Large Engineering Projects Research Articles

The application of nested-game theory in the public participation mechanism in the decision-making of large engineering projects

It is the nested-game theory that provides a new angle for the study on public participation mechanism in the decision-making of large public engineering projects. The public participation is not isolated, but nested in other games. This paper tries to analyze the main bodies’ behavior on decision-making during the public participation from the main body of the game and utility, etc. Then it discusses about the effective approach of constructing multi-interests balanced mechanism under the new nested relationship of decision-making on large public engineering projects.

Collaborative Project Alignment

AbstractManaging a large-scale distributed engineering project needs skilled, motivated and committed personnel. Unified and aligned working methods are needed. Project alignment is the process of ensuring that key stakeholders share a common understanding of the project mission, goals, objectives, tactics, work processes and plans and have the required competences and skills. Based on current advances in the area of collaborative networked organisations, project management and Internet web 2.0 technologies, we have identified further needs and opportunities for development in the area of Collaborative Project Management. The Project Alignment Booster is a set of software services used to promote collaborative project management. The tool has been developed to suit industrial requirements in the area of large and complicated engineering project management. The paper reports the results of developing a toolkit to support collaborative project alignment.

Competing management approaches in large engineering projects: The Dutch RandstadRail project

The management of large engineering projects is often a combination of the focus on planning and control, and the ambition to be flexible given the complexity and uncertainties that characterises these kinds of projects. However, control and flexibility impose contradictory requirements upon the management of these projects. The literature on project management reflects this contradiction. Some authors underline that projects require firm planning and control, thus downplaying the role of flexibility. Others emphasise that projects require flexibility and responsiveness, thus moving away from rigid planning and control. In this contribution, we suggest that in practice project managers acknowledge the weakness of both extremes and therefore strive to combine the two. Moreover, we argue that project success is at risk when project managers do not succeed in meeting the requirements of control and flexibility. To be able to investigate how these competing requirements are dealt with in practice, a framework is developed. The usefulness of the framework is explored by applying the framework to the large engineering project Randstadrail—a light rail project in The Netherlands.

Grasping project complexity in large engineering projects: The TOE (Technical, Organizational and Environmental) framework

This paper presents a framework for characterising project complexity in large engineering projects, which can be used to adapt the front–end development phase of engineering projects to the particular complexity. Recently, a large number of project complexity related papers were published, demonstrating the evident importance of “complexity” in current project management research. However, no generally accepted framework is available to support the characterising and understanding of project complexity that appreciates the richness of project complexity in large engineering projects. Therefore the TOE (Technical, Organizational, and Environmental) framework was developed, based on a literature survey building upon existing work and on new empirical work consisting of eighteen interviews about six projects in the process engineering industry. As a result of an inductive approach, this framework presents the elements that contribute to project complexity from a theoretical as well as a practical perspective. The framework can be used to assess the complexity of engineering projects, and subsequently adapt the front–end development phase of projects in order to better manage the complexity of the project.

Benchmarking a new design management system using process simulation approach

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to put forward a research‐based argument on the benefits of simulation approach in managing design at an early stage of a project. Having selected an optimal design configuration, the operational uncertainties can be removed and investment decisions are fully justified over the lifecycle of projects.Design/methodology/approachA simulation‐based methodology embodying balanced scorecard (BSC) for measuring the operational and business performance has been synthesised in the research. Multi‐criteria decision analysis (MCDA) has been employed to evaluate the trade‐offs between feasible design alternatives and to select the optimum design configuration.FindingsThe findings show that the integrated framework developed in this research by integrating simulation technology, BSC and MCDA adds significant contributions in improving the current body of knowledge in the design management practices.Research limitations/implicationsThe framework should further be tested by applying to large engineering projects in order for realising the benefits in the decision‐appraisal process. Access to data in large projects before implementation would be the greatest challenge from a commercial‐in‐confidence perspective.Practical implicationsThe framework will help the practitioner's understanding and management of the design configuration in highly complex modern projects. This will allow the decision makers to manage interdependency of complex processes and select optimal designs upfront. The resulting framework will significantly contribute to reducing scope creeps and cost variations and thereby reducing contractual disputes in projects.Originality/valueThe original design of the integrated framework of this kind for managing design complexity in projects adds significant value in the design management practices. The use of simulation embodying BSC and MCDA adds significant novelty in theoretical advancement of contemporary knowledge in the design management profession.

