Construction Team Research Articles

Жизнь студенческих стройотрядов на строительстве Байкало-Амурской автомагистрали глазами участников

Автор, студентка МПГУ, интервьюирует своих старших родственников – «бойцов» студенческих стройотрядов на строительстве БАМа в 1970-х гг. Главная цель этого интервью – взглянуть на строительство БАМа глазами студентов, прикоснуться к повседневности стройотрядов на стройке века. Информанты рассказывают о работе стройотрядов, условиях жизни в тайге, распорядке дня, организации питания, свободного времени, выстраивании личных отношений между студентами на БАМе. The author, a student of Moscow Pedagogical State University, interviews her elder relatives 3 “fighters” of student construction teams who built the Baikal-Amur highway (BAM) in the 1970s. The main purpose of this interview is to look at the construction of BAM through the eyes of students, to touch the everyday life of students’ teams at the construction site of the century. The informants talk about the work of construction teams; living conditions in the taiga, daily routine, organization of meals, free time; building personal relationships between students at BAM.

Identification and analysis of communication barriers for construction projects with time uncertainties

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to improve communication success through barrier identification and analysis so that the identified barriers can help project teams establish effective information-exchange strategies.Design/methodology/approachThe recent publications on construction communication about time management are reviewed. Then, the semi-structured interviews are performed with both questionnaires and audio recordings (n1 = 18). Next, the collected data are analyzed using both statistical measures on the questionnaire survey and qualitative coding analysis on the text transcripts from an audio recording. Particularly, the identified barriers are substantiated using a scientometrics approach based on the published articles (2011–2020, n2 = 52,915) for purposeful information-sharing solutions in construction time management. Furthermore, the intervention strategies from the top 10 most-cited articles are analyzed and validated by comparisons with the results from construction surveys and relevant studies.FindingsBased on the discussed communication difficulties, five main barriers were identified during time-cost risk management: probability and statistical concepts, availability of data from external resources, details of team member experiences, graphics (and graphical presentation skills), and spatial and temporal (a.k.a. 4D) simulation skills. For the improvement of communication skills and presentation quality regarding probability and statistical concepts, project teams should emphasize context awareness, case studies and group discussions. Details of communication techniques can be adjusted based on the backgrounds, experiences and expectations of team members.Research limitations/implicationsThe dataset n1 has both size and duration limits because of the availability of the invited industry professionals. The dataset n2 considers the literature from 2011 to 2020. Any before-the-date and unpublished studies are not included in the study.Practical implicationsA thorough comprehension of communication barriers can help project teams develop speaking, writing and analytical thinking skills that will enable the teams to better deliver ideas, thoughts and meanings. Additionally, the established discussion on barrier-removal strategies may enhance time management effectiveness, reduce project delays, avoid confusion and misunderstanding and save rework costs.Social implicationsThis research calls for the awareness of communication barriers in construction project execution and team collaboration. The identified barriers and the established solutions enrich the approaches of construction companies to share information with communities and society.Originality/valueThis is the first identification model for communication barriers in the time management of the construction industry to the authors' knowledge. The influencing factors and the countermeasures of communication difficulties highlighted by the research were not examined systematically and holistically in previous studies. The findings provide a new approach to facilitate the development of powerful communication strategies and to improve project execution.

Swearing, identity and power in professional interaction

Swearing is a risky interactional activity but has also been shown to have great potential for fostering social cohesion and positive relations in professional communication. It is particularly interesting to observe in intercultural and multilingual team interactions, where on the one hand attitudes and practices around swearing are likely to differ and on the other, the need to foster positive relations is more pressing given that social cohesion in diverse teams tends to be lower (Stahl et al., 2010). This study accordingly investigates the social practices co-constructed around swearing in one multilingual and intercultural team. Drawing on 25 h of audio-recorded data collected over 9 months, the analysis explores the contexts, forms, and functions of swearing in team meetings and illustrates how swearing is used strategically to construct powerful speaker and team identities while simultaneously promoting in-group solidarity. At the same time, the findings indicate that this is not without risk, as others can and do resist such identity constructions, especially when they do not foster in-group solidarity. Team members co-constructed a narrow set of norms that guide swearing behaviour and its acceptability in the team, demonstrating pragmatic competence and sensitivity in this process.

