Traditional Construction Project Research Articles

Unveiling the digital horizon: Bridging the realms of digital twinning and construction project management performance

The digitalization of the construction industry is deemed a crucial element in Construction 4.0’s vision, attainable through the implementation of digital twinning. It is perceived as a virtual strategy to surmount the constraints linked with traditional construction projects, thereby augmenting their productivity and effectiveness. However, the neglect to investigate the causal relationship between implementation and construction project management performance has resulted from a lack of understanding and awareness regarding the consequences of digital twinning implementation, combined with a shortage of expertise among construction professionals. Consequently, this paper extensively explores the relationship between digital twinning implementation and construction project management performance. The Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) is employed to investigate this relationship, utilizing a quantitative research approach through document analysis and questionnaire surveys. Additionally, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS software is employed to deduce the relationship. The results underscore that digital twinning implementation significantly improves construction project management performance. Despite recognizing various challenges in digital twinning implementation, when regarded as moderating factors, these challenges do not significantly impact the established causal relationship. Therefore, this investigation aligns with the national push toward the digitalization of the construction sector, highlighting the positive impacts of digital twinning implementation on construction project management performance. Moreover, this study details the impacts of implementing digital twinning from the construction industry’s perspective, including positive and negative impacts. Afterwards, this paper addresses the existing research gap, providing a more precise understanding and awareness among construction industry participants, particularly in developing nations.

Key Portfolio Selection Criteria for Sustainable Construction

Selecting the best projects and programs is of paramount importance to the success of organizations in the construction industry for the employer, clients, and developers. The existing selection criteria in the literature are tailored toward traditional construction projects. However, with the current move toward sustainable construction, there is a need to incorporate sustainability-specific criteria in the process portfolio selection. This study aims to identify and evaluate the sustainability-specific project selection criteria for construction organizations from the client’s perspective; this research topic is significant because developers/clients do not always consider sustainability criteria when selecting their portfolio of projects. The research methodology of this study consists of a literature review, identifying the sustainability criteria into an integrated list, and a survey to weight and rank the criteria. Sixteen criteria were identified through an extensive review of the related literature. These criteria were categorized based on three sustainability pillars: environmental, social, and economic. The environmental pillar includes six selection criteria, which are energy use, material use, water use, land use, pollution, and waste management. The social pillar consists of five selection criteria, which include health and safety, employee training and education, improvement in infrastructure, relation with local communities, and alternative transportation. The economic pillar consists of five selection criteria, which include life cycle cost, contribution to GDP, employment creation, innovation and technology, and use of national suppliers. A survey was developed and circulated to specialists in the construction industry in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The weights for the sustainability selection criteria were assessed by using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. The results show that the environmental group is the most important group among the pillars of sustainability, with a weight of 0.520, compared with the social and the economic pillars, which had weights of 0.214 and 0.266, respectively.

Development of a New Method for Assessing Project Risks in Sustainable Building Construction Projects in Developing Countries: The Case of Jordan

Sustainable buildings contribute significantly to achieving sustainable development and provide many benefits. However, sustainable building construction projects are riskier than traditional construction projects. Thus, this research aimed to identify and assess the risks in sustainable construction projects in Jordan based on their probabilities of occurrence and impacts on time and cost. For this purpose, a literature review and structured interviews were performed to identify the risks. Additionally, questionnaire surveys were conducted, and the relative relevance index and analytic hierarchy process were utilized to assess the probabilities and impacts of these risks on time and cost. After that, a focus group discussion was conducted. According to the the risks’ probability and impacts on time and cost, the top-scoring risks include changes to the original design, budgeting inaccuracies owing to a lack of experience with sustainable building projects, additional costs incurred as a result of the use of sustainable building construction materials and equipment, inadequate or inaccurate sustainable design information, insufficient funds from clients, inadequate project planning for a sustainable building project, a tight project schedule for a sustainable building project, and insufficient identification of sustainable construction’s scope. This research contributes to the body of knowledge and practice by providing a novel integrated method for assessing risks in sustainable building construction projects in Jordan.

