A PERFORMANCE STUDY OF PROJECT SUSTAINABILITY: REDUCING CONSTRUCTION WASTE THROUGH BIM

ABSTRACT The use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) technologies and processes is rapidly becoming a normal happening in the construction industry today. Research studies have been documenting BIM's impact on project cost as well as other construction performance metrics. This paper specifically showcases the impact of BIM on an environmental sustainability metric for construction projects: construction waste. Construction waste accounts for a substantial portion of landfills around the world; therefore, this metric should be used as one of the key performance metrics when discussing the sustainability of any construction project. The methodology for this study first consisted of collecting data from construction projects that have used BIM with various intensities, then the construction waste metrics were analyzed against the level of BIM intensity on the projects. The results suggest a correlation between BIM use and levels of construction waste, but the R 2 values were relatively low due to the limited sample size. Therefore, the findings of the paper provide a stepping stone and a call for more research to investigate the sustainability benefits that BIM can offer the construction industry

An Exploration of Early Work Packaging in Construction Manager/General Contractor Highway Projects

Recently, state agencies have been successfully implementing construction manager/general contractor (CM/GC) delivery on highway projects. While early work packaging is frequently cited in the literature as a primary benefit of CM/GC, there is limited to substantiate or refute these benefits. Additionally, agencies need a better understanding of the current state-of-practice of early work packing in CM/GC to help with effective implementation. In an ongoing Federal Highway Agency research project, 12 of 34 completed CM/GC projects reported the use early work packaging, and will be the focus of this study. Research methods used within this paper include: literature review, content review of agency manuals/instructions, project surveys, agency interviews, and case studies. Triangulated findings suggest that early work packaging can contribute to expediting project completion, mitigating project risks, reducing project cost, and minimizing public impacts. To achieve these outcomes, agencies must perform detailed planning to generate severable/independent packages that take into account all potential impacts to the project. Trends in data indicate that early work packages can lead to cost savings, yet the sample size does not provide statistical significance. Future research should explore the performance of a larger data set of CM/GC projects with and without early work packaging along with a cost/benefit analysis of early work packages

Assessing the Performance of Two-Step Design-Build Procurement

ABSTRACT Design-Build (DB) is an alternative project delivery system that is distinguished by a DB team acting as the single point of responsibility for a project where the design and construction phases overlap. There are two main methods used to procure DB services: single-step procurement and two-step procurement. This paper focuses on quantifying the resource expenditures of two-step DB projects through investigating both pre-award and post-award metrics. The pre-award metrics include the costs related to the request for qualification (RFQ) and request for proposal (RFP) phases, while the post-award metrics focus specifically on overall project performance (e.g. project cost, delivery schedule, etc.) The authors developed a detailed survey to collect data from public building projects procured using twostep design-build procurement methods. This paper presents preliminary results, specifically the data stemming from six two-step DB projects completed after 2005 and with total project costs ranging from $20.5 million to$299 million. Results of the analysis show the total cost to industry to develop full proposals is about one percent of the total project cost. Additionally, the total proposal cost to DB teams was reduced significantly due to stipend incentives offered by the owners. BACKGROUND The design-build (DB) alternative project delivery method has become increasingly common in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. DB is distinguished by a single point of responsibility for the design and construction of a facility. There are two main methods used to procure DB services: single-step procurement and two-step procurement. There is a lack of information comparing the performance of these two main DB procurement methods. Additionally, major stakeholders in the AEC industry are concerned that the singlestep DB process might be placing an unfair burden on the industry, particularly because it typically requires a large number of DB teams to develop costly proposals (ECB 2012). As a result, the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) and its partner organizations organized a research effort to study and compare the resource expenditures of single-step and two-step DB procurement. This paper focuses specifically on providing a performance analysis of the two-step DB procuremen

Student Housing Energy Consumption: A Comparison of Chilled Water, Heating, and Electricity Use

AbstractMore than two thirds of the U.S. electricity consumption occurs in buildings, which also are responsible for about 40% of the world's CO2 emissions. Therefore, the “green” building movement has become widespread in an effort to reduce buildings’ impact on the resource use and the environment. The USGBC's LEED rating system in one such effort intended to recognize high performance buildings. One of the USGBC's objectives is to reduce building energy consumption, and this paper aims to test this energy-reduction hypothesis. The methodology includes investigating LEED-certified buildings and comparable non-certified buildings on a university campus, and measuring differences in their energy performance. Heating, cooling, and electricity data was collected from all campus buildings and their energy unit intensity (EUI) was calculated. The preliminary analysis shows LEED buildings are not displaying major differences in energy performance when compared to their non-LEED counterparts. This paper's findings make the case for more performance-based certifications, similar to the LEED O&M certification, which should be awarded based on actual energy performance of facilities as opposed to intended performance based on design data

Percent Base Design and Initial Award Performance in Design–Build Highway Projects

