Construction Project Cost Research Articles

Time series-based Project Cost Forecasting Framework

Current inflation rates have significantly been increasing construction project costs globally. Thus, it is crucial to consider potential inflationary trends when estimating the cost at completion of prolonged projects. However, the absence of literature providing guidance on analyzing inflation trends and adjusting the ongoing project cost performance factor is a gap that needs filling. This study proposes a framework for estimating ongoing project costs based on trend and seasonality analysis of the project cost performance through the Holt-Winters method. The proposed framework also incorporates the estimation of project completion time and is applied to a real case study to assess its efficacy. The results are compared with the ones obtained through pre-existing index-based methods. This paper seeks to improve the accuracy of project cost estimation and management in challenging and uncertain economic environments by providing an alternative to the traditional cost at completion forecasting approach.

Digital Application of Construction Project Cost Risk Control and Management Based on BIM Technology

Abstract The core objective of this study is to explore the application of BIM technology in the whole process of cost management of construction projects and to assess the project risk. The study covers the key stages of project planning, design, transaction and construction, and focuses on analyzing the cost management process of investment decision, design estimate, transaction and construction. Through questionnaire surveys and expert interviews with 72 valid samples, this study collects data on green building and analyzes the quality of the risk assessment data. Through questionnaire survey and expert interviews with 72 good samples, this study collects data on green building and analyzes the quality of the risk assessment data. In establishing the BIM-based project cost risk model, the study analyzes the management elements of BIM and IPD in detail, including the quantification of technical and management components. three case projects show that the application of BIM and IPD technologies in different projects has different focuses, and produces other management effects. for example, the number of engineering changes (e.g., the number of changes to the project) exhibited by the project B For example, the number of project changes (NCO) is 35, the cost change rate (COP) is 0.93%, the duration change rate (DCP) is −10.25%, and the number of contract negotiations (NRFI) is 6. The risk evaluation model is applied in a mixed-use project in Xiamen, China, and the results of the simulation experiments show that the method is effective in realizing the risk assessment of the construction project, and the clustered nature of the output features is good. The average value of the risk fuzzy variable is 0.576, and the minimum value is 0.192.

Problem Caused by COVID-19 Pandemic on the Construction Industry of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

The chances to remedy the construction industry from its diverse problems have weakened due to the breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Although the pandemic is almost reduced to history, its impacts linger with acute effects on the industry’s performance. This study investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the construction sector of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria with a specific focus on problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Using survey research design, structured questionnaires were administered to 213 respondents (61 Architects, 32 builders, 46 quantity surveyors, and 74 Civil Engineers). Data analysis involved mean item scores, Chi-Square and Kruskal Wallis tests. The findings revealed that COVID-19 has severed the movement of people and interpersonal relationships, delayed project timelines, escalated transportation problems, and induced high costs of construction resources and project costs. The implication shows that stakeholders in the construction industry are still glued to work ethics during the COVID-19 period or are yet to modify behaviours into the industry norms in terms of human relations and movement. A change in perception is needed to restore the stakeholders to the traditional way of life through an awareness campaign, while the government needs to strengthen economic recovery policies and institute pro-construction industry parameters to reduce the cost of construction resources and overall project costs to accelerate the recovery path of the sector.

Key Drivers for BIM-Enabled Materials Management: Insights for a Sustainable Environment