Challenges in construction readiness for BIM-based building projects

ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate challenges in achieving adequate construction readiness for building information modeling (BIM) based building projects, using Malaysia as a case study. To achieve this aim, 20 semi-structured interviews with BIM professionals were conducted using the purposive sampling method. Then, the data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The study results revealed that the challenges can be categorized into two themes: BIM-related challenges and project-related challenges. BIM-related challenges include knowledge, infrastructure, modeling, adoption, and awareness issues. Project-related challenges include funding, communication, team management, cooperation, timeline, coordination, and change order issues. These findings imply that although BIM offers numerous advantages, its implementation introduces specific challenges that differ from those faced in traditional construction projects. These challenges often revolve around technological adoption, data management, changes in project workflows, and team dynamics. Therefore, investigating the specific challenges in BIM-based construction projects is crucial for achieving project success. This study adds to the existing knowledge by providing valuable insights into the challenges faced during the pre-construction phase of BIM-based building projects. The insights can be used to develop strategies for ensuring BIM-based construction projects are ready for the construction phase.

Based on BIM intelligent technology and IPD collaborative management model applied to characteristic towns with PPP mode

The recent development of characteristic towns has encountered a multitude of challenges and chaos. Nevertheless, there have been many instances of information asymmetry due to the absence of an effective management model and an intuitive digital management system. Consequently, this has caused the erosion of public interests and inadequate supervision by public agencies. As society is progressing at a rapid pace, there is a growing apprehension regarding poor management synergy, outdated management practices, and limited use of technology in traditional construction projects. In today's technologically sophisticated society characterized by the “Internet+” and intelligent management, there is an urgent requirement to identify a more efficient collaborative management model, thereby reducing errors caused by information asymmetry. This paper focuses on the integration of building information modeling (BIM) and integrated project delivery (IPD) for collaborative management within characteristic towns in the PPP mode. By analyzing the available literature on the application status, this study investigates the implementation methods and framework construction of collaborative management while exploring the advantages and disadvantages. On this basis, this study highlights the problems that arise and provides recommendations for improvement. Considering this, the application of the BIM-based IPD model to characteristic towns in PPP mode will enhance the effectiveness of collaborative management among all parties involved, thereby fostering an environment that facilitates decision-making and operational management in the promotion of characteristic industries.

Comparison of Using Conventional Estimating and Sketchup Pro for Bill Quantity Takeoff Process

Departing from academic anxiety that the construction industry in Indonesia has made rapid progress with the adoption of computing technology and methods in recent years. Increasing infrastructure development encourages construction actors to effectively and efficiently improve project quality. However, the role of the quantity surveyor becomes crucial in facing challenges such as manual quantity picking which is prone to errors and cost estimation that is difficult to do based on rough schematic design. In the context of traditional construction projects, quantity lists are arranged based on 2D drawings, but the use of 3D models has diminished since the adoption of BIM. Sketchup, as a 3D modeling software, and its extension Quantifier Pro provide a solution by combining 3D models to produce accurate quantity takeoff calculations on the Bill of Quantity. This research aims to develop methods to improve the quantity accuracy of elements of an incomplete or incorrect Sketchup model, in the hope of reducing modeling time, improving quantity retrieval performance, and making Sketchup-based cost estimation more effective and efficient in the context of construction. This research method involves 3D modeling using the Sketchup Pro application, using secondary data in the form of Detailed Engineering Design (DED) working drawings. Volume calculation in the Bill of Quantity is done with the help of Sketchup Pro software. The research location is in the Mullberry Cluster residential project, Bekasi City, West Java. The house building in this project was chosen as an object of comparison between conventional calculation methods and calculation methods using Sketchup Pro software. The main focus is to overcome the challenges of manual quantity picking and cost estimation from rough schematic design, emphasizing the crucial role of quantity surveyors. The results showed that the use of 3D models in Sketchup can increase the accuracy of cost estimation and reduce modeling time. The conclusion of the study confirms that Sketchup as an effective alternative solution in increasing efficiency and accuracy in the construction process, especially in the context of taking the quantity of architectural work elements, contributes positively to the development of more sophisticated cost estimation methods in the Indonesian construction industry.

