Project Bidding Research Articles

Multi-stakeholder framework for assessing the life-cycle social cost of construction projects

Social dimensions, as one of the three pillars of sustainability, are commonly not fully considered in the planning, bidding, and design processes of construction projects, primarily due to a lack of standardized estimation methods. Despite the potential economic and social benefits of these projects, they may lead to various negative social impacts during the construction process. In this study, negative social impacts associated with construction projects are investigated considering different stakeholder categories and detailed social cost models. The social impacts and costs estimated in this paper cover a multitude of adverse effects on: (a) workplace and traffic safety, (b) mobility of people and goods, (c) regional economic growth, (d) dwelling environments, and (e) public services. Parameters for the social cost estimation are obtained based mainly on various public databases and project information. For illustration, the proposed framework is applied to quantify the social impacts associated with the construction of a residential building and the maintenance of a highway bridge. The study shows that the social costs of different construction projects vary significantly due to the different stakeholders involved. The compositions of diverse social cost components to the total social impact are investigated for these two construction projects.

Revitalizing Infrastructure Sector to Accelerate Economic Recovery in India

Infrastructure has a strong, positive correlation with economic growth, making it a preferred instrument for the government to achieve post-pandemic economic recovery. Other large economies too are similarly investing in infrastructure. Indian projects will thus need to compete with other global projects for financing, investors, technology and developers. It is therefore necessary to improve the attractiveness and marketability of India’s infrastructure projects by reducing risks and improving visibility of projects. With increased competition and changes in the environment, the risks of future cash flows from infrastructure investments have increased manifold. This paper examines the perceived risks in the entire lifecycle of infrastructure projects from infrastructure planning to project planning, bidding, implementation and operations along with best practices in each area. A long-term vision for the infrastructure development will provide visibility to projects for the current National Infrastructure Pipeline. The development of the entire project delivery ecosystem requires initiatives in capacity building in the technical, financial and entrepreneurial resources, and engagement with project affected people. Other desirable outcomes of infrastructure investments, for example, job creation, sustainability and reduction in disparity are also discussed. The paper presents a perspective for revitalizing infrastructure development in India so that its efficacy for post-pandemic economic recovery is enhanced.

Analysis of Existing Problems with Management of Construction Projects Bidding and Solutions to the Problems

Bidding is a key link during the implementation of a construction project. For the same construction project, there are usually multiple construction companies bidding together to obtain the right to contract for the project. However, there are still various irregularities in the bidding stage. This article analyzed the above problems and proposed a management strategy for the optimization of bidding, looking forward to improving the quality of bidding management of construction projects, solving various illegal bidding problems, and purifying the environment of bidding management.

Refined cost control and management methods for high-speed railway signal projects

The paper concentrates on a cost control and management problem of high-speed railway signal systems when the project managers require to organize, implement, and assess the project cost. When it comes to the existing issues of implementing railway signal project, the management process’s actual performances are presented, including the weak awareness of refined management and the lack of the financial management information system. Aiming to reduce project cost and safe operation of the signal systems, the refined cost control and management methods and concrete measures are presented during the concrete stage involving project bidding, preparatory, implementation, and completion.

浅谈疫情期间建设项目电子招投标中的风险识别

浅谈疫情期间建设项目电子招投标中的风险识别

Economy supervision mode of electricity market and its incentive mechanism

The analysis of a supervision environment is the first step for a company to enter the new electricity market. Transmission and distribution assets are the main investment targets of a company. The overseas power market belongs to the regulated industry; whether it is a stock M&A project or a green land bidding project, the regulatory environment determines the assets. The level of return and investment risk that guides the operation strategy of existing overseas assets, has a significant impact on the investment and operations of international companies. A comprehensive and rapid assessment of the regulatory environment can help the project teams of international companies understand the macroenvironment of the target electricity market within a short period, quickly identify investment risks, qualitatively analyze the return level of the underlying assets, shorten the decision time, capture investment opportunities, and enhance the team. Efficiency and quality of work are factors of great importance.

