Assessing causes of contractual disputes from different type of condition of contracts

In a construction industry, a Condition of Contract (CoC) is primarily used to ensure a project can be delivered successfully with minimum disputes. The contractual disputes rooted from many factors, including from the improper management of conflict between parties in the project, misinterpretation of the CoC, lack of documentation, and discrepancies and ambiguities of documents which may lead to as cost overruns, project delay and project cashflow. Thus, a comprehensive CoC plays a significant role to express the rights and obligations of the main contracting parties. CoC functions in stating to each party on what they shall do and to the extent of their entitlement of rights and obligations under the contract. Despite having various of published CoC such as PAM Contract and series of PWD Form of Contract to govern the construction projects, numerous construction cases in relation to contractual disputes are still increasing over the years and there has been little discussion about the causes of disputes. It indicates the ineffectiveness of the contract provision in the CoC. Hence, this study presents thorough review of the disputes occurs in the construction industry by outlining the issues raised in the court cases. This scenario has paved this paper to achieve the objectives of the research, including to identify the factors attribute to the construction dispute and to investigate the provision in CoC that caused the contractual disputes. The data collection used was mainly through literature synthesis and surveys. The results revealed that there are five attributes of construction disputes. The findings of the paper would be beneficial to practitioners in increasing their awareness of the flaws in the CoC and could be helpful in mitigating the disputes

Exploring the Barriers of Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEBS) Implementation in Malaysia: Perception of Malaysian Construction Practitioners

Malaysia is a country which is undergoing a booming phase of urbanization. However, the rapid development in the construction sector leads to major concerns on sustainability for this sector. For instance, the increase volume of carbon dioxide emissions, climate change, depletion of resources as well as excessive of waste generation. Besides that, it is beyond doubt that energy invested in building construction has a significant threat towards climate change and sustainability, thus by addressing the issues on energy in building sector, the net zero energy buildings (NZEBs) has emerges to be an important concept to confront with these issues. However, previous studies found that the Malaysian construction industry is still unfamiliar with the concept of NZEBs. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the barriers of NZEBs implementation in Malaysia based on a review of the existing literature and by utilising semi-structured interviews with 5 experienced practitioners. The result of this paper indicates that there are three barriers areas that need to be consider which are cost barriers, technical and technologies barriers, and government policies barriers. This study provides an exciting opportunity to advance our knowledge of barriers that will exists in the Malaysian construction industry context

Kajian penyelenggaraan jalan raya disebabkan sink hole di Johor Bahru

Lubang benam merupakan lubang yang terbentuk di permukaan tanah akibat batuan dasarnya dilarutkan oleh air. Saiz dan kedalamannya pelbagai dari satu meter hingga beberapa puluh meter. Ianya terbentuk bermula dari pembentukan lohong atau gua di bawah tanah di kawasan yang lazimnya didasari oleh batu kapur. Pembinaan jalan raya memainkan peranan yang sangat penting dalam pertumbuhan ekonomi sesebuah negara dalam membinan jalinan atau perhubungan antara satu kawasan dengan kawasan yang lain. Ia membantu dalam meningkatkan kualiti hidup penduduknya dengan menyediakan infrastruktur sosioekonomi yang diperlukan. Bagaimanapun, jika permasalahan luban benam atau sink hole ini tidak ditanganni dengan cekap dan efisien, tahap prestasi industri pembinaan di Malaysia dilihat tidak memuaskan dan akan menyebabkan pembinaan projek awam sukar dilaksanakan dengan jayanya

Penyelenggaraan struktur penahan cerun rock shed: langkah mitigasi runtuhan tanah di Simpang Pulai - Blue Valley, Perak