Research on building material design in circular economy based on improved neural network

Material management technology has always been the basic and core technology of traditional construction projects. But now, because traditional material management consumes more resources and has low efficiency, it has gradually been replaced by modern material management systems represented by computer technology, thus saving a lot of enterprise input costs and reducing the impact of traditional material management technology on enterprise operating income. Based on this background, this paper introduces improved neural network technology to adapt to the circular economy environment, so as to complete the construction and improvement of the building materials data management system. The system can be used to complete building materials management, basic data management, etc., and can be optimized for the system itself. Through network technology, the client can be connected to the server switch, and Ajax technology and JSP programming language can be used for compatibility processing, so that the system can run better in the Windows environment. According to the simulation experiment designed for the system, the output sample value of the system is close to the measured value, with good prediction accuracy, small error and high stability. Therefore, the application of AdaBoost ANN algorithm can effectively realize the prediction of building materials. In addition, other functions of the system, such as interactive page design, operation interface and database, can better adapt to the circular economy environment and actual user needs. In this paper, the improved neural network is applied to the field of building material design under the environment of circular economy, thus completing the system optimization.

A construction schedule management method of large-scale construction project based on BIM model

In order to overcome the problems of long response time and small number of manageable indicators existing in traditional construction project schedule management methods, a new construction schedule management method based on BIM model is designed in this paper. The construction progress data acquisition and decoding module circuit is set to complete the construction progress data acquisition, and the K-means algorithm is used to preprocess the construction progress data. First, the construction project progress is decomposed; then, the large-scale construction project is divided into different progress management levels by the WBS analysis method; a functional information module is established; the construction project progress data is imported into the BIM model; and finally, the BIM information function management of the method is realised. The experimental results show that the proposed method has low response time and multiple schedule management indicators, and the shortest response time of the proposed method is only 1.1 s.

State and Federal BRT Project Development Procedures: Managing Differences and Project Implementation Delays

Implementing a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system that is on a State Highway System and is part of the federal New Starts Project Planning and Development Program brings together two traditionally-separate types of transportation implementation projects: the traditional highway construction project and a public transportation project. The project development procedures (PDPs) for each of these types of projects—both of which must at times be followed—sometimes differ and can result in conflicts arising, can contribute to the use of resources that might not otherwise be used, and can create project implementation delays. An investigation was conducted of site-specific BRT projects, initially focusing on California and then extending nationwide, which led to the development of recommendations that, when put into practice, can help BRT project implementers mitigate the impact of having to follow multiple sets of PDPs and help implement the project more efficiently.

Intelligent Construction Optimization Control of Construction Project Schedule Based on the Fuzzy Logic Neural Network Algorithm

At present, the field of construction engineering is limited by various situations, such as complex construction environments and many uncertain factors. Therefore, on the basis of the engineering network diagram, this paper proposes a construction project schedule management method based on the fuzzy logic neural network algorithm. By building a neural network, a large amount of historical data is input, and computers are allowed to calculate the key routes, thus predicting the construction period, and a construction project in a city is taken as an example for simulation experiments. The traditional construction period management scheme expects a construction period of 55 days. The planned construction period optimized by the project management technology integrating fuzzy logic neural network algorithm is 55 days, which is 2 days less than the traditional construction project schedule management technology and will not cause construction period delay. The simulation results show that this algorithm is more accurate and more efficient in calculating the key lines when dealing with large-scale projects, which can help the construction unit to quickly find the optimal strategy and effectively reduce the construction delay and capital loss caused by uncertainty factors.