On Construction of Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway from the Perspective of Engineering Sociology

The Beijing-Zhangjiakou railway is the first railway independently built by China. Its construction was a dual requirement of the military and the commercial sector. There was a dispute over Right-Of-Way between British and Russian parties; however, they compromised and the Qing court obtained full autonomy over the construction. The construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou railway reflects the social demands of the project.Limited by road construction funding, construction period, and technical level, they selected the "Guangou Line" and adopted the herringbone line instead of the subsequent "Fengtai-Shacheng Line." These choices reflect the mutual constraints of engineering and technology. Zhan Tianyou was not only a decision maker in the construction team of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou railway, but also a manager and a designer. Other engineers also assumed the roles of designer, manager, and project implementer. The local foreman who won the project bid was responsible for the less technological details. The construction work aptly reflects the social nature of project implementation.Route selection and project construction also reflect the relationship between man and nature, that is, man must conform to nature while also transforming it. The engineering of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou railway is the result of the coordination of human social needs with those of the natural environment. The Beijing-Zhangjiakou railway project perfectly embodies every aspect of engineering philosophy and is a typical case of engineering philosophy research.

Competitive and risk-adequate auction bids for onshore wind projects in Germany

Abstract In recent years, auction mechanisms have gained in significance in the context of renewable energy deployment. An increasing number of countries have adopted auctions for the allocation of permits and financial support for renewable energy projects, thereby increasing competition among project developers. As a result, profit margins have decreased significantly while sensitivity to risks and uncertainty has increased. The adequate quantification of bid prices is a key challenge. We present a modeling approach to determine competitive and risk-adequate auction bids. The contribution of this paper is an improved method for quantifying marginal cost, which is the minimum sales price per unit of electricity through which the investment criteria of all project stakeholders are fulfilled. In our financial model, the risk-adequateness is determined through the investment criteria of equity investors by means of the adjusted present value, and those of debt investors by means of the debt service cover ratio, through Monte Carlo simulations. The resulting marginal cost serve as the starting point for strategic bidding optimization, regardless of the pricing rule in the contemplated auction design. To demonstrate the integrability of our mathematical model with strategic bidding optimization, we check its applicability in a case study, which shows how a German project developer should bid to realize an onshore wind farm project. We show that our model enables the quantification of bid prices that are both competitive and risk-adequate.

Construction Tender Pricing Strategies in Traditional Procurement System

The fundamental activities carried out by a contractor are estimating and submitting pricing proposal, therefore contractors are required to make decision during pricing of Bills of Quantities (BQ) regarding the most suitable pricing strategies to be applied. Despite numerous of study has been carried out to identify effective pricing strategies to allow competitive pricing, contractor choose no strategies but relied on their instinct and feeling. This study is conducted to identify the current pricing strategies used by contractors and to determine the internal and external variables in making pricing strategies decision. Target respondents for this study are estimator in Grade 7 contractors. Semi-structure interviews and content analysis method is used to analyse the obtained data. The findings show that the tender pricing strategies adopted are cost based pricing, hybrid pricing and the combination of cost based and historical price based strategies. On the other hand, top management decision and company strength and weaknesses are the two internal variables in making pricing decision. Besides, the external variables in selection of pricing strategies is owner’s characteristics. Conclusively, this study can enhance the understandings on tender pricing strategies and outline the viable alternatives way to have a better position in project bidding.

Do Firms Manipulate Earnings after Winning Public-Private Partnership Bids? Evidence from China

We examine whether firms manipulate their reported earnings after winning investment project bids. China’s adoption of the public-private partnership (PPP) provides a unique setting for our analysis. Using the PPP announcements to identify the firms participating in PPP projects, we find that firms use both accrual-based and real earnings management methods to improve their short-term performance after PPP participation. Our findings survive difference-in-differences design with propensity score matching. We document that PPP-participating firms have strong incentives to manipulate earnings because of abnormal administrative expenditure and greater short-term performance pressure than non-PPP-participating firms. The auditors respond by charging higher audit fees due to the increased risk. Moreover, earnings management lessens for firms with more government subsidies as they ease the performance pressure. Overall, this study documents the unintended consequences of PPP participation.

