Maintenance Projects Research Articles

Construction Practice of Centralized Maintenance Mode for Asphalt Pavement of Expressway

At present, one of the most prominent problems in Jiangsu Expressway Maintenance Project is the contradiction between maintenance operation and traffic. Based on the centralized maintenance project of Guangjing Xicheng Expressway in Jiangsu Province, this paper analyzes and summarizes the centralized maintenance mode from two aspects: the preparation points and the control in the construction process. The practice of this project shows that the centralized maintenance project needs to focus on the characteristics of multi-dimensional concentration of time, space and material, make targeted preparation from the aspects of organization, human, machine, material, technology and emergency plan, and ensure multi-directional control through summary and improvement, multi-party coordination, dynamic control, construction standardization and a series of measures in the implementation process. Compared with the traditional maintenance mode, the centralized maintenance mode makes the maintenance project better in quality, faster in progress, more controllable in safety and better in benefit. The research results provide important practical experience for similar projects.

Analysis and Practice of Jiangsu Expressway Centralized Maintenance Mode

Under the traditional maintenance mode, the contradiction between maintenance operations and traffic has negative effects on maintenance safety, efficiency, quality and benefits, and the centralized maintenance mode can effectively solve this problem. Based on the practical experience of the Jiangsu Expressway Centralized Maintenance Project, this paper summarizes the significance of carrying out the centralized maintenance of expressways, and systematically analyzes the applicability of the centralized maintenance mode from the two aspects of project requirements and external conditions. Not all expressway maintenance projects are applicable. In order to adopt the centralized maintenance mode, it is necessary to combine the construction operation content of the project and the external construction environment to make scientific decisions. Finally, taking the Shanghai-Nanjing Expressway Centralized Maintenance Project as an example, it introduces the construction organization and management characteristics of the Shanghai-Nanjing Centralized Maintenance Mode and the successful experience of the design scheme for traffic diversion of high-volume expressways, in order to provide a certain reference value for similar projects.

Legal and policy issues for early migration and compensation according to emergency maintenance projects for dangerous buildings

Legal and policy issues for early migration and compensation according to emergency maintenance projects for dangerous buildings

Model predictive control for slurry pipeline transportation of a cutter suction dredger

Cutter Suction Dredgers (CSDs) are a special type of ships designed for construction and maintenance projects of ocean and offshore engineering. During the dredging operation, CSDs can excavate nearly all kinds of soil on the sea bed, and then the dredged materials with coarse particles need to be sucked up by a slurry pump and transported to a disposal area through a long-distance pipeline. In order to avoid sedimentation of slurry in pipeline transportation, the flow rate must be maintained within a reasonable range. Otherwise, the pipeline can be blocked when the slurry density is too high. In this paper, we present a Model Predictive Control (MPC) approach to manipulate the flow rate of slurry in pipeline transportation for a CSD. To demonstrate the advantages of our proposed approach, we also implement three Proportional–Integral–Derivative (PID) controllers (i.e., conventional PID, Fuzzy-PID, and LQR-PID) to make a direct comparison. Moreover, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed approach in real scenarios, we have, in particular, built a slurry pipeline transportation platform. Both the simulation and experimental results show that our proposed MPC approach is more effective than other PID controllers in controlling the flow rate in the slurry pipeline transportation problem. The proposed approach can provide a guideline for the automated control of the slurry pump for a CSD.

Data-Driven Framework for Team Formation for Maintenance Tasks

Even as maintenance evolves with new technologies, it is still a heavily human-driven domain; multiple steps in the maintenance workflow still require human expertise and intervention. Various maintenance activities require multiple maintainers, all with different skill sets and expertise, and from various positions and levels within the organization. Responding to maintenance requests, training exercises, or executing larger maintenance projects all can require maintenance teams. Having the correct assortment of individuals both in terms of skills and management experience can help improve the efficiency of these maintenance tasks. This paper presents a workflow for creating teams of maintainers by adapting accepted practices from the human-computer interaction (HCI) community. These steps provide a low-cost solution to help account for the needs of maintainers and their management, while matching skills of the maintainers with the needs of the activity.