Success in collaborative construction through the lens of project delivery elements

PurposeThe emergence of collaborative delivery models and working practices in construction industry has created a potential area for project success research. Previous studies have addressed success factors of various collaborative delivery models (e.g. alliance and partnering). However, there is currently very limited research-based knowledge concerning core success factors for different collaborative delivery models, exploring the commonalities. Thus, this study aims to conceptualize a success model for collaborative construction projects by identifying and structuring their core success factors through the lens of project delivery elements.Design/methodology/approachA systematic literature review was conducted, and thematic as well as content analysis of the relevant studies led to the identification of mentioned success factors in the literature for different collaborative delivery models. Then, those common success factors were structured in a model based on factors' relation to project delivery elements.FindingsThe obtained results present eight core success factors (e.g. equality, mutual trust and commitment to win–win philosophy) for collaborative construction projects, structured in a model based on their contribution toward project organization, contractual relationships, and operational system in construction project delivery. Moreover, the differences between success factors for traditional and collaborative construction projects are discussed.Originality/valueThis study's findings provide insightful theoretical contributions on collaborative construction project success and providing a departure point for future studies based on the discussed differences between success factors of collaborative and traditional construction projects. The findings can be also practically insightful for the project professionals in collaborative construction projects to succeed in managing project organization, contractual relationships, and operational system.

EFFECT OF IMPLEMENTING SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON CLAIMS MITIGATION IN CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

The fragmented management of traditional construction projects, which mainly lacks the integration of project processes, results in schedule delays and cost overruns which often lead to client dissatisfaction, quality defects, and a raise in safety-related accidents. As a result, claims and disputes are most likely to arise between the contracting parties that can be extremely expensive and may severely impact the project performance. Numerous studies have investigated the impact of integrating sustainable management practices (SMPs) in construction projects on specific project performance objectives, such as cost, time, and quality; however, there is a need to investigate the effect of implementing SMPs on claims and dispute resolution. This research aims to fill the existing literature gap by identifying correlations between implementing SMPs and the frequency and severity of claims and disputes that may arise in construction projects. To achieve this goal, 25 SMP and 13 common construction claims were extracted based on an extensive literature review. A 5 point Likert-scale questionnaire was developed and administered to construction professionals to explore the aforementioned correlations. A total of 93 responses were received through online data collection. The research results demonstrate that empowering communication and collaboration among project stakeholders at early stages of the construction phase can significantly mitigate the occurrence of claims. This paper contributes in providing construction professionals with recommendations to improve construction sites’ performance and reduce claims.

EFFECT OF IMPLEMENTING SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON CLAIMS MITIGATION IN CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

The fragmented management of traditional construction projects, which mainly lacks the integration of project processes, results in schedule delays and cost overruns which often lead to client dissatisfaction, quality defects, and a raise in safety-related accidents. As a result, claims and disputes are most likely to arise between the contracting parties that can be extremely expensive and may severely impact the project performance. Numerous studies have investigated the impact of integrating sustainable management practices (SMPs) in construction projects on specific project performance objectives, such as cost, time, and quality; however, there is a need to investigate the effect of implementing SMPs on claims and dispute resolution. This research aims to fill the existing literature gap by identifying correlations between implementing SMPs and the frequency and severity of claims and disputes that may arise in construction projects. To achieve this goal, 25 SMP and 13 common construction claims were extracted based on an extensive literature review. A 5 point Likert-scale questionnaire was developed and administered to construction professionals to explore the aforementioned correlations. A total of 93 responses were received through online data collection. The research results demonstrate that empowering communication and collaboration among project stakeholders at early stages of the construction phase can significantly mitigate the occurrence of claims. This paper contributes in providing construction professionals with recommendations to improve construction sites’ performance and reduce claims.

Risk Network Evaluation of Prefabricated Building Projects in Underdeveloped Areas: A Case Study in Qinghai

Prefabricated building projects (PBPs) face more risks than traditional construction projects, especially in underdeveloped areas. This study takes Qinghai Province as a study case. Social network analysis (SNA) is adopted to develop a risk network of PBPs, and nine core risk factors and five key risk relationships are identified. Risk effect detection reveals the effectiveness of risk response strategies. The research shows that PBPs in underdeveloped areas are still in the early stage of development, and developers generally lack a leading role. There are prominent problems in the design stage of PBPs, so the stakeholders pay special attention to them. In underdeveloped regions, the development of PBPs must rely on the strong promotion of the government. Limited by natural and economic conditions, the market mechanism of PBPs in underdeveloped areas is not perfect, and policy regulation greatly affects the spread of the risk network. Therefore, local governments need to actively introduce corresponding supportive policies and mobilize the enthusiasm of stakeholders. This is the first study to consider the risk within the life cycle of PBPs in underdeveloped plateau areas. This study expands the research system of risk management of PBPs and provides valuable risk response strategies for the stakeholders.

