Search

This paper suggests a new theoretical lens to understand and manage construction design processes that draws on Heidegger’s theory of deliberate action (Heidegger 1963). The lens interprets the day to day activities of designers as being immersed in practice without deliberate attention to everyday actions. Being immersed, designers do not reiterate the initial problem context and will only design for initially dened criteria. Only if the day to day ow of immersed practice is interrupted or is breaking down designers will involve in what Heidegger calls \involved thematic deliberation" or \theoretical detached deliberation" (Sandberg and Tsoukas 2011) that allows them to reiterate the initial problem context. This early position paper, introduces this new theoretical lens and shows its value by analyzing a number of design episodes that I observed during my ongoing ethnographic research work with designers. The examples show that the new lens allows for a good understanding of the increasing problems of designers to identify the wide range of societal and engineering issues during post-modern construction design eorts upfront. I posit that this better understanding, in turn, will support the better management of the changing problem contexts that occur on almost all post-modern construction design projects.

Passenger rail services provide many transfer route options, but it is difficult for a passenger to choose the best one to meet his travel need. This paper aims to develop a transfer route choice model for railway passengers that maximizes passenger utility, based on their income levels. First, the authors simplified the design of the passenger transfer service network according to the train time table, then established a passenger utility function; next, the authors extracted the problem of transfer options to the short path problem, based on the transfer service network. This paper analyzes travel time, travel cost, comfort level, and departure and arrival times. It uses a quantitative approach to measure each factor, and devises a transfer service choice model based on the utility maximization. The model algorithm is solved by the K-short-path. Finally, the model is proved feasible and effective using a real-world problem.

Shortly after completion of constructing Port Freeport’s new multi-purpose wharf, significant differential horizontal movement and vertical settlement of the wharf was detected. These movements far exceeded the anticipated displacements expected for this wharf. Placing it into service in its current condition and loading it with heavy cargo and equipment would have caused more damage and potential structural failure. To prevent further deterioration and to restore the wharf to its intended function, Port Freeport authorized repair work for its newly constructed wharf. This paper presents an overview of issues encountered during the wharf remediation work and their resolution, mostly employing simplified methods to efficiently tackle complex engineering and construction issues. It provides a better understanding and appreciation on how to effectively address field and design issues without compromising overall engineering design and schedule. This paper also emphasizes the importance of promptly recognizing problems as they arise and approaching them methodically.

Ports are the primary gateways to international trade and represent an essential resource in the cost-effective operation of the U.S. economy. Disruptive events such as Superstorm Sandy and the West Coast Labor Slowdown have shown that delays in the recovery of port operations can have significant economic as well as social costs, and can severely impact both the land-side and water-side of supply chains. This paper addresses the issue of enhancing port resiliency and provides a set of high level guidelines, supported by illustrative examples, which will help stakeholders prepare for, respond to, and recover from port disruptions. The focus of the effort is on identifying and elaborating the steps needed to coordinate freight movements through ports in times of severe stress on operating infrastructure and services. The paper demonstrates that considerable ingenuity has been used in finding solutions to past disruptions in port operations.

This paper is to discuss the correlation between the trend of proportion of Construction industry output value in Guangdong province, gross product of construction industry and Guangdong’s GDP base on Statistical data of 1989–2012. What is more, this paper measures the construction industry’s contribution to the provincial economic using industry contribution model combining their trend of rate of increase. The result shows that, although the supporting function of construction industry lag behind relatively, yet the construction industry promote other industries’ development hugely which means that the construction industry has significant influence on Guangdong’s overall economy. The contribution index of construction industry, is merely 0.3701, shows that the contribution of construction industry presents a negative state. We suggest that the government should take a series of related measures which can provide good macroscopic development environment for construction and improve the level of the development of construction industry, in order to encourage the construction industry make more contribution for the province’s overall economic.

This paper studies and designs the land resource dynamic monitoring system, which makes the work more efficient, accurate and rapid response. Firstly, the current surveying and mapping technology, computer technology, network technology and communication technology are studied to design a land resource investigation subsystem, in which the data acquisition, processing, updating and achievement management are integrated. Secondly, based on the research of the rule drive model, a more flexible and efficient method of business flow construction is designed. Finally, the system structure, database, function module, key technology and etc. of the system are studied here. Though the system proposed in this paper, the intelligent land resource dynamic monitoring is realized. Meanwhile, it provides an important technical support and a brand new idea for land resource management.

It is an important task that compiling operative plans of turn-back stations in surveying, designing and operating urban rail transit projects. The quality of operative plans not only has direct effects on the results of operation management, but also reflects the rationality of turn-back station’s layouts. This paper transforms the problem of trains connection in station operative plans into spliced network planning of trains with many constraints and objective functions. Based on the Windows environment, using object-oriented language Visual C++ 6.0, this paper develops the Rail Transit Station Operative Plans Compiling and Simulation System with Trains Traction Calculation. It can achieve the goal that standardized management, fine simulation and optimization, provide technical support and decision-making reference for the surveying, designing and operation departments in urban rail transit.

With the development of China’s economy and transportation industries, high-speed railway continues to grow in strength in recent years, as the command center of high-speed trains operation, high-speed railway dispatching system plays an important role in ensuring the safety, high-speed and punctuality of trains. By using structural entropy evaluation theory, this paper analyzes the influence of the information flow within the system of three kinds of high-speed railway dispatching system: the whole way centralized dispatching mode, the region concentrated secondary mode and the trunk line (passage) secondary mode. This paper evaluates the ability of information transfer of the three command system modes from the perspective of time-effect, quality and order degree of information transfer, and puts forward the time-effect and quality analysis model of the information flow within the three command modes, and makes a quantitative evaluation of time-effect, quality and order degree of the system.

