A literature review and study of the conventional practices of building houses in urban areas of Afghanistan. A survey is also being completed to study the potentials and challenges of using prefabrication technology for building modern houses in the cities across the country. A residential housing project is selected for case study to determine the drawbacks of current construction methods vs. prefabrication technique for building a new house. Originality: There are little previous research available about MMC considering its specific impacts on sustainability related to house building practices. This study will be specifically of interest to a broad range of people, including planners, construction managers, builders, and house owners.

Keywords: modern methods of construction (MMC), prefabrication, prefab houses, sustainable construction, modern houses

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Authors: Rushi Tan, Yilun Xu, Xiaohui Wang

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The restrained construction zoning, an important part in the urban master plan, is a necessary planning tool to control the city sprawl, to guarantee the reservation implementation of the various types of protective elements, and to realize the storage of the essential urban spatial resources. Simultaneously, owing to the diverse constitutes of restrained construction area and the various stakeholders involved in, its planning requires an overall consideration of all elements from the perspective of coordination, balance and practicability to deal with the problems and conflicts in this process. Taking Yangzijin Ecological Restrained Construction Area in Yangzhou as an example, this study analyzes all the potential actors, agencies and stakeholders in this restrained construction area, as well as the relevant conflicts between each other. Besides, this study tries to build up a planning procedure based on the framework of governance theory, and proposes a possible planning method that combines "rigidity" and "flexibility" to protect the ecological limitation boundary, to take every interest into account, and to promote economic development in a harmonious society.

Keywords: restrained construction area, governance, stakeholder, flexible stratagem, China

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Authors: Salah Kayed Kayed, Jessica Hong Yang

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This study investigates, whether earnings management in the audited financial statements is associated with tone management in the narrative sections of the annual report in the UK. Earnings management and narrative disclosure are communication strategies used from managers to communicate with investors or other users. Because earnings management and narrative disclosure stem from managers, they can exploit this by doing manipulation in their earnings, and simultaneously disclosing qualitative text (narrative information) in their reports as a tone of words, which will affect users’ perception, and hence users will be misinformed. The association between earnings and tone management can be explained by the self-serving, through cognitive reference points, theory. The sample period lasts from 2010 to 2015, and the sample comprises all non-financial firms that consider under FTSE 350 in any year during the sample period. A list of words from previous research is used to measure the tone in the narrative sections of the annual report. Because this study focuses on the managerial strategic choice and the subjective issues that come from management, it uses the abnormal tone to capture the managerial discretion on tone, and a number of different discretionary accruals proxies to measure earnings management, where accruals management is considered as a manipulation tool from managers to change the users' perception. This research is motivated to fulfil the literature gap by examining the association between earnings and tone management. Moreover, if firms that apply earnings management use tone management to mislead investors, it is beneficial for investors, policy makers, standard setters, or other users to know whether there is an association between earnings management and tone management. Clearly, we believe that this study is fundamental in the accounting context, where it evaluates the communication strategies that are used in firms' financial reports. Consistent with prior research, it is expected that tone management is positively associated with earnings management. This means that firms that use earnings management have incentives to manipulate in their narrative disclosure through tone of words, to reflect a good perception for users, which will conceal the earnings management techniques used in their reporting.

Keywords: earnings management, FTSE 350, narrative disclosure, tone management

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Authors: K. C. Iyer, Yogita Manan Bindal, Sumit Kumar Bakshi

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The construction industry is plagued with disputes and litigation in India with many stalled projects seeking dispute resolution. This has an adverse effect on the performance and overall project delivery and impacts future investments within the industry. While construction industry is the major driver of growth, there has not been major reforms in the government construction contracts. The study is aimed at identifying the proactive means of dispute avoidance, focusing on reforms required within the construction contracts, by studying 49 arbitration awards of construction disputes. The claims presented in the awards are aggregated to study the causes linked to the contract document and are referred against the prospective recommendation and practices as surveyed from literature review of research papers. Within contract administration, record keeping has been a major concern as they are required by the parties to substantiate the claims or the counterclaims and therefore are essential in any dispute redressal process. The study also observes that the right judgment is inhibited when the record keeping is improper and due to lack of coherence between documents, the dispute resolution period is also prolonged. The finding of the research will be relevant to industry practitioners in contract drafting with a view to avoid disputes.

