An Effective Disaster Recovery Model for Construction Projects

Abstract

This article studies disasters during the development phase of construction projects and seeks for effective recovery methods. Disasters can be based on various reasons -i.e., natural, technical etc.-, can be observed in many cases -i.e., the mountain sliding during the tunnel opening at Tempi, Greece; the explosion of the British Petroleum (BP) oil pumping platform in the Gulf of Mexico; and the San Esteban mine collapse in Chile- and question the risk estimation and analysis methods that had been performed before project's commencement, and the business readiness of the project organization. Moreover, disasters can cause significant delays and cost rises to a project, while they can lead to construction's cancellation in cases of extensive damages or of site's natural disasters. In this context, this paper aims to structure a generic model that consists of principles and processes, which can recover a construction project after a disaster effect. Various terms (i.e., hazard and risk analysis, safety planning and disaster) and the international project management standards are explored for the purposes of this paper and accurate existing disaster recovery frameworks and models are investigated. The outcomes of this analysis are used for the composition of the proposed model. Finally, the efficiency of the proposed model for a wide area of projects was tested via a survey, which was performed on a group of expert engineers in construction management. Experts’ perspectives and experiences were questioned regarding the proposed disaster recovery model and their answers used for the revision of the proposed model.