Research in Progress Abstracts

On the 6th June 1944, Lt. Col. James Earl Rudder led elements of the 2nd Ranger Battalion to destroy five 155mm cannon on Pointe du Hoc capable of firing on troops and ships landing on Omaha Beach. Pointe-du-Hoc historic site in Normandy, France is one of the most iconic and culturally important sites of the D-Day Battlefields that still retains many of the cultural resources from the day of the battle.

Pointe-du-Hoc was designated a class A Historic Site by the French Government on 28 February 1955. The site was formally transferred to the American Battle Monuments Commission, a small independent agency of the Executive Branch of the federal government, for perpetual care and maintenance on January 11, 1979. Unfortunately, even today, the Historic Site has very little site interpretation and individual buildings and structures are not even identified.

The Pointe du Hoc Survey and Documentation Project is a multi-year study that seeks to survey and document the historic site using topographic survey data, a near-surface applied geophysical survey, aerial reconnaissance photographs and other documentary evidence. Results of the survey and documentation will allow scholars of construction to investigate how military structures perform when subject to bombing & shelling.

In the academic arena decisions of tenure and promotion are primarily linked to productivity in research, teaching/advising, and service. Performance of a faculty member is based on comparisons to colleagues in the same department as well as those in the college in which the program resides. This study was conducted to provide a third basis of comparison; a national benchmark for Construction Management (C-School) faculty teaching, research and service performance. The study solicited curriculum vita from every ASC affiliated program tenure-track and tenured faculty member. Faculty productivity results stratified by type of institution and faculty rank where determined for various subcategories of research, teaching/advising, and service where documented based on vita content analysis. The aggregate results where then compared to data from other disciplines.

Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Certification is a program developed by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) to promote and nurture green building design and energy efficiency. LEED standards for green building are intended to help design teams and owners determine green project goals, identify green design strategies, measure and monitor progress and document project success. Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) is a major section in the LEED program. Green design and LEED certification go hand in hand when trying to justify quality indoor environments. LEED is becoming more recognized around the world and is having a significant affect in the architectural field with approximately 900 registered projects as of 2003. Studies have indicated that poor IEQ has a negative affect on employee health and productivity. Although LEED certified buildings have a higher initial cost, they may have lower life cycle costs and potential employee productivity gains may create significant cost benefits over the life of the structure.

This session will present the preliminary results of an investigation in the impact of LEED indoor environmental quality requirements on employee productivity. Four topics will be addressed: (a) introduction to LEED and the concepts and principles related to IEQ, (b) the potential impact of IEQ on productivity, (c) relationship between employee productivity and life-cycle building costs, and (d) preliminary results of study designed to investigate architects perceptions of the relationships between IEQ, employee productivity, and construction costs.

The application of web-camera (web cam) technology for monitoring and controlling construction progress has been suggested as an approach that may provide substantial improvement in recording project progress. The technology involves the installation of digital cameras on construction sites linked by computer to upload the images on to the Internet. The cameras provide real time views of the building project's process to the project participants (e.g. project manager, architect and engineers, project owner, subcontractors, etc.) for them to have up-to-date information regarding project status. This technology may also provide significant benefits to construction faculty that are hampered by the difficulties of providing and organizing field trips to active construction projects. This report/poster is presented for construction faculty to serve as an introduction to the technology and selection of web cams for people interested in their use. The criteria for web cam selection and deployment, cost and installation issues based upon the experiences of the faculty with the construction management program at Illinois State University are presented. Observations regarding how students might use the technology to solve real time, real world construction problems are provided for comment and feedback to interested faculty.