A study of business knowledge requirements for software projects

Purpose This paper aims to explore the expertise level required in various kinds of business knowledge such as regulatory, domain, strategic, operation process and, business process to execute globally distributed software projects for development, re-engineering and maintenance projects in the Indian outsourcing software industry. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted a questionnaire survey method to collect the expert responses for a knowledge management framework which is suggested in the literature for software development work. The questionnaire survey findings were verified by expert interviews. Findings The research shows that there is a lot of similarity between re-engineering and maintenance projects for different kinds of business knowledge expertise requirements for execution. The development projects require higher expertise in all the business knowledge for execution. Research limitations/implications The research work studies the business knowledge required for the execution of development, re-engineering and maintenance projects in Indian outsourcing software projects. However, the project’s characteristics can vary drastically for a single kind of project. So the study cannot be generalized and instead should be used as a tool for learning. Practical implications The research findings can be used by software project managers to get insight into project planning, which can help the division of work between the onsite, offshore team and individual work allocation. Originality/value The research is novel as there are very few previous attempts to find the business expertise needed to execute various kinds of software projects in the Indian outsourcing industry.

Atverčiant primirštą Lietuvos kultūros puslapį: Vilniaus modernizmo atspindžiai pavelde

The analyses of interwar Vilnius heritage preservation, research, and maintenance concentrated mostly on discussions about the general law, state tendency, and case studies of good and bad practices. However, the more modern heritage preservation, research, or maintenance theories and aspects during the interwar period were neglected. Therefore, this article aims to analyse if modern technologies, ideas, and methods in the heritage research and maintenance (mostly in the reconstructions and adaptation of heritage buildings for new purposes) projects were adapted or not in interwar Vilnius. According to this aim, the article analyses a few heritage maintenance works and emphasises how architects used new technologies, modern architecture details, and ideas in the heritage maintenance projects and their realisation. Technologies as central heating system, electrification, canalisation, toilets, or bright interiors, wide air-spaces were inseparable from modernism perspective. The architecture of buildings and urban structures were modernised and improved for better living quality. Also, ideas and technologies did not avoid the heritage objects, especially civil buildings as Vilnius Town Hall, squares as Cathedral square, defensive heritage object as Vilnius Upper Castle. However, the analysis maintains that modern technologies were used moderately and kept a respectful tone with the authentic heritage, whole complex, and elements.

Recycling of low-value packaging films in bitumen blends: A grey-based multi criteria decision making approach considering a set of laboratory performance and environmental impact indicators.

Many road construction and maintenance projects are increasingly using recycled material as pavement material. Most of the times, generic sustainability evaluations are ascribed to recycled products without fully considering their performance. The potential environmental benefits of various alternatives can be analytically evaluated with Life Cycle Assessment while many performance indicators can be found through laboratory and field tests. However, it is highly uncommon for these two approaches to be combined in the same assessment methodology and most of the analyses rely on one or the other. Trading off between environmental advantages and performance and durability in the field is considered of utmost importance when evaluating construction alternatives, especially on large projects. This study utilizes recycled plastic packaging films for bitumen modification. The recycled polyolefin blend is a combination of linear low-density polyethylene and low-density polyethylene (LLDPE/LDPE). LLDPE/LDPE was added in bitumen at various dosages (i.e., from 3% to 12% by weight of the bitumen) to assess the effect of recycled LLDPE/LDPE on the binder physio-chemical, rheological and thermal performance. In addition to the various laboratory performance tests, the environmental sustainability of the alternatives was evaluated through an LCA study. Finally, the outcomes from the two approaches (laboratory performance and environmental impact assessment) were combined via grey relational analysis to identify the best overall alternative. It was found that the storage stability of LLDPE/LDPE modified blends varied from 6°C to 57°C whereas the storage stability value of A35P was 2°C. Softening point of bitumen was 44.1°C which improved to 55.7-104.1°C at different content of LLDPE/LDPE. The melting temperature of LLDPE/LDPE modified blends was 100.22, 101.44, 101.87 and 102.49 for LLDPE/LDPE-3%, LLDPE/LDPE-6%, LLDPE/LDPE-9% and LLDPE/LDPE-12%. The methodology highlighted in the paper can be easily adapted to other scenarios, hence facilitating multi-attribute decision-making processes when incorporating recycled materials in roads and leading to better informed decisions.