The value of Building Information Modelling (BIM) is widely discussed within all construction stages including the data-driven culture across building processes and sustainable impact in the long term. Yet, there is a need to explore the opportunities of BIM in improving construction materials management (CMM) as a core function of supply chain management. Due to the dearth of studies on BIM potential in improving CMM within the sustainability context, the authors examine the effectiveness and efficiency of BIM-enabled materials management, via three data streams: a literature review, an online survey, and interviews with subject matter experts in the field. This study aims to explore the drivers of BIM-enabled sustainable construction materials management. This is the preliminary study designed to test the initial hypotheses based on an online questionnaire application to derive tacit knowledge from industry and academic experts, followed by short interviews with respondents. Grounded in the comprehensive literature review, 24 indicators were defined for survey purposes. Preliminarily, 206 experts from 10 countries responded to the survey. The results show significant differences in the ranking of the indicators among the five factors. In developing countries, among two groups, industry sample awareness scales demonstrated lower understanding than among academic experts. Another finding relates to the significant agreement in scaling the importance of opportunities among industrial and academic sector experts. The research adds knowledge to deepen the understanding of opportunities of BIM-enabled materials management as a part of building project sustainable performance for industry policy and decision-makers. It also brings attention to the lack of sustainability awareness amongst industry experts in developing countries. Although materials constitute a solid part of any construction project cost, there is still a collaboration gap among designers, materials management, and, more broadly, supply chain management experts.

Artificial Neural Networks for Construction Project Cost and Duration Estimation

Artificial Neural Networks for Construction Project Cost and Duration Estimation

Optimizing building material supplier selection through integrated interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy multi-attribute decision making

In engineering construction, the unavoidable issue is how to choose suitable suppliers. The quality of suppliers has a direct impact on the progress, quality, and cost of the project. The selection of suppliers for construction projects in water conservancy and hydropower engineering is directly related to the cost of construction enterprises, and large-scale construction projects have stricter requirements for cost control. The investment in engineering construction is very huge, so cost control ability is a very important assessment indicator for construction project construction, and the cost of materials is a significant part of the construction project cost. Therefore, the research on the selection and optimization of building material suppliers is a topic that cannot be ignored. The building material supplier selection is a multi-attribute decision making (MADM). In this paper, some calculating laws on IVIFSs, Hamacher sum, Hamacher product are introduced, and the induced interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy Hamacher interactive ordered weighted averaging (IVIFHIOWA) operators (I-IVIFHIOWA) operator is proposed. Meanwhile, some ideal properties of I-IVIFHIOWA operator are studied. Then, the I-IVIFHIOWA operator is employed to cope with the MADM under IVIFSs. Finally, an example for building material supplier selection is employed to test the I-IVIFHIOWA operator.

Application of BIM technology in construction project cost refinement control and construction energy consumption control

Abstract In order to solve the problem of accurate cost control management in the process of engineering construction, this paper applies BIM technology to the whole process of cost management, covering the whole life cycle of the project. Through efficient sharing of information on the BIM collaborative platform, it carries out unimpeded process work and achieves refined management. Aiming at the complexity of the information characteristics that affect the cost and uncertainty of information transmission, an algorithm fusion scheme based on NCM-FPN has been designed. The TOPSIS method is used to integrate the case feature attributes into the cost case information database. By combining the clustering algorithm with practical management experience, the knowledge base of engineering cost control strategies can be established, and the logical relationship of strategy matching can be determined. The inverse cloud algorithm is used to establish the feature cloud, determine the fuzzy Petri network structure based on generative rules and design the inference algorithm to establish an intelligent model for strategy matching so as to realize the accurate mapping and rapid response from the target case features to the control strategies. Through the analysis of construction energy consumption, it is concluded that the construction energy consumption of different structure buildings is not the same; the construction energy consumption per unit area of brick structure, steel structure residence and frame office building is 0.1659GJ/m2, 0.2706GJ/m2 and 0.3104GJ/m2 respectively, and the largest is the shear-wall structure residence is 0.3381GJ/m2 for the 2.04 times of the brick structure. Based on BIM technology, the cost of dynamic control engineering for construction projects was reduced by 5.4 million. Therefore, BIM is an important technical means to promote the whole process control of project cost, from empirical control to informationization, standardization, and intelligent control.