Measuring the Construction Project Resilience from the Perspective of Employee Behaviors

The increasing developmental potentiality for the construction industry brings the huge challenge to make up the limitation of traditional construction project management mode when adapting to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Due to the high energy and resource consumption for the construction projects, there are a large number of uncertainties and disturbances in achieving resilient urban infrastructure. Studying construction project resilience (CPR) is imperative. However, prior studies preferred to measure resilience by systemic indicators, which are complex and unfriendly. Studying CPR from the perspective of employee behavior (EB) remains rare. Hence, this study proposed a social network analysis (SNA) methodology to overcome the research gap. Firstly, six EBs are identified by the systematic literature review (SLR). Then, the critical employees (CEs) and their interrelationships are investigated to form the social network. Six SNA parameters including density, degree centrality, betweenness centrality, efficiency, constraint, and cliques are selected to model the EBs, namely PMT cohesion, the identity of the project culture, formal behavior between employees, collaboration efficacy, informal social constraints, and reciprocity and mutual trust. Finally, the value of CPR is obtained and the strategies for improving the CPR are proposed from four characteristics: robustness, redundancy, rapidity, and resourcefulness. The findings provided a simple and effective techniques to measure the CPR and could benefit the project manager to improve the CPR by exerting accurate strategies to the EBs in poor performance.

The challenges confronting the growth of sustainable prefabricated building construction in Australia: Construction industry views

The construction industry has played a huge role in sustaining the economy of Australia during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. However, construction activities tend to be limited due to the restrictions on travel, transport, and workforce availability which in turn affects the lack of materials and workforce for construction. On the other hand, the prefabricated construction method is known to provide a sustainable solution to reduce the labour and material demand. However, prefabricated construction methods are less preferred over traditional construction in Australia. This is due to the lack of knowledge on the benefits, limitation, design and construction of the prefabricated construction. Therefore, in this study, the authors have conducted a survey to identify the construction industry views on the prefabricated construction in terms of sustainability, technical, cultural, economic, practical and other aspects. A total of 310 construction professionals responded, and the data were analysed using both qualitative (thematic) and quantitative (Severity index) analyses. Results revealed that reduced construction time, high levels of quality control, and reduced on-site noise and disruption were the major benefits when using prefabricated construction compared to traditional construction. The restrictions and limitations of transport; reduced on-site design flexibility; and shortage of specialised workforce hindered the growth of prefabricated construction. These survey results also highlighted that production and manufacturing of prefabricated construction are not affected significantly by the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, significant amount of traditional, residential and commercial construction projects were replaced by prefabricated construction during Covid-19 pandemic, suggesting a future growth in prefabricated construction in Australia.

Application and Development Analysis of Innovative Mode in Construction Engineering Management

At present, there are still many survey, design, construction and supervision companies in China that have not established a supervision management system in accordance with the provisions of standard project management. Therefore, with the gradual improvement of the management level of production and operation in domestic construction industry and construction industry, more innovative and advanced models need to be introduced in practice in the field of construction and engineering operation and management. At present, the comprehensive, rapid and in-depth development of social and economic development and modern science and technology construction has effectively and continuously improved the scientific construction efficiency and level of construction industry management at home and abroad. Various construction modes that meet the needs and development characteristics of contemporary construction enterprise management innovation have been constantly emerging. The construction engineering fine management system plays a significant role in promoting the comprehensive, sustainable and healthy development process of the construction industry economy. Especially today, with the increasingly modern development of the global construction industry technology, in order to effectively improve the market comprehensive core competitiveness of all kinds of construction management enterprises, we especially need to continue to deeply study and explore the innovative operation mode of modern construction fine management, The traditional construction project management mode is no longer in line with the current development. Based on this, this paper aims to apply some innovative thinking mode theories in contemporary construction engineering activities in practice, in order to provide decision-making reference and method reference for relevant management staff in the construction industry.