A categorization of factors affecting quality of design documentation in Tanzanian construction projects

Purpose The design documents are products of a process that aims to provide sufficient details to enable the contractor to efficiently implement the project at a realistic cost. Accordingly, it is expected that these design documents must be of high quality to engender the attainment of the desired project objectives. The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors that affect the quality of design documentation in construction projects in the context of a developing country. Design/methodology/approach This study used a descriptive research design involving professionals from firms offering services in areas of design and documentation, mainly architectural, quantity surveying and engineering. A total of 80 out of 84 questionnaires were received and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics Version 25, and a factor analysis approach was used to categorize the factors into smaller five groups. Findings The factors were subsequently categorized according to size, time, staff, quality and training-related factors. Collectively, large size of the project, inadequate supervision of junior design staff, low professional fees, procurement process and system, failure to adopt quality management systems and allocation or assigning of staff to more than one project at the same time have high influence (component loading of 700) in respective groups. Research limitations/implications The reliance on data to analyze the factors of design documents in construction projects in developing economies context, using a Tanzanian exemplar, is considered a limitation. Developing countries with similar economic characteristics, procurement systems and cultural setup could benefit from the results of this study. Practical implications The study of factors affecting quality of design and documents in construction projects serves as a guide for built environment firms in Tanzania in conducting effective business and ensuring quality design documents, hence improved project performance. Understanding the nature of relationship between the design and construction teams as well as the impact of design documents on project performance is of great importance for the design teams of future projects and other decision-makers to pay attention when preparing design and related documents, especially during design stage of construction projects in developing countries. Originality/value The study contributes the knowledge by providing useful insights on the subject through a categorization of the factors affecting the quality of design documentation and exploring the nature of relationship between the design and construction teams in construction projects within a previously unexplored Tanzanian context focusing on a traditional procurement system for future improvement of project delivery, hence project success.

The Improvement of Service Quality in Prefabricated Steel Structure Construction Process

The purpose of this study is to investigate customers’ perceptions of service quality and to present guidelines for improving services in prefabricated steel structure management. The researchers use qualitative research by in-depth interview as a data collection method. Twenty customers in Bangkok who had used the service in the construction of prefabricated steel structures were the key informants. The results showed that in developing the service quality of the steel building structure business, the management had to improve the entire process in three stages, which are as follows: 1) the pre-service stage consists of providing tender document and contract and design ability for prefabricated steel structures; 2) the in-service stage consists of contract and design modifications, time management, resources management, ability to monitor the construction process, team management, and safety management ; 3) the post-service stage consists of success in service activities and success in financial and monitoring management. This three-step process improvement increased customer satisfaction in the present and would persuade potential customers to choose to use the services.

Towards a Multilevel Framework of Teamwork Processes Affecting Construction Safety Outcomes

The construction industry has one of the highest fatality and injury rates, highlighting the urgent need for research to reduce work-related injuries and fatalities. Given the complex nature of construction teams operating at different project levels, teamwork processes are crucial for ensuring construction safety. However, a comprehensive examination of teamwork processes concerning construction safety is lacking. Contemporary construction literature has a primary focus on a few key team-level factors. This study addresses this research gap by conducting a more holistic literature review, benchmarking knowledge from other industries, and proposing a framework specific to construction safety. The proposed framework integrates insights from team science and construction safety science, taking into consideration the industry’s complex team structure and dynamic nature. This study contributes to the improvement of safety outcomes in the construction industry by enhancing the understanding of teamwork processes’ impact on construction safety. The findings have practical implications for enhancing safety performance and reducing injuries and fatalities among construction workers.

