Private Construction Projects Research Articles

Evaluating construction projects of hotels based on environmental sustainability with MCDM framework

Environmental issues have got incredible attention among daily life activities. Sustainability penetrated in all society practices specially construction industry due to its substantial impact on the environment. Monitoring and controlling architectural project contains a decision problem with multi-varieties analysis. This study aimed to evaluate construction projects of hotels regarding environmental sustainability. To this end, a hybrid Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) model is proposed. Step‐wise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) and Complex proportional assessment (COPRAS) compose a unified framework. A private construction project is supposed as a case study. The project is based on establishing a five star hotel in Tehran, Iran. In this research SWARA produces criteria weights and COPRAS will rank decision alternatives. This study can be a strategic route for other similar researches in other fields.

Planning with Citizens: Implementation of an e-Planning Platform and Analysis of Research Needs

Citizen participation should be an essential part of an urban planning process if the needs of the local population are to be addressed. Citizen participation should also improve acceptance of private construction projects by residents that live in or near such development. A complementary form of citizen participation to public planning meetings is to permit citizen engagement via Web 2.0 technologies, which also has the potential to get citizens involved that are usually difficult to reach. We aim to build a social, i.e. participatory, planning platform that allows technology savvy citizens to inform themselves of future and ongoing development projects and to also discuss them online. In this work we discuss the functional needs and context-of-use constraints of such an e-planning platform. A conceptual model of the technical architecture is outlined and a prototype implementation is presented. This prototype is built on free and open source software components, including a social network, to enable platform adoption in other locations. Finally, we discuss the research needs that are to be addressed if the development of participatory e-planning platforms should advance.

Qualitative Analysis on the Barriers of Industrialised Building System (IBS) Uptake in Malaysian Construction Projects

Even though the construction industry is very competitive, it is currently very labor intensive. As such the Malaysian Government has been continuously encouraging the industry to use the Industrialised Building System (IBS), which is considered to be an important part of modern method construction approach. However, the system has so far failed to gather momentum especially among the private construction projects. Accordingly, many studies have been conducted for identifying the factors that contributed to this problem. However, the previous studies mostly focused on the qualitative data whereas the finding has limited discuss on ‘how’ and ‘why’ of the problem happened. Based on the findings from the industry workshop, this paper discusses the identified barriers with the aim of examining how far these barriers may well affect the process of IBS implementation in the Malaysian construction industry.

Single-Family Housing May Have Been a False Culprit

The dominant account of the Great Recession in the United States’ economy links the economic decline to the preceding boom in the sector of single-family housing and related financial markets. Even the existing explanations of the crisis in terms of the Austrian Business Cycle Theory (ABCT) have focused on this part of the U.S. economy. In this paper, we will argue that 1-4-family housing construction projects do not seem to be the right phenomenon to focus on, especially for the purposes of ABCT. Instead, we provide evidence that long-term private construction projects are prima facie a better candidate for at least a partial explanation of the boom and bust of the 2000s. We also propose a potential connection between the failure of long-term construction projects and the crisis in the subprime mortgage market.

Do prevailing wage laws increase total construction costs?

Using regression analysis, the paper examines the claim that prevailing wage regulations raise public construction costs. The implicit assumption is that prevailing wages are highly influenced by the presence of strong labor unions, hence the attack on prevailing wage laws are part of the broader neoliberal attack on labor unions. Therefore, the empirical analysis in this paper compares construction costs in states that have repealed their prevailing wage laws with states that have not, and demonstrates that there is no empirical evidence supporting the neoliberal claims. The main contribution of the model is to point out the importance of separating public from private construction projects and to differentiate construction projects by type of structure. Without such distinctions, the analysis would conflate the causes of higher construction costs even for similar types of structures. The paper provides an institutional history of the prevailing wage laws in the United States; then uses regression analysis to test for the significance of prevailing wage legislation on construction costs. The empirical investigation provides some simple descriptive statistics from the F.W. Dodge data set; then constructs alternative models to refute the claim that prevailing wage laws cause higher construction costs. The article closes with a discussion of policy implications, summary, and concluding remarks.

Kajian Terhadap Penggunaan IBS dalam Projek Swasta di Kawasan Lembah Klang

Sektor pembinaan berasaskan industri atau Industrialised Building System (IBS) merupakan satu kaedah pembinaan menggunakan bahan binaan yang diindustrikan di kilang pembuatan. Kaedah ini dapat menggantikan kaedah konvensional dimana ia dapat mengurangkan tenaga buruh asing selain dapat meningkatkan kualiti binaan, pengurangan kos dan masa pembinaan. Kajian ini dijalankan bagi mewujudkan satu satu garis panduan yang boleh digunapakai khususnya dalam menggalakkan kesemua projek pembinaan swasta di Lembah Klang menggunakan Sistem IBS pada tahun 2015. Justeru, kajian ini dijalankan dengan mengukur tahap penggunaan IBS di dalam kerja-kerja pembinaan bangunan. Terdapat sebanyak 400 projek swasta di Lembah Klang telah dikenal pasti sebagai sampel untuk kajian ini dan 184 projek swasta telah menggunakan teknologi IBS yang mencapai skor IBS 55 peratus ke atas. Hasil daripada dapatan kajian ini telah mengenalpasti persepsi, halangan yang wujud dan langkah-langkah yang perlu diambil di dalam perlaksanaan serta mengkaji kriteria untuk membangunkan model perniagaan yang boleh dijadikan konsep untuk projek IBS di sektor swasta.