Price prediction of residential buildings using random forest and artificial neural network

ABSTRACT Inaccurate cost estimates significantly affect the ultimate cost of construction projects and reduce revenues. This study compares the accuracy of two algorithm models in estimating construction project prices during the early conceptual stage of project development. The construction prices of residential projects are forecasted in this study using two modeling methods, artificial neural networks (ANN) and random forest (RF), based on the project data from the actual projects. The datasets have been collected from 220 residential buildings implemented in various cities in Egypt. Python was used to build the model during the training and testing phases. To evaluate the performance of the models generated by each algorithm, five key statistical metrics were employed. The findings revealed that both ANN and RF managed to predict the price per meter square of the construction projects, attaining model score accuracies of 96.6% and 93.05%, respectively. The best training for RF was acquired with 110 trees and a maximum decision tree depth of 20. The outcomes of this research could assist stakeholders in the building sector estimate construction project costs during the conceptual stage, enabling more informed decisions by examining key cost drivers for building projects and utilizing appropriate machine learning techniques for analysis.

İnşaat Maliyet Endeksi Tahmininde Holt-Winters Üstel Düzeltme Parametrelerinin PSO ve İleri Walk-Forward Cross-Validation ile Optimizasyonu

This research aims to enhance the accuracy of Construction Cost Index (CCI) forecasting using Holt-Winters exponential smoothing (ES) by optimizing its parameters, focusing on minimizing the Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) for precise CCI forecasts. To reach this aim, The Holt-Winters model parameters are optimized through Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Walk-Forward Cross-Validation (WFCV). PSO, a metaheuristic optimization algorithm, is being applied to search for optimal values of the smoothing parameters (alpha, beta, and gamma) that determine the weightage of past observations, trends, and seasonality, respectively. WFCV is assessed the model's performance and ensures robustness. Reduced MAPEs of 22 for CCI forecasts and 2 for training data are the findings of the optimized Holt-Winters model. The obtained alpha, beta, and gamma values are 0.99, 0.77, and 0, respectively, highlighting the importance of while neglecting seasonality. Convergence graphs demonstrate the superiority of the optimization approach over conventional parameter values or random selections. By employing PSO and WFCV, the study efficiently fine-tunes the Holt-Winters model for precise CCI forecasting. Optimized parameter values enable data driven decision-making in construction project cost estimation and budget management. This research contributes a reliable and robust optimization methodology for CCI forecasting, supporting advancements in the field.

Assessment of Labor Management Practices in Private Group Housing Developers in Kathmandu Valley

The construction industry is known for its labor-intensive nature, and companies must maintain high labor management standards to complete projects within time and budget. However, challenges related to labor management are common in the industry and can negatively impact project delivery times and costs. In Nepal, housing developers face the issue of not delivering projects on time, leading to increased costs. This study explores the current labor management practices, challenges, and remedial measures in the construction industry of Nepal, with a focus on housing developers in the Kathmandu Valley. The study collected data from 17 building projects using interviews and questionnaires and analyzed the data using the Relative Importance Index (RII) and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. The findings indicate that labor management issues, including poor communication, planning, inadequate wages, occupational health and safety, labor policy, and unfair treatment, are major challenges faced by housing developers in Nepal. The study recommends implementing better employee staffing, performance evaluation, work environment, training, and compensation management to address these challenges. The results of this study offer insight into current labor management practices and potential solutions for housing developers in Nepal, contributing to the overall success of construction projects. Proper labor management can result in substantial savings in time and cost for construction projects, making this study relevant and valuable to researchers and practitioners in the construction industry. The findings of this research could have important implications for private housing developers in Nepal, as well as for the broader housing sector in developing countries facing similar challenges.