Application of stakeholder theory in procedures for maintenance work for government buildings in Iraq

The renewable nature of projects, especially maintenance projects, requires effective methodologies that are appropriate to the work environment. The stakeholders greatly influence the maintenance projects of government buildings, as they play a large role in the success of these projects. This study aims to find out the applicability of stakeholder theory in the procedures of maintenance work for government buildings in Iraq. A questionnaire was conducted for specialists in the field of building maintenance. Analysis of the questionnaire, which was answered by (75) engineer, revealed that the most influential factors in using the theory of stakeholders In maintenance work procedures are: the competencies of the project manager, ensuring effective communication between the project and the stakeholders, determining the common goals and objectives of the project, trust And mutual respect among stakeholders, assessing the strength of stakeholders, formulating a strategy for dealing with stakeholders, obtaining support from higher authorities, participation of stakeholders in decision-making, proper and frequent communication with stakeholders. Also, the principles that affected the most, according to the questionnaire: the principle of governance, the principle of agency, the principle of entry and exit, the principle of external factors. Two case studies were taken, for maintenance projects for government buildings, to know the reality of the situation of the most important factors and principles, which were obtained from the questionnaire, and to obtain more accurate and realistic data. Through the study, it can be said that the theory of stakeholders can be applied in the procedures of maintenance work for government buildings in Iraq, through which it is possible to develop the reality of maintenance of government buildings.

Application of the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) concept to measure the maintenance performance of buildings

Measuring maintenance performance is necessary to ensure that maintenance achieves the required goals and to enhance the preservation of the building, as most government institutions rely on traditional financial measurement methods to measure performance and this is not sufficient, as the social and environmental aspect play a prominent role in improving work performance, preserving the environment and achieving user satisfaction. This study aims to find out the applicability of the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) methodology to measure maintenance performance of government buildings in Iraq. A questionnaire was conducted for professionals in the field of building maintenance. Analysis of the questionnaire that was answered by (75) engineers revealed that the most influential factors in applying the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) methodology; are the quality and age of work and its impact on the environment, income (wages), the raw materials used in the work, user satisfaction, the age and quality of the building, management quality, the financial performance of the company. Also, the indicators that can be applied locally according to the questionnaire are; occupational safety practices, professional development, materials, contribution to the field of unemployment problems, transportation, the indirect economic impact on society, human rights (child labour), product responsibility (user’s safety), suppliers, security aspects, transparency, products, and services. We found that the most important obstacles that hinder performance measurement, are multiple and conflicting priorities and objectives. Three case studies were taken for government building maintenance projects, to obtain more accurate and realistic data for the factors and indicators obtained from the questionnaire, by analysing case studies, we find that the most important factors are; They are the age, build quality, quality, working life and its impact on the environment and financial performance. Also, the indicators that are most applicable to local institutions; are occupational safety practices, human rights (child labour), product liability, professional development, and participation in the field of unemployment, materials, and transportation. Therefore, it can be said that the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) methodology can be applied in measuring the maintenance performance of government buildings in Iraq, thus developing the reality of government building maintenance developed.

Identification of variables causing delays to turnaround maintenance project

Maintenance activities or turnaround maintenance that exceeds the specified time, and unscheduled shutdown or unplanned shutdown events are factors that cause production loss and reduce the company’s profit potential which ultimately leads to losses for the company. This research aims to Identify the current turnaround maintenance planning process contributed to the extension of the duration of the turnaround maintenance work, Identifying methods to shorten the duration of turn around maintenance and developing methods to optimize turn around maintenance work so that turn around maintenance work can be carried out effectively, according to the planned time and with good quality. Qualitative risk assessment is being carried out based on turnaround maintenance project reports from previous turnaround maintenance projects and expert judgment are used to ensure risks are identified, analysed and mitigated. Risks are ranked by their likelihood and severity that may cause delays to projects. Methods to shorten duration and recommendations are raised to ensure effective turnaround project. The research was conducted in a fertilizer company PT XYZ.