Improvement in Supply of Construction Material for Construction Industry in Satara City - By Applying Supply Chain Management Tool

Supply chain management (SCM) is a concept that has flourished in manufacturing, originating from Just-In-Time (JIT) production and logistics. Today, SCM represents an autonomous managerial concept, although still largely dominated by logistics. Previous initiatives to advance the construction supply chain have been somewhat partial. The generic methodology offered by SCM contributes to better understanding and resolution of basic problems in construction supply chains, and gives directions for construction supply chain development. The practical solutions offered by SCM, however, have to be developed in construction practice itself, taking into account the specific characteristics and local conditions of construction supply chains. Construction supply chain management's potential for contributing to profitability. Construction supply chain has gained significance because of the increasing number of potential complex private and public sector construction projects. In the construction process costly delays in materials, equipments, and services erode profits. Construction supply chain management through the integration and coordination of materials, information, and money flows between the various project partners resolves delays and offers a new means of increasing profitability. CSCM's emphasis on information sharing and communications fosters cooperation and collaboration among supply chain members. Project management and execution are the final tests of how well the supply chain is working. Tracking progress in the field ensures that a project will be on-time and under- budget and within specifications. Sharing field measurements with all members in accordance with supply chain values is the final predictor of a profitable project.

Multi-person Decision Model for Unfinished Construction Project

This paper discusses a proposed model of multi-person decision on prioritizing selection with regard to continuing or terminating unfinished construction projects. This involved multiple steps including determining criteria and sub criteria, selecting and weighting of alternatives, optimizing, and analyzing coalition formation and agreement option. Criteria and sub criteria that were obtained from perspectives of 120 project managers are the first basis to construct decision hierarchy. The model is implemented in one of the biggest private construction projects in Indonesia. The implementation was based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process for multi criteria decision involving coalition and agreement options in a multi-person decision. Goal Programming was used to optimize based on cost constrains. The results demonstrate a process of multiperson decision to select priorities of each alternative to each decision and concluded that some of the projects were continued, postponed or terminated. The new direction of research presented in this paper presents some interesting challenges to those involved in modeling computer-based multi-person decision support utilizing both Multi Agent System and Multi Criteria Decision Making.

Bureaucratic Culture in Public and Private Construction Project Organisations

Projects are commissioned by public and private client organisations, which have different organizational cultures and structures that dictate the rules and procedures to be followed in project procurement. It has long been perceived that public organisations are more bureaucratic than private organisations, yet empirical evidence is not entirely conclusive. The research objective in this study is to examine the extent of bureaucracy and red tape in construction project organisations in the public and private sectors. The methodology comprises two parts: the first part is a questionnaire survey of project participants’ perceived extent of bureaucracy and red tape in project organisations, and the second part is a comparative case study of a public and a private client project organisation. The long debated argument of “organisations in the public sector are generally more bureaucratic than those in the private sector” is supported. In addition, it is found that there is some correlation among bureaucratic features and between bureaucracy and red tape. The public organisation in the case study has set up more rules and procedures in both the control and operating systems, and has a greater demand on role delineation/specialisation.

Contractor Performance Prediction Model for the United Kingdom Construction Contractor: Study of Logistic Regression Approach

An accurate prediction of contractor potential is of vital importance during contractor selection and evaluation process. Such prediction enables identification and classification of contractor performance to ease the selection process. This paper outlines the use of clients' tender evaluation preferences for predicting a contractor performance via a logistic regression (LR) approach. A total of 31 clients’ tender evaluation criteria were selected to develop a LR model for predicting contractor performance. The proposed model was developed based on 48 of United Kingdom public and private construction projects and validated in 20 independent cases. It was found that 75% of the cases correctly and the model statistically accurate for contractor performance prediction, where the input variables consist of nominal and interval data. The paper summarized techniques and advantages of LR analysis and discussed literature findings of contractor selection and evaluation methodologies undertaken by construction res...

Structural adjustments and their impact on health and society: a perspective from Pakistan.

In the back streets of one of Karachi’s sprawling squatter settlements, the weary faces of manual labourers lined up for work, tell the tale. Mostly young men from the northern plains and mountains of Pakistan, they descend upon Karachi, the largest port city and the economic hub of the country, in search of employment. For most regular, uninterrupted work is a thing of the past as private construction and public work projects have gradually dwindled to a halt. While the majority are oblivious to the ongoing debates in Davos and Seattle, some are indeed aware of the existence and relevance of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). On probing the rickshaw driver guiding my visit to the area, he thought for a moment before musing that the ‘IMF probably represents the big oil producers’, especially as their visits and Pakistan’s agreements with them ‘are always followed by a rise in the price of petrol!’ Few among the intelligentsia in Pakistan, who do know a fair bit about the World Bank and the IMF and the sequential agreements of the government of Pakistan with them on restructuring its debt burden are convinced that the decade-old structural adjustment programs (SAP) have brought about any economic benefit or respite for the common man.

The electronic superhighway: Melbourne's CityLink Project

Melbourne's CityLink, the largest private construction project in the world, promises motorists a new mobility which eases the conventional gridlock‐freeway impasse. Based on an electronic toll system, it also represents an interesting case study of how information technology can facilitate improved urban transit systems. However, such benefits, which in this case accrue to the construction company and motorists, may be illusory for the transport and urban welfare of the city as a whole when aesthetic, environmental and community questions are considered.