Keywords: construction contract, contract administration, contract management, dispute avoidance

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Authors: Xin Jie Li

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Due to population agglomeration, huge scale, and complex activities, megacities have become risk centers. To resist the risks brought by development uncertainty, the construction of resilient cities has become a common strategic choice for megacities. As a key link in promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, optimizing the layout of national land space that focuses on ecology, production, and life and improving the rationality of spatial resource allocation are conducive to fundamentally promoting the resilience construction of megacities. Therefore, based on the perspective of territorial space governance, this article explores the potential risks faced by the territorial space of megacities and proposes possible paths for the resilience construction of megacities from four aspects: promoting the construction of a resilience system throughout the entire life cycle, constructing a disaster prevention and control system with ecological resilience, creating an industrial spatial pattern with production resilience, and enhancing community resilience to anchor the front line of risk response in megacities.

Keywords: mega cities, potential risks, resilient city construction, territorial and spatial governance

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Authors: Joel M. De La Rosa R.

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In this paper, the results obtained when monitoring the horizontal deformations of the soil mass are detailed, during each of the construction stages of several vertical shafts located in the soft soils of the Valley of Mexico, by means of the flotation method. From the analysis of these results, the magnitude and percentage relationship with respect to the diameter and depth of excavation of the horizontal deformations that occurred during the monitoring period is established. Based on the horizontal deformation monitoring system and the information provided by the supervisor's site log, the construction stages that have the greatest impact on deformations are established. Additionally, an analysis of the deformations is carried out, which takes into account the resistance and deformability characteristics of the excavated soils, as well as the prevailing hydraulic conditions. This work will allow construction engineers and institutions in charge of infrastructure works in the Valley of Mexico to establish permissible ranges for horizontal deformations that can occur in very soft and saturated soils, during the different construction stages; improving response protocols to potentially dangerous behaviors.

Keywords: vertical shaft, flotation method, very soft clays, construction supervision

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Authors: Zhongnan Ye, Xiaoyi Liu, Shu-Chien Hsu

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Rapid urbanization has led to a significant increase in construction and demolition waste (C&D waste), underscoring the need for sustainable waste management strategies in the construction industry. Aiming to enhance the sustainability of urban construction practices, this study develops an optimization model to effectively suggest the optimal recycling and reuse strategies for C&D waste, including concrete and steel. By employing Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), the model evaluates the environmental impacts of adopted construction materials throughout their lifecycle. The model optimizes the quantity of materials to recycle or reuse, the selection of specific recycling and reuse processes, and logistics decisions related to the transportation and storage of recycled materials with the objective of minimizing the overall environmental impact, quantified in terms of carbon emissions, energy consumption, and associated costs, while adhering to a range of constraints. These constraints include capacity limitations, quality standards for recycled materials, compliance with environmental regulations, budgetary limits, and temporal considerations such as project deadlines and material availability. The strategies are expected to be both cost-effective and environmentally beneficial, promoting a circular economy within the construction sector, aligning with global sustainability goals, and providing a scalable framework for managing construction waste in densely populated urban environments. The model is helpful in reducing the carbon footprint of construction projects, conserving valuable resources, and supporting the industry’s transition towards a more sustainable future.

Keywords: circular construction, construction and demolition waste, material recycling, optimization modeling

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Authors: Jin Woong Lee, Kyuman Cho, Taehoon Kim

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The application of constructability is increasingly required not only in the construction phase but also in the whole project stage. In particular, the proper application of construction experience and knowledge during the design phase enables the minimization of inefficiencies such as design changes and improvements in constructability during the construction phase. In order to apply knowledge effectively, engineering technology efforts should be implemented with design progress. Among many engineering technologies, engineering for temporary works, including facilities, equipment, and other related construction methods, is important to improve constructability. Therefore, as basic research, this study investigates the applicability of temporary work engineering during the design phase in the building construction industry. As a result, application of temporary work engineering has a greater impact on construction cost reduction and constructability improvement. In contrast to the existing design-bid-build method, the turn-key and CM (construct management) procurement methods currently being implemented in Korea are expected to have a significant impact on the direction of temporary work engineering. To introduce temporary work engineering, expert/professional organization training is first required, and a lack of client awareness should be preferentially improved. The results of this study are expected to be useful as reference material for the development of more effective temporary work engineering tasks and work processes in the future.