Industri pembinaan merupakan industri yang sangat mencabar bukan sahaja di Malaysia malah di seluruh dunia yang merangkumi skop 3D dirty, difficult and dangerous. Industri ini juga meruapakan antara penyumbang terbesar KDNK iaitu sebanyak 7.4 peratus pada tahun 2016, walaupun industri ini antara penyumbang terbesar dari aspek keselamatan iaitu kemalangan (CIDB, 2017). Justeru itu, pihak yang bertanggungjawab seharusnya memandang serius mengenai masalah-masalah yang dihadapi supaya industri ini mampu bersaing di peringkat antarabangsa

A Conceptual Innovative Risk Management Model for Commercial Buildings Refurbishment Projects

Refurbishment concept has been recognized as an alternative for buildings that have reached the end of their service life or failed to perform as required. However, these types of projects is riskier and more complex than new construction projects. This is due to refurbishment projects involving a high level of uncertainty and requirements. As the size and complexity of refurbishment for commercial projects have increased, the ability to manage risks throughout the construction process has become a challenging task. To solve this, several risk-management tools are available, unfortunately, however, the tools are rarely used due to a lack of knowledge in selecting suitable techniques for refurbishment projects. Considering current scenario, a comprehensive tool to manage risks involved in refurbishment projects – particularly for commercial buildings – is necessary. A qualitative method of face-to-face interviews was used in the study. Content analysis showed that the proposed tool would be beneficial and pave a way to developers as risk management can influence their decision-making process. &nbsp

Government Green Procurement in Sustainable Infrastructure Development

Infrastructure development is becoming more significant to an economic growth in many countries. A systematic delivery system regardless by traditional or non-traditional procurement methods is a common condition which has considerable impact on project outcome. In recent times, Government Green Procurement (GGP) has received a great attention among stakeholders in procuring products, services and construction works, particularly in public sector. In developing countries such as Malaysia, GGP have been beneficial by enhancing environmental concern to conserve natural resources, however, the evidence in terms of its implementation is still undiscovered. Due to this deficiency, this paper aims to determine the significant attributes of GGP, and to address the significant strategies of GGP in infrastructure project development. Exploratory study was conducted by reviewing literatures extensively and followed with expert interviews. Content analysis method was used to analyse the data. The results reveal that environmental is to be likely the most significant attributes of GGP, meanwhile, GGP Long-Term Action Plan (LTAP) is seemed to be the most important strategy used in promoting green procurement. This paper provides new insights to the literature in relation to green practice strategies and it is potentially to be useful for the stakeholders in prioritizing further efforts of green-oriented public infrastructure development in the future

The impact of material management on construction project delivery in Somalia

Materials management practice is a procedure that coordinates planning, requirement assessment, sourcing, purchasing, transporting, materials storing and controlling, wastage minimisation and cost reduction for profit optimization. Material management have been a great problem to most firms in the construction industry due to a tendency of mismanagement of materials. The scale of activities concerning materials management increases as the size of the contract increase. This study centered on the impact of materials management practices in the Somalia construction project delivery. The objectives of this study are to investigate the current practice of material management at construction projects, to identify the causes of ineffective material management, and to examine the impact of material management process to the construction project delivery. A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data from Grade A contractor company in Mogadishu, Somalia and the respondent consist of project managers, civil engineers, architect and site managers. The findings revealed that current practice of material management in construction projects in Somalia include identifying the needed materials, consideration of site layout and location, material available close to site, material conform with specifications and material supplied on-time. The study also found that most common root causes of ineffective material management were undefined scope, incomplete drawings, inadequate information on material supply, poor scheduling of material on site, no determination of what and when the material needed and lack in determining the quantity of material needed. Furthermore, the respondents of this research indicated that the occurrence of cost overrun and delay in progress of the work are the major impacts of ineffective material management that bring negative impact to the construction project delivery in Somalia. The research concludes that effective material management practice can improve the overall handling of material and smooth project delivery on site. A proper planning of material management practice right from the start of the project execution should be practiced on site in order to ensure timely execution of the project and standard of the work delivery within reasonable cost, time and quality

The implementation of persuasive technology principles in mobile application development: a qualitative study