Study on Countermeasures of Unbalanced Quotation

This paper takes the unbalanced quotation method in the process of project bidding as the research object, analyzes its common means, causes and possible consequences. Research shows that serious unbalanced quotation will disturb the normal process of bidding. Finally, from the perspective of the owner, put forward the response strategies before bidding, in bid evaluation and in project implementation.

An empirical study on the key success factors of ppp-based PCA in the big data environment -- a case study of China

Public-private partnerships (PPPS) are increasingly being used in the construction of public services such as infrastructure in China. In the process of PPP project implementation, there are successes and failures, and the key factors of success are not completely clear. In order to identify the key factors for the success of PPP projects in the big data environment, PCA analysis is used to solve the problem of how to identify the key factors for the success of PPP projects in the big data environment. By studying the big data of PPP project and relevant literature at home and abroad, 32 potential key factors for success were constructed. The key success factors of PPP project were analyzed by questionnaire survey and principal component analysis. The results show that the 32 key factors for success can be summarized into five categories: political and economic environment, project development and operation management, government support and participation, government credit and commitment, strength of stakeholders, and factors of project bidding and procurement. Among the five factors, the key factors for the success of PPP projects are the continuous optimization of PPP policies, the rational project risk sharing mechanism, the guarantee and commitment of the government, the integrity and stability of government personnel, the satisfaction of public interests, and the complete financial analysis. This PCA method effectively solves the key factors for the success of PPP projects in the big data environment, ensures the smooth implementation of PPP projects, and promotes the long-term development of PPP projects.

交通运输工程招投标监管服务系统短信智能通知辅助自动抽取设计及实现

交通运输工程招投标监管服务系统短信智能通知辅助自动抽取设计及实现

Pattern Recognition of Construction Bidding System Based on Image Processing

Bidding for construction projects is a very important and representative field in the industry. The system of bidding for construction projects has made considerable progress over the years due to the accumulation of experience and many contributions to the field. Nowadays, with the rapid development of information technology and the intellectualization of the bidding system for construction projects, the accumulation and processing of data has become an essential element of its development. In order to manage the bidding system of construction engineering reasonably, this paper proposes a system based on image processing and pattern recognition technology, which can recognize patterns in the bidding process of construction engineering. Firstly, through binarization and other methods, the bidding project documents of construction projects are preprocessed in order to extract the main information from the documents; secondly, information is obtained through pattern recognition and processing; finally, the results of pattern recognition are imported into the bidding system, and the bidding information is quickly added to the database. This paper proposes a bidding system for construction projects based on image processing and pattern recognition. The system provides a quick and convenient means of importing the bidding information and allows personnel to efficiently process the bidding documents, particularly when there are numerous documents and and too much information. Finally, the user survey shows that the proposed bidding system based on image processing and pattern recognition can reduce the workload of construction project personnel, greatly facilitating the progress of the project.

Implementation of R.A.9184 in DPWH Region III in the Bidding of Infrastructure Projects

Compliance to Government Procurement Act R.A.9184 by procuring entities remains the biggest challenge to realize the objectives of equality, transparency and responsibility in government procurement in the country. The study focuses on assessing the existing implementation of R.A. 9184 in the bidding of infrastructure projects of concerned District Engineering Offices in Region III by considering the constraints on its processes. There were 45 respondents answered the questionnaires gathered from the seven (7) District Engineering offices of DPWH Region III, namely, Zambales , Bataan and Pampanga. Interviews and feedbacks from the Bids and Award Committee members (BAC), BAC secretariat and Technical Working Groups (TWG) of the Procurement Division of Infrastructure projects were conducted to substantiate the answers of the respondents. The data collected were treated statistically using percentage and weighted mean. All respondents show level of awareness and understanding in the implementation of R.A 9184 of bidding process and they are able to review and re-evaluated all concerns pertaining to any ambiguity of the process. Respondents show competence on how far they understand and implement the process properly. The researchers find that there is a need in identifying minor irregularities to major irregularities to eliminate confusion in selecting the lowest responsive bidder.

