INTEGRATING CA4PRS V.3 ROAD WIDENING SCHEDULE MODULE INTO US HIGHWAY EARLY CONSTRUCTABILITY PROCESS: CALIFORNIA SR-91 CORRIDOR IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM CASE STUDY

Eul-Bum Lee,Douglas Alleman,Chang-Mo Kim,David Thomas

doi:10.3846/transport.2019.11650

Abstract

Performing Constructability Review Processes (CRPs) during the highway design development has been found to save transportation agencies twice their input costs. However, existing literature has identified three areas of CRP improvement: reduction of required agency resources, incorporation of Road User Cost (RUC) scheduling constraints, and integration of assessment visualizations. The authors propose to fill this gap by integrating the Construction Analysis for Pavement Rehabilitation Strategies (CA4PRS) v.3 software into the CRP. This module provides agencies with road widening project schedule capabilities, which enhances CRPs by providing accurate RUC-constrained critical path schedules using minimal resources. The module was developed through interviews with subject matter experts from six public and two private California transportation organizations. Said experts also tested the CA4PRS v.3 alpha and beta pre-release versions using data collected from eight Caltrans road widening projects. The potential value-adding of integrating the CA4PRS v.3 software with existing CRPs has been tested through its application on the California State Road 91 (SR-91) Corridor Improvement Program (CIP), resulting in 24-months of construction acceleration. The findings and presentation of the schedule model within this paper provide practitioners an accurate and resource-efficient tool to estimate the schedule impacts of road widening constructability options.

Highlights

Constructability Review Processes (CRPs) have been found to increase procurement efficacy, design, construction methods, construction and maintenance staffing efficiency, team integration, and project performance and reduce change orders (Gambatese et al 2007) with a resultant benefit to cost ratio of at least 2:1 (Dunston et al 2001)
This paper proposes the incorporation of the CA4PRS v.3 software into existing CRP practices, which fulfils all of these agency needs (Lee et al 2000)
CRP have been found to increase the efficiencies of agency procurement and staffing, the quality of design, the efficacy of construction methods, and overall team integration and project performance equating to project cost/benefit ratio of 1:2 (Gambatese et al 2017)

Summary

Introduction

CRP have been found to increase procurement efficacy, design, construction methods, construction and maintenance staffing efficiency, team integration, and project performance and reduce change orders (Gambatese et al 2007) with a resultant benefit to cost ratio of at least 2:1 (Dunston et al 2001). There exist opportunities to improve the CRP process by integrating software, which reduces agency resource burdens (Dunston et al 2005), incorporates considerations of life-cycle maintenance and scheduling impacts (Anderson, Fisher 1997; Saghatforoush et al 2011), and provides a visualization of the results (Kifokeris, Xenidis 2017). This paper proposes the incorporation of the CA4PRS v.3 software into existing CRP practices, which fulfils all of these agency needs (Lee et al 2000). The findings and presentation of the schedule model within this paper provide practitioners an accurate and resource-efficient tool to estimate the schedule impacts of constructability options

Objectives

Results

Conclusion