Quality-Risk Identification and Screening of Aircraft Major Overhaul Project Based on HHM-RFRM

With the rapid development of aviation science and technology, the structure and performance of aircraft are more and more complex, and the difficulty of maintenance is correspondingly increased. As a result, quality problems are more likely to occur during the maintenance process. In order to improve the quality of aircraft major overhaul, it is necessary to identify and analyse the risks that affect the quality of aircraft major overhaul. This paper comprehensively uses the improved HHM-RFRM method. At first, the risk factors that may exist in the process of aircraft major overhaul are identified by HHM. And then uses the improved FMEA to carry out triple standard filtration. The multiple standard evaluation is used for further filtering. Finally, 10 important factors are obtained. The purpose of this paper is to put forward a general method to identify the quality-risk of aircraft maintenance projects, which has a certain guiding significance for different levels of aircraft maintenance projects.

Development of methods for parameters of long-term contracts optimization for operational road maintenance

The object of research is the processes of cost, duration and quality management in long-term contracts for the maintenance of roads. The presented work is based on the use of project management theory. The main hypothesis of the study is the application of methods for optimizing the parameters of long-term contracts for the maintenance of roads. Features, advantages and problematic issues concerning the use of long-term contracts based on quality indicators in the road sector are considered. The world and domestic experience of introduction of long-term maintenance of highways is analyzed. The main approaches to optimization of parameters are defined and the mathematical model of management of processes of cost, duration and quality in long-term contracts is developed. Based on the model, two methods of mathematical solution of the optimization problem of the proposed parameters have been developed. A mathematical experiment based on the example of the project of long-term maintenance of roads on the final quality indicators, the results of which showed that the adaptive capacity of projects by the second method is less flexible than the first. But the second method achieved better performance to minimize time parameters with averaging at 5 %. Optimization of parameters of long-term contracts for maintenance of roads has a multiplier effect, which is expressed in reducing administrative costs of the customer, reducing the responsibility of road services, creating conditions for stable financing of road works, satisfaction of road users, building strong partnerships between the customer and the contract. The results of calculations have practical value and can serve as a tool for making sound management decisions to determine the basic parameters of long-term contracts for the maintenance of roads based on quality.

재개발지역의 사업단계별 분쟁 유형분석 : 인천광역시 107개 조합을 대상으로

Purpose: Since various stakeholders participate in the development and reconstruction project, various disputes may arise if the relationship between them is not smoothly adjusted. In particular, problems regarding the dispute over the redevelopment project are emerging, such as the number of arbitrations in the construction sector occupying a significant proportion. However, the research trend of redevelopment and reconstruction projects is conducted only with studies on the applicability of CM to the maintenance project management business from the perspective of the government or construction company, studies on the Environmental Renewal Development Act, or studies in the pre-construction stage and in the aspect of risk management. This indicates that there are insufficient practical research that can realistically respond to the dispute from the perspective of the union in the event of a dispute after moving in. Therefore, in this study, we tried to analyze the development project disputes occurring in the process of the development project step by step, Method: and for this purpose, the residents’ perception of the development project, the current status of the development project, and the frequency of disputes by each development project were analyzed. Result: Based on these analyses, it was concluded that for redevelopment that prevented the inflow of speculative capital and improved the lives of indigenous peoples, disputes would be eliminated only by (1) realistic compensation price, (2) transparent information disclosure, (3) step-by-step advisory group input, and (4) construction as designed.

Application of a bottom-up approach to estimate economic impacts of building maintenance projects: cladding rectification program in Australia

PurposeThis paper critically reviews economic impact assessment methods adopted in construction-related projects, to develop and present a novel bottom-up approach suitable to estimate regional economic impacts of building maintenance projects.Design/methodology/approachA thorough literature review of economic impact assessment in construction projects is carried out to identify the most relevant approach to estimate wider economic impacts of building maintenance projects. Based on these findings, a model based on the bottom-up approach to estimate wider economic impacts is developed. The applicability and face validity of the developed model is demonstrated through a case of cladding replacement program in Australia.FindingsThe literature review revealed that bottom-up models are better suited for estimating regional economic impacts of maintenance projects, given the challenges of obtaining micro-level economic data in the maintenance sector. In relation to the total economic impacts (direct and indirect), the results show that for every $1 of government spending on similar projects the Gross State Product would increase by $1.34. In terms of employment impact, over 70% of the direct economic value addition is driven by the increase in labour, where close to 3 FTE jobs will be required for each $1 million of spending on cladding replacement projects.Originality/valueThis paper presents a model to estimate the wider economic impacts of building maintenance projects, which is typically overlooked in the construction management field. The proposed model is developed to incorporate the variability of different building maintenance projects so that the economic impact resulting from these projects could be estimated more accurately. This model can be used by local government decision-makers to justify and prioritise maintenance projects in a similar manner to new construction projects.