Universities and colleges have continuously attempted to identify academic and non-academic variables that could best serve as indicators or predictors of student retention and success. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of academic and personal variables upon college graduation from a baccalaureate Building Construction Management construction management program. Eleven hypotheses provided the framework for addressing the value of predicting a student’s success in Purdue University’s Building Construction Management Program (BCM) a construction management program. Logistic regression was the statistical procedure used to make an association among the independent predictor variables (high school rank, high school GPA, high school class size, number of high school science courses, number of high school math courses, SAT composite score, matriculation age, gender, race, and residence) the dependent variable graduation. A sample of approximately 400 students who originally enrolled in Purdue University’s BCM a university construction management program from the fall semester 1992 to the fall semester 1997 was used for this study. This relationship was tested using logistic regression at the 0.05 level of confidence. The results of the test show that two independent variables are significant; high school GPA and high school math semesters.

Significant research has been conducted over the last decade in developing new products from recycling fibrous waste or their new uses, but the fact remains that the bulk of this waste is still being land filled (8 billion lbs./year) in the USA and is not used for other purposes. The usual barriers to implement recycling technologies for the post-consumer carpets are technical, economic, marketing, legal or logistical in nature (or some combination of them). With the exorbitant costs now associated with opening new landfill space in the USA, coupled with increasing environmental and health concerns, it is important to develop new products using carpet wastes, and develop a plan to evaluate market potential and transfer technology for their effective commercial use.

This research identified and examined products, developed from post-consumer carpets for evaluation and assessment of the technical/logistical/economic/legal/marketing feasibilities for use as building and construction materials. The research collected information from the designers (Architects/Engineers), contractors and carpet manufacturers regarding existing and possible uses of post consumer carpets as construction materials. Some of the possible uses are fiber reinforced concrete, formwork, roofing shingles, exterior siding, exterior decking and so on. This study also identified important industry issues based on user perspectives.

Six kilometers (3.7 miles) of 4-lane interstate highway near Colorado Springs, Colorado were rehabilitated by removing the upper surface of the existing pavement and replacing with new hot mix asphalt concrete. The project was unique because the contractor was responsible for various forms of pavement distress, including cracking, permanent deformation, raveling and three other forms of distress during the three year warranty period.

The pavement contained approximately 100 severe transverse cracks of 1 to 1.5 cm (0.4 to 0.6 inch) width per kilometer (0.6 miles) prior to rehabilitation. The contractor was responsible for repair of the new surface course if reflection of the old cracks through the new overlay surface occurred during the warranty period. Therefore, eighteen test sections were established at the cost of the contractor within the project to evaluate the most cost effective solution to reduce reflective cracking.

Eight experimental treatments and one control section were constructed with replication for a total of eighteen test sections. These included routing and not routing the cracks and sealing with two types of crack sealer, applying two grades of geotextile, and two types of heavily reinforced tape systems over the existing transverse cracks.

The rate of crack reflection has been measured each year since construction and documented. This report presents the results of this research after six years of pavement service and rates the nine treatments in order of economic value.

One of the major obstacles for many CM graduate programs is the recruitment of qualified students and how to balance the financial requirement of keeping enrollments up with the academic responsibility of ensuring that students accepted into a program are prepared to succeed. This paper looks at one Construction Management department’s effort to balance these conflicting goals. Realizing that many students seeking entry into their graduate program are career change students, the Construction Management Department at CSU developed and implemented a “leveling” program that would prepare these students for entry into the Construction Management graduate program. After running the Leveling Program for seven years, a focus group was created and a Modified Needs Assessment Evaluation was conducted to identify how well the Leveling Program was working. Students currently enrolled in the CM graduate program, which had gone through the leveling program, were surveyed to determine 1.) how well the students felt they were prepared to succeed at their graduate courses and 2.) how satisfied they had been with their leveling experience. The results of this evaluation lead to recommendations that were in support of replacing the leveling program with a certificate program that allowed for more classroom time to cover wider variety of construction topics.

Construction simulation can provide unparalleled insight about the performance of construction operations. It is included in several college curricula, where it has been approached as a secondary, high-level topic, and has not been considered for its merits as a teaching tool. Learning a simulation language usually requires of time and resources beyond the scope of most construction programs, and has constrained its popularity in academia.