Technologies of migration and citizenship: Life and work at the base of Shanghai’s digital infrastructure stack

Although material components of digital infrastructure stacks are often understood as operating through platforms or protocols in a smoothly interconnected way, their expansion, repair, and continued functionality nevertheless require significant interventions in the material world. These include the installation, repair, and maintenance of fiber-optic backbones, as well as the disruption of everyday residential life for the purpose of “last mile” fiber installations. Based on participant observation conducted with construction teams engaged in rebuilding the base level of Shanghai’s digital infrastructure stack, this article questions “plug-and-play” views of Chinese digital infrastructure, instead refocusing analysis on the legal and sociocultural technologies that facilitate material infrastructural construction. In the case of Shanghai’s Overhead-Underground project, legal and social mechanisms that facilitate migration have themselves become crucial to the physical aspects of digital infrastructure, which is built through subcontracted low-waged labor systems that rely on assumedly temporary rural-to-urban migrant labor. The resulting systems of labor provision both reflect and maintain the structure of a politically divided public: High-quality “smart city” infrastructure is built for the service of an avowedly urban public, but only through a reliance on “low-skilled” rural migrant construction workers, who are formally and informally excluded from the city their infrastructural interventions are designed to serve.

“Does anyone know? Can you get any help?” Experiences from an ambassador-facilitated health programme: insights from a qualitative study

PurposeHealth ambassadors are co-workers assigned to facilitate healthy choices amongst the ambassadors'' colleagues and are increasingly used in workplace health promotion. In a municipality in the southern region of Denmark, occupational health and safety (OHS) representatives were appointed as health ambassadors to facilitate the development of healthy lifestyle initiatives at the ambassadors' workplace and the uptake of various health offers from the municipality's workplace health programme amongst the ambassadors' colleagues. The aim of this study was to understand how employees and managers from the municipality experienced the health ambassador-facilitated implementation of the health programme.Design/methodology/approachThe study was designed as an interview study with (n = 13) semi-structured interviews. Using purposeful sampling, the authors invited participants who held different positions (e.g. managers and regular employees) on two different work teams in the municipality. The work teams (a construction team and a healthcare team) differed in gender profile and work tasks but were both categorised as physically heavy work. Malterud's systematic text condensation was used to devise the strategy for the analysis.FindingsThe authors' findings show that the employees considered health a private matter that the workplace should not interfere with, and this challenged the implementation of the health programme. Secondly, the health ambassadors were not properly trained to facilitate health initiatives amongst the ambassadors' colleagues; instead, the managers were the driving force in the implementation of health initiatives.Originality/valueThe study provides useful insights into the processes of implementing health in the workplace and emphasises the importance of involving employees in design and planning of initiatives for workplace health promotion.

Effects of Virtual Reality on Complex Building System Recall

Multidisciplinary design and construction teams are challenged to communicate and coordinate across complex building systems, including architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical, and piping (MEP). To support this coordination, disciplinary 3D models are combined and coordinated before installation. Studies show that besides the use of 3D models, industry professionals sketch building components to discuss coordination issues and find resolutions that require them to recall the building components in the model. In current practices, 3D models are explored with Building Information Modeling (BIM) tools presented on 2D screens, while Virtual Reality (VR) can provide users with an immersive environment to explore. This paper presents the results of an experiment that studied the effects of VR’s immersive environment on the participants’ complex MEP system recall compared to BIM via sketching. The comparison criteria were the 3D geometry properties of the piping system and the users’ self-awareness in the model categorized under color, shape, dimension, piping, and viewpoint. The results showed significant improvement in recall of shape, dimension, and piping when the model was explored in VR.