The project influence curve postulates that planning efforts conducted early in a project can influence project success more than later efforts. Although front-end planning has been shown to influence project performance, the impact of involving the contractor in design-build (DB) of highway projects starting at different points of percent base design has not been tested empirically. This paper reports on a study of 31 DB highway projects with base design ranging from 10% to 95%. This research is significant because it empirically tests whether initial award performance is enhanced at lower percent base design as implied by the project influence curve. The F-statistic indicates that, for this set of DB highway projects, years of agency DB experience is significantly related to initial award performance, while percent base design is not. This research addresses the misconception held by many transportation agencies that procuring a DB entity with lower percent base design will result in more innovation, leading to more agency cost savings. Additionally, an analysis of alternative technical concepts (ATCs), the primary tool for innovation in DB, indicates that project savings are attributed to multiple ATCs rather than one ATC-and the innovations adopted tend to be incremental rather than systemic, disruptive, or radical.This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Green Building Contractors 2025: Analyzing and Forecasting Green Building Contractors’ Market Trends in the US

With population growth, the demand for building construction is continuously increasing. This comes at the price of the built environment where the building sector is contributing to large energy consumption and carbon footprint releases. To encourage sustainable construction, contractors need to see the market benefit of “going green”. Previous studies of green building contractors (GBCs) mainly relied on qualitative discussions and lacked studying the market performance which drives contractors’ decisions the most. This paper collects GBC revenue data from the Engineering News-Record magazine for the top 100 GBCs over a 13-year period and performs trend analysis to assess the market performance of GBCs and time series analysis to forecast future revenues. In addition, k-means clustering technique was used to divide the firms into subsets of similar behavior to understand growth trends for different firm sizes. The results show a continuous increase in green building revenues (GBRs), where commercial office buildings contribute the most to it. Furthermore, the firm ranks responsible for most of the growth are identified; mainly the top 9. Predictions show the expected steady increase in GBR in the upcoming years which is anticipated to reach 83 billion USD in 2025. The findings inform contractors considering executing green buildings by understanding the market trends and forecasted revenues. Moreover, contractors who are already in the green building business can use this information to increase their revenues in their respective market subset

Construction research congress 2020: project management and controls, materials, and contracts

This collection contains 147 peer-reviewed papers on project management and contracting in construction presented at the Construction Research Congress 2020, held in Tempe, Arizona, March 8-10, 2020

Teaching engineering literacy to non-engineering students in formal learning environments

Since enrollment rates in American college engineering programs have been constantly dropping, formal and informal processes to teach and learn engineering are on the rise. An opportunity actually exists to formally teach engineering to construction students in US colleges and universities. If non-engineers understand how science and technology work, they can better interact with scientists and engineers in the workforce and make informed decisions about when technology can be a solution to a problem, or when other solutions maybe more adequate. To this date, higher engineering education has been repeatedly investigated through the lenses of engineering programs and degrees. This paper investigates engineering literacy for non-engineering students, by comparing the performance of engineering and non-engineering students when gaining engineering literacy. The methodology of this study consists of analyzing the performance of construction management (CON) and civil and environmental engineering (CEE) students in comparable courses taught in both programs: introduction to geotechnical engineering and geotechnical applications. Data is collected over four distinct semesters. The results reveal that CON students scored significantly higher grades when the course was offered from a non-engineering perspective rather than from an engineering perspective. The results of the study highlight the need to develop clear and consistent teaching methods and techniques that take non-engineering students’ diverse backgrounds into consideration.Non UBCCivil Engineering, Department ofApplied Science, Faculty ofUnreviewedFacultyOthe

Effective implementation of the design-build delivery system on transportation projects

52 p.The use of design-build project delivery systems today is popular for delivering commercial, industrial, and institutional construction projects and is increasingly used on transportation projects. While some states have used design-build to deliver transportation projects for over a decade, others have little to no experience with this method and have not yet established any legislation to use design-build. Design-build has been shown to shorten the duration of a project as compared to the design-bid-build traditional delivery method, together with increasing cost certainty and without sacrificing quality. While these benefits make design-build a very attractive delivery system, its implementation is not always as easy. This report combines the knowledge from existing literature as well as Departments of Transportation (DOTs) from around the United States familiar with design-build to form an overview of the entire implementation process including: passing legislation, choosing appropriate projects, overcoming the barriers specific to design-build, selecting the best design-build team, and conditions for successful implementation. By being aware of the barriers to implementing design-build and how to best deal with them, DOTs can use this delivery method effectively, taking advantage of its benefits

A COMPARISON OF PROJECT DELIVERY METHOD PERFORMANCE FOR WATER INFRASTRUCTURE CAPITAL PROJECTS

Water and wastewater infrastructure globally is aging and in need of rehabilitation and replacement. Design-bid-build (DBB) is the traditional method of project delivery widely applied across the construction industry. However, alternative project delivery methods (APDM) such as construction manager at risk (CMAR) and design-build (DB) are on the rise demonstrating project delivery performance benefits. The research objective is to assess the impact of APDM specifically for the water and wastewater industry. A comprehensive list of performance metrics were identified from the literature and through an industry expert workshop. Information on 75 water and wastewater treatment plant projects using DBB, CMAR, and DB was collected. Quantitative data analysis revealed that DB statistically outperformed DBB in terms of project speed and intensity. This study contributed to the existing body of knowledge by showing that treatment plants can be delivered significantly faster and with greater quality for no additional cost by using APDM.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author