• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.69-79
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• 2011

Rapid population growth and land use changes have severely degraded streams across the United States. In response, there has been a surge in the number of stream restoration projects, including stream restoration for mitigation purposes. Currently, most projects do not include evaluation and monitoring, which are critical in the success of stream restoration projects. The goal of this study is to review the current status of assessment methodologies and restoration approaches for streams in Virginia, with the aim of assisting the restoration community in making sound decisions. As part of the study, stream restoration projects data from a project in Fairfax County, Virginia was assessed. This review revealed that the stream assessment methodologies currently applied to restoration are visuallybased and do not include biological data collection and/or a method to incorporate watershed information. It was found from the case study that out of the twenty nine restoration projects that had occurred between 1995 and 2003 in Fairfax County, nineteen projects reported bank stabilization as a goal or the only goal, indicating an emphasis on a single physical component rather than on the overall ecological integrity of streams. It also turned out that only seven projects conducted any level of monitoring as part of the restoration, confirming the lack of evaluation and monitoring. However, Fairfax County has recently improved its stream restoration practices by developing and incorporating watershed management plans. This now provides one of the better cases that might be looked upon by stakeholders when planning future stream restoration projects.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.510-515
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• 2011

Urban renewal projects, in the form of mega-projects, are being actively implemented both nationally and internationally to revitalize inactive cities. These programs, however, are difficult to manage efficiently due to their need for a large budget over a long period of time and due to conflicts with stockholders. Moreover, existing cost and duration management systems are structured with emphasis on the design and construction stage of unit projects, thus limiting their application to long-term mega-projects that are integrated with various facilities. To solve these problems, this study developed a web-based system that can collectively manage the cost and duration of mega-projects at a program level. The unit modules included in the system--CBS organization, construction cost and duration prediction, and total cost and duration prediction--can support decision-making at the early stage of the program. Furthermore, the modules, which include contract management, execution management, change management, and program progress management, support the program operations for its successful accomplishment. The web-based cost and duration management system developed in this study is expected to be used as a valuable tool that supports the successful accomplishment of mega-projects through their efficient management throughout their life cycle.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.145-153
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• 2013

Since a government design department office was set up in 2007, active design projects have been implemented. With this opportunity, each local self-governing organization has improved its administration and institutions, and are planning intensive research on public design for efficient execution of public design projects. However, recent public design projects have caused many problems due to unspecialized design processes, a lack of cooperation with relevant organizations, and unsatisfactory management systems after projects. Therefore, to overcome such problems in the execution of public design projects, a procedure-centered model should be developed. This study aims to analyse the process structures for the strategic execution of public design projects, and the methods and content of the execution process. For this purpose, this study looked into the process structures of public design projects based on design management strategies in order to draw suggestions needed for the execution process through advanced cases. The study is summed up as follows: First, when the process of public design projects was examined in terms of management strategies and design management strategies, it included two dimensions: the management structure of general projects and the design of development projects. Secondly, through the analysis of public design cases, this study discovered useful methodologies and the main programs used and drew suggestions needed for each step in public design projects. It is expected that the results of this study will be helpful for the development of a process model appropriate for national public design projects based on the current status of the project execution and to make a contribution to systematic development in national public design.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute Of Construction Engineering and Management
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.718-721
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• 2007

Construction schedule plays a key role in project management due to its influence on the project success. Thus, it is important to identify factors affecting construction delay. The major objective of this study is to identify and evaluate factors affecting construction delay in apartment projects in Vietnam. The findings confirmed that financial difficulties of owners and contractors, contractors without adequate experience, non-available materials on time, slow site clearance, inappropriate construction methods, defective works and reworks, and lack of capable owners/project managers are the major causes of delay in apartment projects.

• Architectural research
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.75-80
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• 2014

Risks, uncertainties, and associated cost overruns are critical problems for construction projects. Cost contingency is an important funding source for these unforeseen events and is included in the base estimate to help perform financially successful projects. In order to predict more accurate contingency, many empirical models using regression analysis and artificial neural network method have been proposed and showed its viability to minimize prediction errors. However, categorical factors on contingency cannot have been treated and thus considered in these empirical models since those models are able to treat only numerical factors. This paper identified potential factors on contingency in transportation construction projects and evaluated categorical factors using the one-way ANOVA statistical method. Among factors including project work type, delivery method type, contract agreement type, bid award type, letting type, and geographical location, two factors of project work type and contract agreement type were found to be statistically important on allocating cost contingency.