Preceding studies of persuasive technology have mentioned several benefits on the implementation of persuasive design features of the Persuasive System Design (PSD) model such as creating users' engagement and acceptance and continuous usage. However, available literatures have not sufficiently address the implementation of these design principles particularly in the context of mobile application development as compared to system development. Furthermore, there are low numbers of discussion that have relate the implementation of these design principles towards the achievement of the persuasive system developed. Hence, this study was conducted to qualitatively explore the way persuasive design principles were implemented as well as the mobile application development process followed in three different levels of mobile applications' attainments. Within this study, seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with the involvement of fifteen (15) Android mobile applications in the area of utilities category. These mobile applications were then categorized into successful, partially successful and less successful categories based on their numbers of mobile application downloaded for three consecutive years which is from 2013 until 2015. The results from the content analysis conducted have shown that the mobile applications of the successful category have implemented a lot more persuasive design principles as compared to the other two categories. Moreover, it is also found that all of the mobile applications of the category had follow a more detailed process of mobile application development with the emphasizing on product introduction to the users. A model of the implementation of persuasive design principles in mobile application development was then proposed based on the findings gained from this research. The results from this study have provided contribution to the body of knowledge by leveraging the domain of persuasive technology studies particularly in mobile application development

Selection of low-carbon building materials in construction projects: construction professionals’ perspectives

The construction sector in Malaysia has been facing challenges in productivity due to the increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This study aims to enhance the usage of low-carbon building materials among construction professionals so that the carbon emission and GHG can be reduced during the early stage of construction. The scope of this research involved main parties in the Malaysian construction industry, represented by fifty professionals including contractors, consultants, and architects with a focus on low-carbon building materials. Procedures in this study involved a literature review on low-carbon building materials in the construction industry followed by a questionnaire survey with analysis using One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Major study findings indicated that there is a significant need for increasing the awareness of low-carbon building materials, as this is vital to introduce the concept of sustainable development and consequently cutting down carbon emissions to all parties working in construction. The study also suggested that barriers in adoption also prevent alternative material choices as a means of mitigating embodied carbon emissions. Many of these barriers are common across materials with uptake restricted by lack of demonstration projects, regulation, high costs, shortage of skilled labor, lack of design knowledge, time constraints, and lack of knowledge on LCA. The results are significant as the construction industry can seek to overcome these barriers by providing more information on material performance, design training on alternative materials, cost reduction on low-carbon materials, and more demonstration projects as well as case studies. From the work in this study, the industry must also share the knowledge on embodied carbon and implement regulations that will limit embodied carbon. The industry must adopt a business case strategy in encouraging greater value in assessment schemes to adopt low carbon building materials

Preliminary qualitative findings: challenges in large infrastructure projects towards development of innovative performance measurement

Performance measurement system to assess development of large infrastructure project has developed due to the unachieved of high design and technical requirements, excessive cost investments and lack of competent human resources and managerial capabilities. Growing numbers of discrepant of interest among key participants has also led to conflicts, blame cultures, and mismatches of objectives that have been found to be contributory factors to poor project performance. Although, several approaches have been determined, the challenges in terms of time, cost, and quality (objective measures) are still arguable. Further exploration requires the inclusion of additional challenges in delivering large infrastructure projects, particularly in relation to subjective measures, such as safety, relationship, satisfaction, social and environmental aspects. Owing to this limitation, preliminary findings of identifying the challenges in large infrastructure projects are vital to fulfill the current needs in the development of innovative performance measurement. The research adheres to by reviewing relevant literature and evaluating expert insights on the research topic. The results of the research would provide qualitative evidence in support of the notion that appropriate and comprehensive performance measurement to improve project outcome. This study may also encourage key stakeholders mainly involved in infrastructure projects to increase their attention on possible challenges to achieve project objectives and requirements in the development of a large project, and helps to the achievement of government transformation programme (GTP)