Discussion on the Process Management of Maintenance and Renovation Projects in Colleges and Universities

Discussion on the Process Management of Maintenance and Renovation Projects in Colleges and Universities

Pixel-level bridge crack detection using a deep fusion about recurrent residual convolution and context encoder network

To cope with the complex bridge crack detection environment, we developed a flexible crack identification system. Firstly, the acquired images are processed by sliding window technology to construct a bridge crack dataset. Then we propose a trainable context encoder network which uses the recurrent residual convolutional neural network (RRCNN) to improve the encoder structure to better extract low-level features. Additionally, it combines dense atrous convolution block (DAC) and residual multi-kernel pooling block (RMP) which can retain more crack information and features from the crack image, as well as improve the performance of crack segmentation. Finally, our research results are validated in the developed software platform. The experiments show that our method is more stable and accurate than other methods, its accuracy and mean intersection over union (mIoU) have reached 98.62% and 80.93%, respectively. Moreover, it performs well in cracks facing complex conditions, which can be applied to the bridge maintenance projects.

Formula omitted] Emission based prioritization of bridge maintenance projects using neutrosophic fuzzy sets based decision making approach

Climate change is one of the most challenging problems for the world, which leads researchers to study on the decrease of its impact to the environment at several disciplines. One of the most adverse effects on environment can be observed in transportation area. Hence, in this paper, the impact of bridge maintenance on the environment is inquired in the bridge maintenance prioritization perspective. The aim of this paper is to rank the bridge maintenance projects using type-2 neutrosophic number (T2NN) based fuzzy WASPAS (Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment) and TOPSIS (Technique For Order Preference By Similarity To An Ideal Solution) to test five alternative bridges, where a critical environmental criterion is introduced in this model, which addresses to additional CO2 emission because of truck detours in the event of a bridge closures. The applicability of the proposed model is demonstrated in a case study in Turkey. The evaluation findings show that the ranking results are robust and the CO2 emission criterion is found to be the dominant criterion in the multi-criteria decision-making model proposed in this paper.

Uma abordagem alternativa de Contagem Ágil para manutenção de produtos de software – uma análise estatística

O objetivo foi analisar a customização (Contagem Ágil) de uma métrica funcional de tamanho com foco na redução do esforço do processo de contagem de projetos de manutenção, experimentar e validar. Realizou-se pesquisa bibliográfica. Foram analisadas 13.320 contagens de manutenção detalhadas (APF) de uma organização brasileira. Em 68%, a contagem estimada era menor que a detalhada. As funções transacionais foram as que mais impactaram as diferenças entre estimadas e detalhadas. Foi aplicada a Contagem Ágil (customização da NESMA) nas contagens com tamanho acima de 51 PF (2915 contagens) e o resultado foi promissor (variação inferior a 1,21% com relação a contagem detalhada).

Reducing the variability of multi-source reclaimed asphalt pavement materials: A practice in China

The variability of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) materials obtained from different sources is a major concern for the industry when recycling RAP for recycled asphalt mixtures. Many efforts have been made to minimize RAP variability by pre-mixing, crushing, and sieving of the RAP stockpile. In this study, a perspective for reducing RAP variability is proposed by grouping RAP sources with similar material characteristics, which is expected to minimize such variability from the origin. To is end, an asphalt pavement maintenance project located in South China with 16 RAP sources was selected for the study. Furthermore, material characteristics including aggregate gradation, binder softening point, penetration, and dynamic viscosity of recovered asphalt, for RAP obtained from various sources are analyzed by testing on core samples. After the aggregate gradation is presented via Fréchet similarity, a K-means cluster analysis is conducted with the involvement of aggregate gradation, asphalt content, and softening point of recovered asphalt. Then, the RAP sources are grouped into three groups with similar material characteristics. The results show that there is a significant difference in RAP material characteristics even for the same pavement, and the procedure developed in this study helps to reduce the RAP variability while increasing the RAP maximum addition amount for producing recycled asphalt mixture. The results may be of interest to construction contractors and road management departments because this study was intentionally conducted for use in practical applications.