Realising offsite construction in the civil engineering and infrastructure sector

Offsite construction solutions have gained significant prominence over recent years. Much of the interest however, has been focussed on the building sector, in particular housing. The Civil Engineering and Infrastructure sector (CE&I) has comparatively seen little growth in this aspect. Specific exemplars for some high-profile projects, such as the Heathrow Airport control tower, do exist, but there have been far less applications of the new and emerging technologies and approaches that have been influential in the building sector recently. In addition, Offsite itself is not a well-defined supply sector, but rather a conglomeration of various, largely material or technology-based supply networks. This makes it difficult to realise new opportunities, especially in different sectors of the construction industry. This thesis is the culmination of a four-year Engineering Doctorate (EngD) research programme investigating the components that affect the realisation of offsite in the CE&I sector. It commences with an introduction to the research and its aims and objectives, and moves on to present the methodological considerations. During the four Work Packages (WP) conducted, a total of 78 individuals participated and contributed to workshop and interviews, together with an extensive critical review of literature. All primary and secondary data was examined with appropriate methods, such as a comparative case study and an emergent thematic analysis, upon which a series of conclusions and subsequently recommendations were drawn. The findings clearly identify that CE&I is more risk averse, and defines offsite differently, to the building sector. Each CE&I sub-sector has specific drivers and barriers to offsite, and due to the relative longevity of CE&I projects (both procurement, design, and construction) makes it difficult to benchmark and quantify offsite and its benefits. Large programmes of works rather than small projects are key to realising offsite as they provide confidence to the supply chain of long term investment. In addition, clients are pivotal for driving offsite as they can influence the industry s focus; nevertheless, investment cycles in infrastructure clients hinders offsite realisation. For holistic offsite implementation organisation need to have a top-down strategy. Therefore offsite requirements should be embedded within the project delivery governance processes. Its realisation is linked directly to recruitment, training and research and development plans. Building information modelling (BIM) now plays a key part in offsite realisation in CE&I as from 2016 it will be compulsory for all centrally-funded government works. BIM however, does not directly increase the offsite implementation, but it can help enable offsite due to the ability to define the design earlier in the project lifecycle. In addition, BIM encourages the use of software that can help identify the repetition of components, therefore increasing the potential for economies to scale. Finally, with the use of such software, delivery teams can simulate the construction sequence and therefore further help to enable offsite by reducing logistical challenges

Building information modelling and its effect on off-site construction in UK civil engineering

This article was published in the journal, Proceedings of the ICE - Management, Procurement and Law [© Thomas Telford Ltd.] and the website is at: http://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/content/serial/mpalIn 2011, the UK government mandated that, by March 2016, all public-sector construction projects would be undertaken within a three-dimensional building information model (BIM) environment. This has caused both construction procurers and providers to embark on a journey towards universal BIM adoption, including the integration of BIM within a revised construction process. In addition, off-site construction has seen significant development in the building sector in the past decade; however, in infrastructure, off-site constructionoff-site construction exploitation has been more limited. This paper presents findings from UK-focused research into how innovation initiatives such as BIM and off-site construction can and need to be considered together, thus allowing leaner design, a greater integration of lifetime project data and more novel technical solutions. Key themes that emerged from the thematic analysis of the interviews show the importance of configuration and interface management; information data flow; project management and delivery; procurement and contracts. The analysis outlines the benefits of utilising off-site construction within a BIM environment, the challenges currently facing the supply chain, and recommendations are made as to how best to implement the emergent benefits