A Multivariate Analysis of the Variables Impacting the Level of BIM Expertise of Professionals in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) Industries of the Developing World Using Nonparametric Tests

Building information modeling (BIM) mandates are becoming more widespread because BIM allows design and construction teams to operate more productively and also enables them to collect the data they generate during the process for use in operations and maintenance tasks. As a result, professionals in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industries are expected to possess excellent BIM expertise. Despite the fact that the developing world has largely not adopted BIM, many studies have been conducted on BIM usage, awareness, drivers and barriers with a focus on the developing world. Numerous studies have pointed to the professionals’ lack of BIM expertise in the developing world’s AEC sector as a major barrier to BIM deployment. Nevertheless, no research has been conducted to assess the variables impacting the level of BIM expertise among professionals. After a detailed review of the literature, the study developed five study hypotheses and created a conceptual model to help assess the variables impacting the level of BIM expertise of professionals in the AEC industry in the developing world. After that, a questionnaire survey was carried out to collect data from 103 seasoned professionals in the Ghanaian construction industry. Nonparametric tests, such as the Kruskal–Wallis, pairwise post hoc Dunn, Mann–Whitney, Pearson’s correlation and the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS SEM) tests, were adopted to assess the relationships between the level of BIM expertise of professionals (BE) and the following variables: (1) profession (P), (2) the frequency of BIM use by professionals (BF), (3) the highest dimension of BIM adopted by AEC firms and companies (BD), (4) professionals’ perception of BIM (PB) and (5) the BIM implementation barriers (BIMIBs). P, BF, BD and PB were found to have a substantial impact on the level of BIM expertise acquired by professionals. With regards to professionals’ perception of the BIM software and process, only one (PB3–BIM is not useful to our company at the moment) out of ten of them was found to have a significant impact on BE, highlighting the impact of employers on the level of BIM expertise of professionals. In addition, the study discovered that any resolution made in an attempt to tackle the lack of/insufficient level of BIM expertise among professionals would prove futile without significant effort from the higher education sector (HES) of the developing world and the entire world at large. The study’s conceptual, empirical, managerial and theoretical implications and findings would serve as a roadmap for researchers, professionals and academics in developing nations as they endeavor to seek more ways of increasing BIM expertise among their professionals and to encourage BIM usage throughout the project lifecycle.

Dynamic schedule model and algorithm optimization method for linear engineering projects

Linear engineering projects require careful consideration of multiple construction scenarios. These scenarios include linear, bar and block activities, with the direction and velocity of linear activities varying, as well as the number of construction teams involved. Resource constraints further complicate scheduling. To address these challenges, a two-stage dynamic scheduling model was developed in this study. The first stage involved selecting a scheduling strategy based on available resources to meet the project deadline, while the second involved developing two cost-effective models to determine the best plan. To optimize the model, a hybrid algorithm incorporating an elite strategy, an adaptive operator and a catastrophe operator was established. The capabilities of the proposed model were demonstrated through several application examples, highlighting the benefits of improved consideration of construction scenarios in linear engineering. Overall, the model’s ability to identify a reasonable range of resource allocations highlights its effectiveness in optimizing linear engineering project schedules.

Wood and metal shear wall formwork and its performance concerning its uses number and costs

Concrete construction requires a formwork that shapes the structural sections and resists the concrete's weight, representing between 40% and 60% of the overall concrete costs, so the construction team must make cost-effective decisions throughout the project. This research compares the technical and economic performance, unit cost, and the number of metal and wood formwork applications in constructing shear walls in 80 single-family units assembled in 4 real estate units. To reach the yield value of 3,501.18m2, with the metal formwork, 31 uses were required at the cost of 5,873.13 USD; on the other hand, with the wood formwork, 51 uses were necessary at the cost of 14,289.79 USD. After 20 uses, comparing the wood formwork with the metal formwork, the latter was 66% more efficient.