Collaborative Evolution Mechanism of PMC Project Organizational Management System from the Perspective of Organizational Conflict

Limited by traditional construction project management ideas and systems, the implementation of the PMC model in China still has serious problems such as opposition and frequent conflicts. How to reveal the causes of organizational conflicts and explore the key mechanism of the implementation of the PMC model from the system perspective are urgent problems to be solved. Based on the idea of engineering system view, this paper abstracts the PMC project participants with self-organizing characteristics of the organizational management system, in which the internal structure is closely related, and defines the connotation of synergy and synergistic evolution of the PMC project organizational management system. Using the Cucker–Smale model to describe the group movement, the hierarchical system and the acceleration efficiency function of the project legal person’s free will are constructed, and the structure, movement, and development law of the system itself are emphasized to simulate the ordered evolution trend of PMC project organizational management system and reveal the intrinsic causes of conflicts in PMC project and the key mechanisms of the PMC model application. The results show that first, the intensity of information communication between PMC subjects has a significant positive contribution to the orderliness of the organizational management system; second, too much acceleration of the project legal person’s free will causes group chaos in the system, while too little slows down the group stabilization time, which has a negative impact on cost and schedule; third, the more the organizational structure of PMC contractors tends to the whole-process integrated control, the more it can drive the group to gather in an orderly manner and form a synergistic control mode combining self-organization and other organizations; and fourth, the implementation of the PMC model should focus on eliminating the traditional institutional and conceptual barriers, forming a project management model with integrated control of the whole process of the PMC project contractor and effective macro supervision of the project legal person. The research results of this paper revealed the intrinsic causes of conflicts in PMC projects and the key mechanisms of PMC model application; it can help solve the confrontational situation of PMC project participants, promote the development of the PMC model, and give full play to the investment benefits.

Safety Management in Sustainable Construction Projects: A Conceptual Framework

Safety management can be utilized effectively in sustainable construction projects, to produce safe sustainable construction projects. This highlights the necessity to gain a better understanding about safety management components with a view to pinpointing existing and future research issues to be addressed. Thus, this systematic review aims to demonstrate a knowledge base for safety management research grounded on the safety management components, and the integration of those components into sustainable construction projects, to produce safe sustainable construction projects. To achieve this, thirty-four peer-reviewed articles were classified into two categories. The first category is about safety management in typical construction projects, and the second category is about safety management in sustainable construction projects. Similar research in the last two decades points out the challenges associated with safety management in sustainable construction projects and the need to understand the associated safety management components that can lead to safer suitable construction projects. In addition, the synthesis suggests the need for a conceptual framework that explains the process of utilizing safety management components in sustainable construction projects to attain the desired safety outcomes in sustainable construction projects. Accordingly, this article provides a conceptual framework that integrates safety management components of traditional construction projects into sustainable construction projects, to achieve safe sustainable construction projects.

Assessing Psychological Safety in Lean Construction Projects in the United States

The construction industry is hazardous, which requires careful consideration of occupational health and safety measures. Among various strategies that are proposed to enhance construction safety, Lean construction practices were widely implied and proved to be effective. However, the link between Lean implementation and construction safety has not been completely studied yet in previous research in terms of psychological safety context. This study implies that psychological safety is of utmost importance in terms of explaining the association between Lean and safety. Lean implementation elements such as respect for people, trust, leadership, and continuous improvement positively affect employees’ psychological safety. In this context, semi-structured interviews and a survey were conducted with employees working in U.S. construction companies. The interviews provided that the majority of the construction employees do not feel psychologically safe at their workplaces either in traditional or Lean construction projects due to a number of reasons such as heavy workload, and deadline pressures. However, it was found that construction workers feel safer psychologically in Lean construction projects compared to traditional projects. According to the interview results and literature review, a conceptual model was proposed. Therefore, this study can contribute to the research area of psychological safety in the construction industry.