• Journal of Construction Engineering and Project Management
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.31-36
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• 2011

Construction materials usually constitute a major portion of the total cost in a building construction project. Materials management Is made problematic by materials shortages, delays in supply, price fluctuations, damage and wastage, and lack of storage space. Despite the potential benefit of ICT, convincing construction organisations to embrace its use and implementation has proved a difficult task. This study seeks to identify the implementation of ICT for materials management processes in construction projects. The findings from the case studies reveal that the implementation of ICT in the materials management processes for construction projects in Malaysia Is at early stage. Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet and handheld devices are found to be the common ICT tools adopted in the materials management processes. The main barrier is found to be the cost involvement at the initial stage or overall implementation of ICT in the materials management processes. Finally, this paper concludes the finding from interviews towards the ICT implementation of materials management in the construction projects.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2007.03a
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• pp.653-661
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• 2007

Overseas construction projects tend to be more complex than domestic projects, being exposed to more external risks, such as politics, economy, society, and culture, as well as more internal risks from the project itself. It is crucial to have an early understanding of the project condition, in order to be well prepared in various phases of the project. This study compares a structural equation model and multiple regression analysis, in their capacity to predict cost performance of international construction projects. The structural equation model shows a more accurate prediction of cost performance than does regression analysis, due to its intrinsic capability of considering various cost factors in a systematic way.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.122-126
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• 2015

Credit enhancement is absolutely essential for financing Independent Power Producer (IPP) projects in Asia particularly for countries whose sovereign credit rating is on non-investment grade and foreign investment is difficult to achieve. Due to nexus of agreements among varies parties in IPP project, it is hard to clearly visualize the roles of these agreements. Examples are: What credit enhancement factors are most influential to minimize the associated risks of IPP projects? Why are they powerful? What are their roles? Who are less powerful and what are the obstacles that causes them less powerful? A research is conducted to identify the credit enhancement factors for IPP projects in Asia. IPP professionals validated 27 out of 28 identified credit enhancement factors, and five factor groupings were made through factor analysis. Afterwards, network theory is applied to find the unanswered questions, which by graphical and mathematical representations show that the host government's credit enhancement, MDBs, ECAs and other parties' credit enhancement are prominent and of great importance to handle the associated risks of IPP projects in Asia

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.195-200
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• 2011

Construction materials usually constitute a major portion of the total cost in a building construction project. Despite the potential benefit of ICT, convincing construction organisations to embrace its use and implementation has proved a difficult task. This study seeks to identify the implementation of ICT for materials management processes in construction projects. The findings from the interviews reveal that the implementation of ICT in the materials management processes for construction projects in Malaysia is at early stage. Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet and handheld devices are found to be the common ICT tools adopted in the materials management processes. The main barrier is found to be the cost involvement at the initial stage or overall implementation of ICT in the materials management processes. Finally, this paper concludes the finding from interviews towards the ICT implementation of materials management in the construction projects.

• Architectural research
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.77-84
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• 2006

In spite of enormous increase in data generation, its practical usage in the construction sector has not been prevalent enough compared to those of other industries. The author would explore the obstacles against efficient data application in the arena of expenditure forecasting, and suggest a forecasting method by applying Case-based Reasoning (CBR). The newly suggested method in the research, enables project managers to forecast monthly expenditures with less time and effort by retrieving and referring only projects of a similar nature, while filtering out irrelevant cases included in database. Among 99 projects collected, the cost data from 88 projects were processed to establish a new forecasting model. The remaining 10 projects were utilized for the validation of the model. From the comprehensive study, the choice of the numbers of referring projects was investigated in detail. It is concluded that selecting similar projects at 12~19 % out of the whole database will produce a more precise forecasting. The new forecasting model, which suggests the predicted values based on previous projects, is more than just a forecasting methodology; it provides a bridge that enables current data collection techniques to be used within the context of the accumulated information. This will eventually help all the participants in the construction industry to build up the knowledge derived from invaluable experience.