A Web-based simulation software package, recently available at (Web address withheld) is used by senior students in a course centered on Operations Analysis to develop and run their own construction operation simulation models after only three class sessions. This simplicity has allowed the introduction of simulation concepts early in the semester, and has resulted in simulation becoming a discovery tool throughout the semester for visualizing and exploring what-if scenarios. Students can access the software from home, and proceed at their own pace with assigned exercises.

This proposed exhibit will describe the completed and ongoing research at (Institutions names withheld) to identify areas suited for the use of simulation as a teaching tool, and to develop instructional material such as games and operation models that instructors can incorporate into their courses.

The costly and adversarial notion of “checks and balances” between owners and contractors under traditional design-bid-build has since given way to new delivery methods focused on accountability, value, and client retention. CM, invited bid, and design-build have emerged as effective alternatives for a new age of owners more interested in the timely delivery of an income generating asset than a low budget building. In response, many general contracting firms have begun to diversify their portfolios to include negotiated work. To remain on the short list however, these firms must continuously position themselves through novel work acquisition strategies that include pre and post construction services as turn-key compliments to “faster-cheaper-better” scope, sum and schedule management. To accomplish this, most firms have reorganized themselves around multi-disciplinary work acquisition teams that specialize in a given market niche, delivery method or both. Yet far from pioneering this bold new direction, construction education in the U.S. finds itself struggling to keep pace. For the programs that have work acquisition curricula, most remain fixated on open-bid strategies. As a result, this paper addresses the justification for curricula modernization in the area of multiple delivery method work acquisition and methods to successfully adopt these new instructional competencies. The research data have been complied from survey and focus group interviews with ENR Top 500 companies as well as faculty internship activities.

The development of urban residential units is a lucrative construction and real estate development business because of the national trend of upper-middle class migration from the suburbs to the cities. One of the most important factors in determining the area in which one will reside is crime. This study was undertaken to increase the understanding of the relationship between mixed-income community development and crime rates. The study examined two different housing projects in Boston, MA. Harbor Point was redeveloped from 1987 to 1990 into a mixed-income community, while Orchard Park remained a traditional low-income housing project during that period. The purpose of the study was to examine the crime rates before and after the redevelopment period for both communities. Aggregate data on seven crime categories was collected for three-year periods pre and post development utilizing secondary monthly crime data collected by the Boston Housing Authority and the Boston Police Department. Based on multiple regression tests, only one (burglary) of the seven crime categories analyzed revealed significantly different crime rates between the pre and posttest years.

This paper examines the economics of sustainable home building practices. Specifically, the study compares the cost of building two 1500 square foot houses; one using traditional building materials and the other will include green or sustainable products. The construct of total construction cost has been operationalized with initial construction cost and life cycle operations cost. A comprehensive work breakdown structure was completed and for each work package, a green alternative was identified based on Built Green Colorado Standards. A detailed cost estimate for each work package identified in the work breakdown structure was conducted and initial construction cost were summarized for both houses in traditional Line Item and Project Summary formats. Where applicable life cycle costs were calculated for each work package identified in the work breakdown structure. Total construction costs were then determined by adding initial and life cycle costs.

Time-Cost Optimization (TCO) is one of the greatest challenges in construction project planning and control, since the optimization of either time or cost, would usually be at the expense of the other. Although the TCO problem has been extensively examined, many research studies only focused on minimizing the total cost for an early completion. This does not necessarily convey any reward to the contractor. However, with the increasing popularity of alternative project delivery systems, clients and contractors are more concerned about the combined benefits and opportunities of early completion as well as cost savings. In this research, a Genetic Algorithms (GAs) driven multi-objective model for TCO is proposed, which integrates the adaptive weight to balance the priority of each objective according to the performance of the previous ‘generation’. The results indicate that greater model robustness can be attained by introducing the adaptive weight approach, Pareto ranking and niche formation to the GA-based multi-objective TCO model.