Keywords: Temporary Work Engineering, Design Phase, Constructability, Building Construction

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Authors: Zhongnan Ye, Xiaoyi Liu, Shu-Chien Hsu

Abstract:

Rapid urbanization has led to a significant increase in construction and demolition waste (C&D waste), underscoring the need for sustainable waste management strategies in the construction industry. Aiming to enhance the sustainability of urban construction practices, this study develops an optimization model to effectively suggest the optimal recycling and reuse strategies for C&D waste, including concrete and steel. By employing Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), the model evaluates the environmental impacts of adopted construction materials throughout their lifecycle. The model optimizes the quantity of materials to recycle or reuse, the selection of specific recycling and reuse processes, and logistics decisions related to the transportation and storage of recycled materials with the objective of minimizing the overall environmental impact, quantified in terms of carbon emissions, energy consumption, and associated costs, while adhering to a range of constraints. These constraints include capacity limitations, quality standards for recycled materials, compliance with environmental regulations, budgetary limits, and temporal considerations such as project deadlines and material availability. The strategies are expected to be both cost-effective and environmentally beneficial, promoting a circular economy within the construction sector, aligning with global sustainability goals, and providing a scalable framework for managing construction waste in densely populated urban environments. The model is helpful in reducing the carbon footprint of construction projects, conserving valuable resources, and supporting the industry’s transition towards a more sustainable future.

Keywords: circular construction, construction and demolition waste, life cycle assessment, material recycling

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Authors: Mongezi Nene, Emma Ayesu-Koranteng, Christopher Amoah, Ayo Adeniran

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Although its use has been criticized over the years as being unencouraging, the green building concept is quickly overtaking other concepts, particularly in the construction of commercial properties. The goal of the study is to identify the variables influencing the use of green building practices when developing residential structures. A qualitative methodology, using interviews with semi-structured open-ended questions to 35 property practitioners operating residential apartments in Bloemfontein, South Africa, was used to collect primary data which was analysed using thematic content analysis. The findings show that while respondents have a good understanding of green building principles, they are not being used in the construction of residential buildings in South Africa due to issues with green building approval procedures, the potential for tenant rent increases, the cost of materials, technical issues, contractual issues, and a lack of awareness, among others. This paper recommends among others an urgent need to implement measures by stakeholders towards enhancing the adoption of green building concepts in the construction of residential buildings as well as incentivising its construction through lowered property rates.

Keywords: green building, residential apartments, construction, South Africa

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Authors: Laura Álvarez Antón, Joaquín Díaz

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The construction industry is turning towards sustainability. It is a well-known fact that sustainability is based on a balance between environmental, social and economic aspects. In order to achieve sustainability efficiently, these three criteria should be taken into account in the initial project phases, since that is when a project can be influenced most effectively. Thus the aim must be to integrate important tools like BIM and LCA at an early stage in order to make full use of their potential. With the synergies resulting from the integration of BIM and LCA, a wider approach to sustainability becomes possible, covering the three pillars of sustainability.

Keywords: building information modeling (BIM), construction industry, design phase, life cycle assessment (LCA), sustainability

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Authors: Omar Amoudi, Latifa Al Brashdi