A case study on the feasibility and performance of an UWB-AoA real time location system for resources management of civil construction projects

The application of integrated satellite and modern wireless positioning technologies for ubiquitous real-time resources management in large scale civil engineering projects can greatly optimize the time and cost in the construction process, and is now the trend for modern construction project man- agement. As the outdoor conditions of most civil construction sites are open to sky, satellite position- ing with the popularly used Global Positioning System (GPS) has been proved to be very e‰cient and eective. However, the condition in indoor and underground construction site is very complicated due to the fact that dierent construction activities would be carried out in dierent congested areas, involving heavy construction plant, equipment, pro- fessionals and technical personnel. Nowadays dier- ent emerging technologies such as Wi-Fi and ZigBee can be adopted for position and tracking in indoor environments. Nevertheless, under the very com- plicated construction site conditions these technolo- gies may fail due to movement of human resources and construction plant, variation of metrological conditions, and serious multipath eects of signals. It is considered that Ultra Wide Band (UWB) tech- nology is more suitable for indoor construction site environments. In this paper, a case study on the attempt of integrating GPS with Ubisense Real- time Location System (RTLS) for resources man- agement in an underground railway construction site is discussed. Laboratory and field tests have shown that the RTLS can provide better resources management capability in terms of positioning accuracy and stability than Wi-Fi and ZigBee tech- nologies under complicated construction environ- ments. The test results show that the system can normally achieve better than 15 cm accuracy, and better than 1 m under adverse geometrical site condition. However, the high instrumental set up cost and the requirement for high quality data trans- mission cable for high precision time synchroni- zation between sensors may deter wide application of similar system for resources management in con- struction sites.

Governance Processes, Labour-Management Partnership and Employee Voice in the Construction of Heathrow Terminal 5

The Major Projects Agreement (MPA) is a framework collective agreement designed to enhance performance outcomes in large mechanical and electrical engineering projects. It includes the trade union as a partner in strategic, organizational and employment decisions. The agreement was recently implemented in the construction of Heathrow Terminal 5 (T5). We look at factors in the corporate governance and industrial relations environment that led to the use of the MPA at T5, and assess its contribution to the completion of the construction project there. That the MPA has not been more widely adopted since the completion of T5 is indicative, we suggest, of wider constraints on labour-management partnerships in Britain

Digital data security and hiding on virtual reality video 3D GIS

Today’s Information Technology supports varieties of e-commerce, in particular on-demand services such as news, message, seminar and presentation speech, Video and 3D Video GIS which is getting more popular as it shows the situation with respect to the location. Each service can have value-added by embedding other hidden-service within the main service, hence promoting value-added to the service. The value-added services are accomplished by using the technique of Multiple Keys and Messages Embedding (MKME), which hidden-contents can be retrieved only by applying the correct corresponding decryption keys. This paper presents the design and algorithm for multiple keys and messages embedding on 3D Video GIS which contains a series of Geo-spatial Video Imagery, based on Steganography concept. The quality of the resulting product is also investigated. Geo-spatial Video Imagery is 360 degree video embedded with GPS information that can be integrated into any mapping application. Geo-spatial Video Imagery enables users to travel down the street - for a natural street view - and look in every direction as if they were in the middle of the scene. Geo-spatial Video Imagery provides users with access to a specific location and enables them to see what the environment looks like, given them a complete perspective. Whether the application is for tourism via the web, navigation purposes or managing a large engineering project, desktop access to precise locations enables the user to experience the whole environment. Access to this imagery saves time, money and provides significant data eliminating the need for multiple visits to sites, properties and distant locales.