A genetic algorithm-based approach for the time, cost, and quality trade-off problem for construction projects

A genetic algorithm-based approach for the time, cost, and quality trade-off problem for construction projects

Applicability of electronic document management system (EDMS) for the cost management of mega construction projects in Sri Lanka

PurposeDocumentation plays a key role in navigating the costs of construction projects. Traditional document management systems (TDMS) used in developing countries, however, hinder the achievement of expected cost targets. Although the electronic document management system (EDMS) has been implemented to improve documentation, the Sri Lankan construction industry has failed to effectively adapt to it. Hence, this study aims to provide strategies for the effective application of EDMS to the cost management of Sri Lankan mega construction projects.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a qualitative approach followed by 12 semi-structured expert interviews. Quantity surveying experts were selected through judgemental sampling. Manual content analysis was used to analyse the data.FindingsThe EDMS is more suitable for megaprojects than traditional methods of documentation in terms of functionality, neutrality, interoperability, space, reversibility and delivery speed. However, there are contradictory views about cost and security. Furthermore, five transitional challenges of EDMS have been identified under the three key themes of cost, stakeholder perception and technical difficulties. Four reasons were also identified as causing these five challenges. Seven suggestions were made to deal with these transitional challenges and three key feasible solutions for the Sri Lankan construction industry regarding the EDMS were identified. Development of Sri Lankan software with low initial cost was highlighted as the most feasible solution.Originality/valueThis is a novel study to investigate the applicability of EDMS to cost management mechanisms of megaprojects in Sri Lanka. The findings reveal transitional challenges and appropriate feasible solutions for EDMS adaptation. This can be applied to the cost management of megaprojects in other developing countries as well.

Application of BIM technology in dynamic management and control of construction project costs

Abstract This paper analyzes and summarizes the difference between BIM technology and traditional methods in cost management, subdividing the cost index of construction projects into elemental price index, bill of quantities price index, index cost index, and calculating dynamic cost index of construction projects. Based on the cost performance index and schedule performance index, the schedule-cost two-dimensional model of BIM technology is formed to complete the assessment and control of cost performance in order to realize the value analysis of BIM technology in the dynamic cost management of the whole process of construction engineering. Analyze the dynamic cost management of BIM technology in the decision-making stage, design stage, and construction stage of construction projects with examples, focusing on the exploration of engineering cost problems in the construction stage, and analyze the project benefit rate of cost management with BIM technology. Through BIM modeling for collision and error checking and deepening the construction stage design, a total of 503 design collision and error problems are found in total, 15 design change orders are reduced, and about 1,629,480,000 yuan of economic benefits are generated.

Assessment of the Construction Project Costs by Using the Learning Curve

The project feasibility study, which is the scientific technique, a thorough technical and economic analysis, and a demonstration of the projects construction before the project decision are the most crucial components of the project's preparatory work. This paper uses the one-factor learning curve to analyze the project cost and then obtains the feasibility study results for the project. The Wright models are the foundation of the tool developed. The model was chosen due to its applicability to the construction sector and its effectiveness in terms of fitness (ability to fit historical data) and predictability in the past (ability to estimate future data).

Study on the application of construction project cost control in China

Project cost control is a hot issue in construction enterprise management and a key factor to determine the return on project investment. With the continuous summary of modern project management experience, systematic, comprehensive and dynamic management methods and ideas gradually began to be adopted. As a controllable system, cost system is the key to determine the market competitiveness of construction enterprises. This paper combines qualitative research with quantitative research, normative research with empirical research, theoretical research with practical research, and makes comprehensive use of previous research results to provide guidance for the practical operation of cost control in construction enterprises. Firstly, it introduces the important factors affecting the cost and the background and purpose of the project cost control, and then analyzes the object and content of the project cost control and analysis. Finally, the phenomenon of "three super" and the deviation of the project cost are analyzedd and discussed. It is of great practical significance to study project cost control for promoting the reform of investment system and improving market competitiveness of construction enterprises.