Application of Static Bias Game in Decision Making of International Highway Project Bidding

It is an urgent and practical need for international contractors to make a thorough study of the decision-making of international highway project bidding. This paper studies the application of static Bias game model in the international project bidding which provides reference for the reasonable price decision.

Integrated Multi-stage Decision-Making for Winner Determination Problem in Online Multi-attribute Reverse Auctions Under Uncertainty

Online multi-attribute reverse auctions (OMARA), which include many non-price attributes, aligns better to practice, and is prevalent in many fields such as project bidding and public sector procurement. In such auctions, the decision makers often face varying degrees of cognitive and environmental uncertainty. This renders the traditional winner (supplier) determination method based on deterministic values impracticable. Hence, from the standpoint of the auctioneer (purchaser), a new integrated decision framework under an uncertain situation is proposed. Firstly, the fuzzy set theory is applied to the winner determination problem in OMARA to recognize the uncertainty in the bidding attribute values. Secondly, the detail description of the winner determination problem in OMARA is provided. Thirdly, the comprehensive weights of the evaluation attributes are obtained by using fuzzy AHP and fuzzy deviation maximizing method together. Lastly, the five fuzzy multi-attribute decision-making methods are combined with simple dominant principle to evaluate the bidding alternatives and determine the winner (supplier). A numerical example is used to demonstrate the process of the proposed integrated decision frame-work, and the comparative analysis illustrates its feasibility and effectiveness.

Development of a Construction Project Bidding Decision-Making Tool

AbstractGiven the increasingly competitive environment in the construction industry, investigating the bidding strategies and the influential factors on bidding decisions has become a topic of rese...

Life cycle cost analysis of 1MW power generation using roof-top solar PV panels

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to focus on life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) of 1 MW roof-top Solar Photovoltaic (PV) panels installed in warm and humid climatic region in Southern India. The effect of actual power generated from solar PV panels on financial indicators is evaluated. Design/methodology/approach LCCA is done using the actual power generated from solar PV panels for one year. The net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), simple payback period (SPP) and discounted payback period (DPP) are determined for a base case scenario. The effect of service life and the differences between the ideal power expected and the actual power generated is evaluated. Findings A base case scenario is evaluated using the actual power generation data, 25-year service life and 6 percent discount rate. The NPV, IRR, SPP and DPP are found to be INR 13m, 8 percent, 10.9 years and 18.8 years respectively. It is found that the actual power generated is about one-third less than the ideal power estimated by consultants prior to project bidding. The payback period increases by 70–120 percent when the actual power generated from solar PV panels is considered. Originality/value The return on investment calculated based on ideal power generation data without considering the operation and maintenance related aspects may lead to incorrect financial assessment. Hence, strategies toward solar power generation should also focus on the actual system performance during operation.

Assessing usefulness of 4D BIM tools in risk mitigation strategies

With an increasing demand for mitigating the impact of infrastructure projects on their surrounding environment, contractors are demanded to incorporate risk mitigation strategies in their bids for public projects. There is, however, little knowledge available on how 4D BIM tools can best be used during the procurement phase to support the development of more effective risk mitigation strategies. An in-depth qualitative case-study was conducted to understand how the use of 4D BIM tools could support the process of risk mitigation. The case-study was the procurement phase of a billion-euro canal lock expansion project in The Netherlands, where each of the competing contractors made use of 4D BIM tools to mitigate planning risks. The findings show how the use of 4D BIM tools could greatly support the development of highly effective risk mitigation strategies. This study extends 4D BIM literature by presenting empirical evidence on the use of 4D BIM tools during the procurement phase of a complex infrastructure project. • Use of 4D BIM tools supports the development of effective risk mitigation strategies. • 4D BIM tools are useful in evaluating various design and process alternatives. • Risk mitigation strategies yield benefits for contractors, client and users.