Addressing the Causes and Effects of Poor Communication in the Jordanian Construction Industry: A Study on Improving Project Performance

Abstract The construction sector in Jordan faces various obstacles, one of the most significant being poor communication, which negatively impacts project performance and can even lead to project failure. The primary objective of this study is to identify and evaluate the causes and effects of poor communication in Jordan. A questionnaire containing 32 causes and 21 effects of poor communication was used to gather data. The top ten causes of poor communication are; possessing different levels of education among construction teams; a lack of communication plan; a lack of an appropriate communications medium; a lack of communication procedures and training; a slow flow of information between parties; diversity of culture among construction teams; construction teams possessing different skill levels; contractual barriers; the unavailability of information at the time of need, and a lack of understanding among parties. Poor communication is a prevalent issue in the Jordanian construction industry, Jordan's construction industry needs to improve its current communication state. Both contractors and consultants are affected by this issue and there is a high level of agreement between them on the causes and effects of poor communication.

Unraveling the Impact of Spatial Configuration on TOD Function Mix Use and Spatial Intensity: An Analysis of 47 Morning Top-Flow Stations in Beijing (2018–2020)

Urban rail transportation is an important public transportation network for realizing the dual carbon strategy and sustainable transportation development. A top-stream station is an important node in this network. This paper focuses on 47 top-stream station sites during the peak hours of workdays from 2018 to 2020 in Beijing (26 inbound and 22 outbound, with Beijing South Station as a double-stream station) and collects and analyzes information such as station area spatial texture, spatial organization efficiency, land use function, land use mix, POI (Point of Interest) distribution and functional mix, construction intensity, and population heat distribution. Through an analysis of the network topological structure characteristics of each station area, comparison of spatial efficiency differences, analysis of land use function composition and mix characteristics, and distribution of spatial construction intensity, this paper discusses the relationship between the spatial structure, spatial function, spatial intensity characteristics and key indicators of the built environment of station areas from the perspective of urban design. The conclusion shows that there is a close relationship between the function, structure, and strength of the overall built environment of the station domain at the theoretical level. The regression test, to some extent, confirms the close relationship between key indicators and expands the indicator system for measuring the fit relationship. The comparison between general station sites and headstream station sites shows that the fit relationship of indicators for headstream station sites is not completely the same as that for general station sites, indicating that the influencing factors for headstream station sites are diverse. This reminds investment, design, construction, and management teams in practice that the measurement and planning of the built environment space structure of the station domain should be based on local conditions and be closely related to the topological structure of the station domain’s rail network and road network structure. At the same time, whether the stability of the indicator system and the specific R-squared value have differences in various cities requires further verification. This paper explores and tries to raise questions about the research methodology of the built environment space structure, the measurement of the station domain, and the concepts of station-city coordination and development.

Village Lunatics

Village Lunatics

Prospects for Research on New-Form International Chinese Language Textbooks

Textbook is one of the “three teachings”, and it is an important basis and carrier of teaching. The new form of textbooks is a product of the intelligent age and an important embodiment of the modernization of teaching materials. In the context of the intelligent era, the development of new forms textbooks is an important content of academic concern. We found that there are not many studies on new forms of international Chinese textbooks, and most of the textbooks have not yet entered the stage of integrated construction. The three-dimensional textbooks such as Great Wall Chinese are still an exception. In this regard, we believe that it is necessary to take the creation of three-dimensional teaching materials as the course, closely follow Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards for International Chinese Language Education, and multi-party construction teams go hand in hand to implement the dynamic update of international Chinese teaching materials resources.