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Construction projects are always subject to risks and uncertainties due to its unique and dynamic nature, outdoor work environment, the wide range of skills employed, various parties involved in addition to situation of construction business environment at large. Altogether, these risks and uncertainties affect projects objectives and lead to cost overruns, delay, and poor quality. Construction projects in Oman often experience cost overruns and delay. Managing these risks and reducing their impacts on construction cost requires firstly identifying these risks, and then analyzing their severity on project cost to obtain deep understanding about these risks. This in turn will assist construction managers in managing and tacking these risks. This paper aims to investigate the main risk factors that affect construction projects cost in the Sultanate of Oman. In order to achieve the main aim, literature review was carried out to identify the main risk factors affecting construction cost. Thirty-three risk factors were identified from the literature. Then, a questionnaire survey was designed and distributed among construction professionals (i.e., client, contractor and consultant) to obtain their opinion toward the probability of occurrence for each risk factor and its possible impact on construction project cost. The collected data was analyzed based on qualitative aspects and in several ways. The severity of each risk factor was obtained by multiplying the probability occurrence of a risk factor with its impact. The findings of this study reveal that the most significant risk factors that have high severity impact on construction project cost are: Change of Oil Price, Delay of Materials and Equipment Delivery, Changes in Laws and Regulations, Improper Budgeting, and Contingencies, Lack of Skilled Workforce and Personnel, Delays Caused by Contractor, Delays of Owner Payments, Delays Caused by Client, and Funding Risk. The results can be used as a basis for construction managers to make informed decisions and produce risk response procedures and strategies to tackle these risks and reduce their negative impacts on construction project cost.

Keywords: construction cost, construction projects, Oman, risk factors, risk management

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Authors: Archil Motsonelidze, Vitaly Dvalishvili

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Existing roller compacted concrete (RCC) dams indicate that the layer-by-layer construction method gives considerable economies as compared with the conventional methods. RCC dams have also gained acceptance in the regions of high seismic activity. Earthquake resistance analysis of RCC gravity dams based on nonlinear finite element technique is presented. An elastic-plastic approach is used to describe the material of a dam while it is under static conditions (period of construction). Seismic force, as an acceleration equivalent to that produced by a real earthquake, is supposed to act when the dam is completed. The materials of the dam and foundation may be nonhomogeneous and anisotropic. The “dam-foundation” system is idealized as a plain strain problem.

Keywords: finite element method, layer-by-layer construction, RCC dams, strength analysis

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Authors: Mohammad Ashraf

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This research links the use of Building Information Modeling technology in constructions and infrastructure projects, starting from the moment when considering the establishment of a project to demolishing or renovating it, going through the design work, planning, procurement and implementation. BIM Software's which used are Revit, Navisworks and Asta Project in the case study for the Atletico Madrid Stadium project (Wanda Stadium). Also, the project improves through various phases of construction (planning - implementation - management). Besides, the level of the details managed within this project advances gradually. In addition, the construction process problems become about 30 % less than before, resulting from high coordination between designing, implementation and follow through that is done by the project management office (PMO). The current disposition in the industry is to tightly manage the detail contained within the planning and coordination phases of construction, but we miss the opportunity to manage that data as it matures and grows into the execution and commissioning phases.

Keywords: construction management, BIM technology, planning, design, procurements, critical path method

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Authors: Vasilios Kanellopoulos

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The present paper examines the effect of innovation efficiency on the production of new knowledge from a firm level perspective. It resorts to the Greek version of community innovation survey (CIS 2012-2014 microdata) and employs 1274 firms of the manufacturing, which constitutes the main sector of examination. It assumes a knowledge production function (KPF) and finds that R&D spillovers related to the expenditures on innovation activities, internal R&D, external R&D, skilled labor, and the expenditures in the acquisition of machinery have a positive and significant effect on the production of new knowledge when OLS techniques are applied. However, innovation efficiency comes from a Banker and Morey (1986) data envelopment analysis (DEA) with categorical variables has a statistically insignificant impact on the production of new knowledge measured by firm’s turnover.

Keywords: firms, innovation efficiency, production of new knowledge, R&D spillovers

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Authors: Tsepiso Mofolo, Luna Bergh

Abstract:

The Lesotho construction industry fails to embrace environmental practices, which has then lead to excessive consumption of resources, land degradation, air and water pollution, loss of habitats, and high energy usage. The industry is highly inefficient, and this undermines its capability to yield the optimum contribution to social, economic and environmental developments. Sustainable construction is, therefore, imperative to ensure the cultivation of benefits from all these intrinsic themes of sustainable development. The development of a sustainable construction industry requires a holistic approach that takes into consideration the interaction between Lean Construction principles, socio-economic and environmental policies, technological advancement and the principles of construction or project management. Sustainable construction is a cutting-edge phenomenon, forming a component of a subjectively defined concept called sustainable development. Sustainable development can be defined in terms of attitudes and judgments to assist in ensuring long-term environmental, social and economic growth in society. The key concept of sustainable construction is Lean Construction. Lean Construction emanates from the principles of the Toyota Production System (TPS), namely the application and adaptation of the fundamental concepts and principles that focus on waste reduction, the increase in value to the customer, and continuous improvement. The focus is on the reduction of socio-economic waste, and protestation of environmental degradation by reducing carbon dioxide emission footprint. Lean principles require a fundamental change in the behaviour and attitudes of the parties involved in order to overcome barriers to cooperation. Prevalent barriers to adoption of Lean Construction in Lesotho are mainly structural - such as unavailability of financing, corruption, operational inefficiency or wastage, lack of skills and training and inefficient construction legislation and political interferences. The consequential effects of these problems trigger down to quality, cost and time of the project - which then result in an escalation of operational costs due to the cost of rework or material wastage. Factor and correlation analysis of these barriers indicate that they are highly correlated, which then poses a detrimental potential to the country’s welfare, environment and construction safety. It is, therefore, critical for Lesotho’s construction industry to develop a robust governance through bureaucracy reforms and stringent law enforcement.

Keywords: construction industry, sustainable development, sustainable construction industry, lean construction, barriers to sustainable construction

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Authors: Kittivate Boonyopakorn

Abstract:

The purposes of this study were to investigate the method of the English use of the businessmen and to study their behavior of the utilization for the ASEAN economic community. The participants were divided into the three types of the merchants including the construction contractors, the construction material traders, and SME entrepreneurs. Survey questionnaires and interviews were used in this study. The findings showed that in the type of traders, 23 of the participants are construction contractors, 121 are construction material traders, and 206 are SME entrepreneurs. The study of English in language institute is highly 51.4%. The use of Google in translating English into Thai is 41.7%. Learning English themselves is 41.1% respectively. The businessmen study English for readiness for their trade.

Keywords: way of rnglish use, businessmen, ASEAN economic community, Chonburi province

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Authors: Riki Panchal, Debasis Sarkar

Abstract:

This paper describes the work done for the GIS-based project management for different infrastructure projects. It is a review paper which gives the idea of the trends in the construction project management and various models adopted for the betterment of the project planning and execution. Traditional scheduling and progress control techniques such as bar charts and the critical path method fail to provide information pertaining to the spatial aspects of a construction project. An integrated system was developed to represent construction progress not only in terms of a CPM schedule but also in terms of a graphical representation of the construction that is synchronized with the work schedule. Hence, it is suggested to work on the common platform from where all the data can be shared and analyzed.

Keywords: GIS, project management, integrated model, infrastructure project

Procedia PDF Downloads 487

Authors: Xiaoting Jing, Ling Huang

Abstract:

After the reform and opening up, Chongqing has formed far more high-rise residential areas than other cities in its more than 40 years of urban construction. High-rise residential areas have become one of the main modern living models in Chongqing and an important carrier reflecting the city's high quality of life. Reviewing the construction process and renewal work helps understand the characteristics of high-rise residential areas in Chongqing at different stages, clarify current development demands, and look forward to the focus of future renewal work. Based on socio-economic development and policy background, the article sorts the construction process of high-rise residential areas in Chongqing into four stages: the early experimental construction period of high-rise residential areas (1978-1996), the rapid start-up period of high-rise commodity housing construction (1997-2006), the large-scale construction period of high-rise commodity housing and public rental housing (2007-2014), and the period of renewal and renovation of high-rise residential areas and step-by-step construction of quality commodity housing (2015-present). Based on the construction demands and main construction types of each stage, the article summarizes that the construction of high-rise residential areas in Chongqing features large scale, high speed, and high density. It points out that a large number of high-rise residential areas built after 2000 will become important objects of renewal and renovation in the future. Based on existing renewal work experience, it is urgent to explore a path for sustainable renewal and development in terms of policy mechanisms, digital supervision, and renewal and renovation models, leading the high-rise living in Chongqing toward high-quality development.

Keywords: high-rise residential areas, construction process, renewal and renovation, Chongqing

Procedia PDF Downloads 33