Limitation of Liability Clause Violates Anti-Indemnity Statute

Many large civil engineering projects find the project’s engineers earning fees that are a small fraction of the ultimate cost of the project, and similarly, a small fraction of the potential liability arising out of the engineering for the project. To mitigate this risk, some engineering contracts include a limitation of liability clause that limits an owner’s claims against the engineer to a maximum amount—for example, the fee or available insurance. To reap the benefits of such provisions, it is important that they be drafted in such way as to comply with the peculiarities of the law of the jurisdiction governing the contract. The engineering firm in Lanier at McEver, L.P. v. Planners and Engineers Collaborative, Inc. 2008 belatedly discovered that the terms of its particular limitation of liability clause ran afoul of Georgia’s anti-indemnity statute.

Modularised logic tree risk assessment method for carbon capture and storage projects

Abstract We suggest CCS risk assessment should extend beyond the primary container to address a wide range of safety, economic, social, political and engineering issues. In New Zealand, for example, past experiences of large engineering projects suggests that failure to gain public support or to allocate appropriate resources to navigate through legislative process could provide significant barriers to successful CCS implementation. We have developed a modularized and probabilistic based logic tree which encompasses the main components of CCS (capture, transport, injection and storage) and is built upon the five issues mentioned above.

Simultaneously increasing cryogenic strength, ductility and impact resistance of epoxy resins modified by n-butyl glycidyl ether

Epoxy resins are increasingly used in cryogenic engineering areas due to rapid developments of spacecraft and superconducting cable technologies as well as large cryogenic engineering projects (e.g., International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor). Cryogenic mechanical properties are important parameters for epoxy resins to be employed in such areas. In this paper, a traditional reactive aliphatic diluent, namely n-butyl glycidyl ether (BGE, JX-013) with a low viscosity, was used to modify diethyl toluene diamine (DETD)-cured diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-F (DGEBF) epoxy system for enhancing cryogenic mechanical properties at liquid nitrogen temperature (77K). The results showed that the cryogenic strength, ductility and impact resistance (impact strength) have been simultaneously enhanced by the addition of BGE with appropriate contents. Moreover, the comparison of the mechanical properties between 77K and room temperature (RT) indicated that at the same composition, the tensile strength and Young's modulus at 77K were higher than those at RT but the failure strain and impact resistance showed the opposite results. Finally, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) exhibited that the glass transition temperatures (Tg) of the epoxy resins decreased with increasing the BGE content.

Developing Aussie home-grown talent in an international market

With the current skills shortage in the engineering profession and the need for more experienced engineers, it is important for Australian engineering companies to not only rely on importing skilled engineers from overseas to fulfil current day demands, but also to focus on developing young Australian engineers for the future. Aker Solutions Australia has implemented a training and development program for its employees by seconding them into the head office in Oslo, Norway for both technical and personal development. The program provides many positive outcomes for both the company and the employees including: knowledge transfer and alignment between the international offices, developing and improving the talent of Australian engineers, improving communications between the offices and providing the Oslo office with much needed resources. The program was initiated in 2006 and so far nine employees have been sent across the globe for training. In this time the employees have had the opportunity to work on new technological developments in gas processing, advanced concept development studies and large scale engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) projects. Working internationally has also provided Australian engineers with a chance to interact with a number of skilled people from diverse backgrounds, learn new languages and embrace different cultures. The program to date has had much success, with both clients and the Aker Solutions office in Norway requesting continuation of the Australian engineers’ services while one of the engineers—Jacqui Driver—won best paper at the 2007 APPEA conference for her work in Oslo on novel offshore LNG solutions.

Rates and Trends of Coastal Change in California and the Regional Behavior of the Beach and Cliff System

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently completed an analysis of shoreline change and cliff retreat along the California coast. This is the first regional, systematic measurement of coastal change conducted for the West Coast. Long-term (∼120 y) and short-term (∼25 y) shoreline change rates were calculated for more than 750 km of coastline, and 70 year cliff-retreat rates were generated for 350 km of coast. Results show that 40% of California's beaches were eroding in the long term. This number increased to 66% in the short term, indicating that many beaches have shifted toward a state of chronic erosion. The statewide average net shoreline change rates for the long and short term were 0.2 m/y and −0.2 m/y, respectively. The long-term accretional signal is likely related to large coastal engineering projects in some parts of the state and to large fluxes of sediment from rivers in other areas. The cliff-retreat assessment yielded a statewide average of −0.3 m/y. It was found that Northern California has the highest overall retreat rates, which are influenced by erosion hot spots associated with large coastal landslides and slumps. The databases established as part of the shoreline change and cliff-retreat analyses were further investigated to examine the dynamics of the beach/cliff system. A correlation analysis identified a strong relationship between the geomorphology of the coast and the behavior of the beach/cliff system. Areas of high-relief coast show negative correlations, indicating that higher rates of cliff retreat correlate with lower rates of shoreline erosion. In contrast, low-to moderate-relief coasts show strong positive correlations, wherein areas of high shoreline change correspond to areas of high cliff retreat.