Building Energy Performance Modeling through Regression Analysis: A Case of Tyree Energy Technologies Building at UNSW Sydney

Addressing clients’ demands, designers have become increasingly concerned about the operation phases of buildings and, more specifically, energy consumption. This issue has become more prominent as people realize that the Earth’s resources are limited and depleted, and buildings are major energy consumers. Building Information Modelling (BIM) has gained popularity in recent years and is now widely used by architects, engineers, and construction teams to collaborate and provide a comprehensive design that follows a sustainable strategy. The objective of this research is to examine how building variables are linked to energy consumption in various building shapes, achieved by building prototypes. The accuracy of the regression models is evaluated by undergoing a validation process. Consequently, this study created building information models of selected education facility office rooms and used Autodesk Insight 360 and Green Building Studio (GBS) to perform energy simulations. A 6 Green Star education building in Australia is chosen as the case study of this paper. Thirteen variables related to building internal design were examined, and five were found to endure a substantial effect on building energy consumption. The study also looked at the window-to-wall ratio (WWR), which was analyzed by multi-linear regression; however, the results showed that the model did not fit well, and the error obtained during the validation process ranged from 1.0% to 26.0%, which is unacceptable for this research. These findings highlight some limitations in using BIM tools and linear regression methods and discuss some potential improvements that can be achieved in future studies.

Public Opinion Mining on Construction Health and Safety: Latent Dirichlet Allocation Approach

The construction industry has been experiencing many occupational accidents as working on construction sites is dangerous. To reduce the likelihood of accidents, construction companies share the latest construction health and safety news and information on social media. While research studies in recent years have explored the perceptions towards these companies’ social media pages, there are no big data analytic studies conducted on Instagram about construction health and safety. This study aims to consolidate public perceptions of construction health and safety by analyzing Instagram posts. The study adopted a big data analytics approach involving visual, content, user, and sentiment analyses of Instagram posts (n = 17,835). The study adopted the Latent Dirichlet Allocation, a kind of machine learning approach for generative probabilistic topic extraction, and the five most mentioned topics were: (a) training service, (b) team management, (c) training organization, (d) workers’ work and family, and (e) users’ action. Besides, the Jaccard coefficient co-occurrence cluster analysis revealed: (a) the most mentioned collocations were ‘construction safety week’, ‘safety first’, and ‘construction team’, (b) the largest clusters were ‘safety training’, ‘occupational health and safety administration’, and ‘health and safety environment’, (c) the most active users were ‘Parallel Consultancy Ltd.’, ‘Pike Consulting Group’, and ‘Global Training Canada’, and (d) positive sentiment accounted for an overwhelming figure of 85%. The findings inform the industry on public perceptions that help create awareness and develop preventative measures for increased health and safety and decreased incidents.

Использование разработанного алгоритма проверки совместности системы линейных неравенств для решения оптимизационных задач в строительстве

Optimization methods have been used to solve many problems in construction. Such well-known problems as the transport problem, some problems of structural mechanics, the problem of the optimal location of objects on the construction site, the assignment of the composition of construction teams in the production of construction and installation works, the tasks of technological equipment and a number of others can be reduced to linear programming problems. An algorithm for checking the compatibility of a system of n linear inequalities in the space of real numbers R of dimension d is given. The algorithm is based on the sequential construction of hyperplanes in the space R of dimension (d+2).

Monitoring PM2.5 at a Large Shopping Mall: A Case Study in Macao

Employees work long hours in an environment where the ambient air quality is poor, directly affecting their work efficiency. The concentration of particulate matters (PM) produced by the interior renovation of shopping malls has not received particular attention in Macao. Therefore, this study will investigate the indoor air quality (IAQ), in particular of PM2.5, in large-scale shopping mall renovation projects. This study collected on-site PM data with low-cost portable monitoring equipment placed temporarily at specific locations to examine whether the current control measures are appropriate and propose some improvements. Prior to this study, there were no measures being implemented, and on-site monitoring to assess the levels of PM2.5 concentrations was non-existent. The results show the highest level of PM2.5 recorded in this study was 559.00 μg/m3. Moreover, this study may provide a reference for decision-makers, management, construction teams, design consultant teams, and renovation teams of large-scale projects. In addition, the monitoring of IAQ can ensure a comfortable environment for employees and customers. This study concluded that the levels of PM2.5 concentration have no correlation with the number of on-site workers, but rather were largely influenced by the processes being performed on-site.