Design-build represents an innovative contract delivery method for heavy highway infrastructure projects. Traditionally, public heavy highway projects have been contracted by using the design-bid-build contracting method for which the risk factors associated with the project are well understood. While the design-build contracting method has led to shorter contract durations for large design-build highway construction projects, little work has been done regarding the perceptions of risk factors by the owners and the design-build team on these types of projects. The purpose of this inquiry was to qualitatively describe and compare the risk mitigation methods and communication characteristics across seven major risk factors associated with design-build projects. The seven major risk factors include the request for proposal (RFP) process, design constraints, partnering, project controls, project finance, project communication, and commissioning. Qualitative data was obtained from a series of structured interviews with the design-build project management team and the owner’s project management team for two major infrastructure projects located in Denver, Colorado and Salt Lake City, Utah. The seven factors examined were developed from a similar study performed by the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) in 1996. The results were analyzed to find the emergent trends and commonalities of the risk mitigation methods and communication characteristics among the owners and design-build team on the two projects.

A construction project that misses its deadline and is millions of dollars over budget receives unwanted attention, and even more so if it is funded by taxpayers’ money. Public owners often seek new ways to ensure that construction projects adhere to both deadlines and budgets. Many experts believe that choosing the right project delivery method is the key to a successful project. Recently, the choices for project delivery methods have expanded and opinions of each approach vary greatly. Public owners are often attracted to claims that these methods will save money, reduce time, improve quality, and decrease administrative burden. These claims are especially attractive during uncertain economic and political times, when a project’s life cycle extends beyond several fiscal years and legislative sessions. Since January 1, 2002, North Carolina public agencies can use four project delivery methods: design-bid-build using separate-prime bidding; design-bid-build using single-prime bidding; construction manager at-risk; and design-build with special permission.

This paper describes these four methods and presents an analysis on the advantages and disadvantages of each. This study finds that any project style includes pros and cons and recommends that public owners choose the method that most closely aligns with their needs.

Many cities are faced with deteriorating building stock, the departure of the middle class to suburban green-field development, and the resulting “sprawl”. To achieve a meaningful redirection of growth back into our cities, communities must be reconstructed, not merely reinvigorated, in order to offer adequate incentive to invest in older areas. Since no strategy for reconstructing can avoid some demolition, the industry needs a careful study of time required to salvage materials, the cost trade-off for reconstruction/reuse in place of disposal, guidelines for the handling of hazardous material, and data to ascertain the structural degradation and establish grading standards for used components. This paper examines the development and structure of a Reconstruction and Demolition Research Center that would operate as an Industry/University Cooperative Research Center employing a cross-disciplinary group of researchers. The Center would work to develop reconstruction technology and management systems with the goal of advancing growth of middle income investment in cities and older suburbs. The mission of the Center would be research and aggregation of a body of knowledge for curriculum development and technology transfer to industry.

This paper describes improvements and changes made to the PRISM I (Project Risk Identification and Selection) Model. The PRISM II is now web-based using File Maker Database software for easy remote contractor access. In addition to the risk tools utilized by PRISM I (expected monetary value, pair-wise comparison, and critical risk ranking matrix), the Monte Carlo simulation was added to provide a more detailed analysis of the data, which is plotted to determine potential project profitability of one project relative to other projects being considered In addition, the PRISM II model allows for the customization of the existing macro list of risk and opportunity questions derived from past project experiences. Therefore, by using the PRISM II Model the company decision makers can derive a range of profit estimates for all potential projects to help them make go/no go decisions prior to committing significant resources to create a full-scale estimate and proposal on a project with the highest profit potential. Thus, PRISM II not only improves the first two steps (identification and quantification) of a Risk Management Plan for the project but also facilitates the storage of lessons learned information, resulting in a more effective management transition tool for the future of the company.

Peer Reviewed Abstracts