Governance Processes, Employee Voice and Performance Outcomes in the Construction of Heathrow Terminal 5

The Major Projects Agreement (MPA) is a framework agreement designed to improve performance in large mechanical and electrical engineering projects. It is built on integrated team working and includes the trade union as a partner in strategic, organizational and employment decisions. The agreement was recently implemented in the construction of Heathrow Terminal 5 (T5). The use of the MPA at T5 illustrates how the promotion of a framework that legitimizes a role for unions in continuing dialogue with employers can positively affect organizational outcomes in large construction projects. While serving as a reminder that mechanisms exist within UK corporate governance for the representation and articulation of the interests of non-shareholder constituencies, T5 may be a unique case: the currently uncertain future of the MPA is indicative of wider constraints on the adoption of the partnership model in Britain.

Upstream Problem Solving Under Uncertainty and Ambiguity: Evidence From Airport Expansion Projects

Environmental changes are common during development of large engineering (infrastructure) projects. To accommodate them when they occur, developers design and physically execute the upstream base building with preliminary information about the downstream business-critical fit-out. Base-building subsystems provide service space for occupancy, whereas fit-out subsystems make the space functional. We build theory on design under uncertainty and ambiguity from case study research, drawing on theory of preliminary information exchange in concurrent development. We find that the base-building subsystem shows low sensitivity to incremental changes in fit-out. However, it shows high sensitivity to radical changes, unless the two subsystems interact in a modular fashion. In the face of slow resolution of downstream uncertainty and difficulties in decoupling the physical interfaces (as is the case in modular design for example), upstream developers avoid starvation by making working assumptions at risk and exploring the space of possible design solutions through an early ldquooptioneeringrdquo stage. Two patterns for problem-solving upstream stand out: 1) iterate design when preliminary information is either ambiguous or precise, but unstable and 2) build buffers in the design definition to absorb foreseeable changes when the preliminary information lacks precision but is not ambiguous. Buffers can be designed out if downstream uncertainties resolve favorably before the buffers are physically executed.

Large engineering project risk management using a Bayesian belief network

This paper presents a scheme for large engineering project risk management using a Bayesian belief network and applies it to the Korean shipbuilding industry. Twenty-six different risks were deduced from expert interviews and a literature review. A survey analysis was conducted on 252 experts from 11 major Korean shipbuilding companies in April 2007. The overall major risks were design change, design manpower, and raw material supply as internal risks, and exchange rate as external risk in both large-scale and medium-sized shipbuilding companies. Differences of project performance risks between large-scale and medium-sized shipbuilding companies were identified. Exceeding time schedule and specification discontent were more important to large-scale shipbuilding companies, while exceeding budget and exceeding time schedule were more important to medium-sized shipbuilding companies. The change of project performance risks was measured by risk reduction activities of quality management, and strikes at headquarters and subcontractors, in both large-scale and medium-sized shipbuilding companies. The research results should be valuable in enabling industrial participants to manage their large engineering project risks and in extending our understanding of Korean shipbuilding risks.