Comparing time and cost performance of DBB and DB public construction projects in Kuwait

Kuwait is an enormous construction site as many vital public projects are under construction or in preparatory stages to achieve the vision of a New Kuwait by 2035. However, the new Public Tenders Law No. 49 of 2016 authorized the sole operation of the Design-Bid-Build (DBB) method as the delivery system method, preventing the employment of Design-Build (DB). Hence, this research undertook a comparative analysis of cost and time performance of DBB and DB public construction projects in Kuwait for the first time, marking the originality of this study. Moreover, 160 projects were collected from four government entities. Then, the total collected projects were categorized based on contract types and project sizes depending on contract cost. This research has recognized that DB has superior performance compared to DBB regarding cost growth for all collected projects, both contract types, projects of less than 300,000 KD, and projects between 300,000 and 12 million KD. No statistically significant differences between DBB and DB projects regarding schedule growth were found for all collected projects, both contract types and project sizes. Furthermore, the findings indicated that the DBB projects’ construction intensity was faster than that of DB projects with a value between 300,00 KD and 12 million KD. For projects that had a value of more than 12 million KD, the DB projects’ construction intensity was faster than that of DBB projects. Hence, it is concluded that the issue is not with the DB delivery systems themselves, but rather with the deployment of these systems.

Automated system for high-accuracy quantity takeoff using BIM

Reliable construction project cost estimation relies on accurate quantity takeoffs (QTOs), traditionally done with error-prone 2-D drawings, but the emergence of Building Information Modeling (BIM) has improved QTO speed, accuracy, and reliability. However, the quality of BIM models can influence quantity accuracy, an aspect often overlooked in research on automating QTO with BIM. This paper develops an integrated framework to automatically extract and visualize construction quantities from BIM models. The system includes a Quantity Precision Check (QPC) module for automating more accurate QTO outputs. These outputs are then automatically transferred to an external database and visualized through a user-friendly dashboard on the Microsoft Power BI platform. This dashboard allows for comparisons between 2-D and BIM quantities and helps track changes in quantities over time due to design changes. The system was successfully validated in an infrastructure construction project in Canada, where it identified a 39% inconsistency in wall elements' material quantities and reduced steel quantity by 10% due to design changes. Overall, the system offers a speedy, reliable, and efficient tool for construction estimators, site managers, and cost control teams to provide accurate quantities to the procurement team and make swift decisions in response to design change impacts on construction costs.

Retracted: Construction Project Cost Management and Control System Based on Big Data

Retracted: Construction Project Cost Management and Control System Based on Big Data

Support Optimization of Open TBM Tunneling in Luohe Formation Sandstone by CT Test and Numerical Simulation

As underground engineering extends into the western and deeper regions of China, more and more Luohe Formation sandstone layers will be encountered, which have weak cementation and high water content. It is a significant challenge to apply the open TBM, and the support system is crucial in determining whether TBM can excavate quickly and safely. Therefore, in order to optimize the support scheme, this paper analyzes the pore structure and porosity through CT scanning, the results indicate that the volume percentage of pores ≥34 μm is 2.3% and 1.5%, respectively, the large pore apertures are predominant, the surrounding rock has strong permeability, and there is a high risk of rock burst and roof collapse accidents, hence requiring reinforced support measures. On this basis, numerical simulations were conducted to evaluate the support effectiveness. The results show that replacing the “bolt + mesh” with a “bolt + cable + mesh + steel belt”, and replacing the top three bolts with 7.3 m anchor cables, can better control the deformation and provide sufficient thrust force for the TBM, ensuring excavation speed. After the implementation of this scheme at the Kekegai coal mine in Shaanxi, China, the TBM excavation speed increased by 70%, from the previous 10 m/day to 17 m/d, significantly reducing the project duration and construction costs.

Research on construction project cost budget and cost control based on matrix model

Abstract In this paper, based on the matrix model to count the number of elements and judge the symmetry of matrix elements, the nearest neighbor space in high-dimensional space is converted into a symmetry matrix. The boundary extraction is discretized and iterated repeatedly until the fitness satisfies the final condition. The genetic algorithm finds the optimal solution, which is transformed into the fitness function, and the system reliability constraints are processed to solve the cost control problem. According to the results, the cost control cost of the construction project is reduced by 10% based on the matrix model. It shows that the proposed model can promptly solve the existing project cost over-budget situation, which makes the enterprise obtain more economic benefits and enhance the market’s competitiveness.