On Chinese, European & American universities

past three decades have seen an unprecedented expansion of higher education and, in the most recent time, efforts at reform and restructuring.1 My own university, Harvard, has overhauled its undergraduate curriculum in a comprehensive fashion for the 1⁄2rst time in thirty years. European universities have witnessed even more thoroughgoing changes in the structure of undergraduate education. But perhaps nowhere on earth have recent decades seen more revolutionary change in higher education than in the People’s Republic of China. Thirty years ago, Chinese universities were just reopening after the catastrophe of the Cultural Revolution. Today they are poised for positions of international leadership in research and education. The case of Wuhan University, arguably China’s oldest modern university, illustrates the dramatic changes the Chinese system of higher education has undergone in the past century. Wuhan and the surrounding province of Hubei have long been important centers of commerce, scholarship, and political leadership. It was the great reforming Governor-General Zhang Zhidong, who founded in 1893–1⁄2ve years before Peking University began–the “Self-Strengthening Institute” that would become Wuhan University. That university would be a witness to central events of China’s twentieth century: it was in Wuhan that the revolution that overthrew the Qing dynasty in 1912 began; Wuhan hosted one of the two contending Nationalist governments in 1927, and the retreating government of Chiang Kaishek in 1938. In the early People’s Republic, Wuhan became a great industrial sector. Today, western Hubei, upriver from Wuhan, is home to the largest engineering project in world history, the Three Gorges Dam (and even a “Three Gorges Dam University”). Wuhan University had a strong history of growth before 1949. It was then nearly destroyed during the Cultural Revolu-

Systems Engineering and Tram Projects

AbstractComplex interfaces exist in all large engineering projects. Tram projects bring particular complexity through the need to integrate major new infrastructure into an existing dense urban city fabric and engage with a wide variety of stakeholders with interfaces and requirements. This environment lends itself to a structured approach and this paper presents recent experience of applying a Systems Engineering approach to the design of a tram system.Particular features and design challenges of tram systems are described, how they can be characterised in terms of Systems Engineering, the solutions implemented and lessons learned. The paper concludes that Systems Engineering clearly brings benefits in the complex world of trams, but whilst the industry is moving towards this approach there is still a long way to go. Clients and consultants are encouraged to actively promote Systems Engineering activities at all levels, to ensure the benefits are maximized to all.

Planning in the Dark: Why Major Engineering Projects Fail to Achieve Key Goals

The arguments, analysis and observations in this paper are based on 10 years of research with partners in the European and US aerospace and defence industries. During this period, the authors were part of a team of researchers who were seeking to develop a new methodology and tool set for project management, particularly aimed at large aerospace projects. The research was motivated by the seemingly ubiquitous reality of project failure, with large engineering projects apparently always late and over budget. Here the authors focus on aerospace and defence, but the problems are generic across all branches of engineering. In their view, aerospace and defence have more excuses than most, because not only are the projects huge, but also they are globally distributed and highly complex. As work progressed, a fundamental conundrum emerged. Through discussions with project managers and assessment of the teams that were undertaking the projects, it became obvious that they were well educated, intelligent, highly motivated and very capable people. So why were so many projects going wrong? And it was not just aerospace and defence, as projects were failing in many different sectors and in numerous geographic locations. Obviously the problems were not to do with incompetence, as they were clearly so generic. As a result, the authors focused their analysis on factors inherent in the way all major projects are undertaken. The ultimate finding has been that the very technology available for managing projects today is inadequate. As argued within the paper, modern, complex projects cannot be planned and executed using 50-year-old project management tools. The paper tells the story of what is wrong with the current technology and how and why it needs to change. The authors are well aware that there are also cultural problems in project management, but many of these are exacerbated by the use of inadequate tools.

Engineering and construction projects for oil and gas processing facilities: Contracting, uncertainty and the economics of information

The amount of oil and gas processing capacity required to meet demand during the next 20 years is more than twice the amount realised during the last decades. Engineering and Construction contractors (ECs) play a key role in the development and implementation of Large Engineering and Construction Projects (LECPs) for these facilities. We examine the characteristics of LECPs, demand and supply of the contracting market and the strategies traditionally adopted by owners to contract out the development and implementation of these projects to ECs. We demonstrate that these traditional strategies are not longer effective, in the current ‘sellers market’, to mitigate the oligopolistic economic inefficiencies. As the ‘overheating’ of the contracting market is expected to continue for a considerable period of time, alternative contracting strategies are required. Contract theory, particularly the economics of information on LECPs, indicates how alternative contracting strategies can be used to overcome economic inefficiencies. The effective use of these alternative strategies requires increased owner involvement and their effectiveness is contingent upon owner competency and ECs acting as the owner's agent rather than its adversary. This will require an organisational and behavioural change process for both owners and ECs.