With new government regulations and emerging knowledge of the risk to the environment posed by the failure of stormwater pipelines, stormwater infrastructure asset management is becoming increasingly important in the U.S. An essential aspect of asset management practice is the accurate performance assessment of one’s assets. This paper presents a weighted factor framework to determine the performance of stormwater pipes. This paper prepares a list of 50 parameters affecting the performance of stormwater pipelines; the list is based on a review of the literature, existing asset management plans, and feedback from utilities. This list is broken down into essential and preferential parameters. Indeed, not all utilities necessarily possess sufficient resources to collect such a large set of parameters. This study also develops a three-level hierarchical structure of the degradation of stormwater pipeline infrastructure. The structure consists of five failure modules and the essential parameters only. On the basis of the survey results gathered from 10 utilities across the EPA regions, the study combines the essential parameters into a performance index. The index is a scale of 1 to 5, similar to the National Association of Sewer Service Companies’ Pipeline Assessment and Certification Program grading system. Grade 1 implies excellent condition and Grade 5 implies collapse is imminent.

The engine of any economy is good transportation infrastructure and the supply of energy to support the freight transport and traveling public. Transportation infrastructure network assets have been the backbone of passenger mobility, vital for freight transport, and an important contributor to the nation’s economy. Transportation infrastructure systems in a “sustainable” world require engineers to minimize demand on natural resources, energy consumption, and adverse impacts on the environment. This paper presents key results of a case study of technical feasibility and economic viability of an alternative transportation corridor on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. The results of the life cycle costs and benefits favor a commuter rail service on a shared rail corridor. Added benefits include reduction of auto traffic and auto emissions. Additionally, this paper discusses the feasibility of utilizing piezoelectric materials in the harvesting of lost energy from the vibrations produced by train-rail corridors. The use of the piezoelectric sensor is a well-established technology for counting traffic on roads. In recent years, piezoelectric material has emerged as one of the most promising methods for energy harvesting from traffic-induced vibrations. This paper presents a second case study that investigates the enhancement of the piezoelectric material by coating it with a special nano particle mixture. The results indicate a more than 400% improvement in energy harvesting compared to the traditional piezoelectric material. This provides a great opportunity to tap into this source of energy being lost to the environment in the form of vibrations from train-rail corridor systems.

In the high-speed maglev transportation system, the current position and speed signals of the running train are obtained by a location and speed detection system. But the original position and speed signals from the location and speed detection system are not safe and need to be transferred to the safe position and speed through a safety location function to be used for train operation control and safety protection. This paper first introduces the architecture and working mechanism of location and speed detection system for high speed maglev transportation system. Then this paper analyses and studies on the safety location function and its realization mechanism of the operation control system for high-speed maglev transportation system.

Many of the greatest structural artists—designers practicing at the top of their profession and achieving excellence in efficiency, economy, and elegance of their structures—from Thomas Telford to John Roebling, from Othmar Ammann to Fazlur Khan, practice primarily in the media of iron and steel. During the latter part of the 20th century and into the 21st century a handful of designers have carried on this tradition of greatness in structural art in metal. This paper sets the context for modern works of structural art in metal through a brief examination of the history of great design in metal and then examines Jorg Schlaich as an exemplary modern practitioner of the art form through a sequence of bridge and roof structures that cover the period from roughly the 1980s to the present and range in scale from modest pedestrian bridges to long span roofs for major places of public assembly. These structures are examined in terms of their structural efficiency, economy, and elegance. Elegance is interpreted here to entail ways in which the designs spring from creativity constrained by the requirements of good structural engineering; the degree to which the designs are innovative and introduce new techniques or ideas to the discipline of structural engineering; and, whether and how the designs are visually expressive of their structural function. Although impossible to quantify, the aesthetic beauty of the structures is also considered. The works of Santiago Calatrava are compared to those of Schlaich as a coda to the paper to spur greater discussion of the meaning of excellence in structural design.

Foundation load test databases are needed by researchers in the reliability calibration to develop accurate and economical foundation geotechnical design methods (LRFD implementation), and also can be used by designers to evaluate and improve the geotechnical design for production foundations in their field projects. These databases should include quality, complete, and adequate number of records of data at load test sites. The FHWA developed the Deep Foundation Load Test Database (DFLTD), which was considered by researchers and State Departments of Transportation (State DOTs) to develop their databases. Presently, just a very small number of reliability-based resistance factors for foundations were developed by AASHTO and State DOTs due to lack of quality foundation load test databases. The Public and private highway engineering agencies need to work together to develop local, regional, and national foundation load test databases that cover all the common foundation design and construction conditions encountered in the USA. The goal of this paper is to help these agencies develop and use quality deep foundations load test databases. The paper initially describes the applications of foundation load test databases. Then, it describes the contents, limitation and distribution of the DFLTD. Finally, the contents and use of other deep foundation load tests databases is described.

Kuwaiti Government is bound by law to provide Government dwellings to each Kuwaiti male getting married within a maximum period of eight years. The demand for Kuwaiti Government dwellings increased by eight percent each year, which reached more than one hundred thousand in 2014. This paper establishes what problems currently exist with the design, materials, and construction used in contemporary Kuwaiti Government dwellings. The paper investigates social, psychological and health values and cultural meanings of dwellings and householders, as well as the occupant’s satisfactions, attitudes and behaviour from living in the Government dwellings. The sample selection of this paper is limited to Kuwaiti Government Dwellings; 70 husbands and 70 wives Kuwaiti citizen owners only living in Al-Nahda town in Kuwait. This paper is part of a doctoral research project conducted by the lead author at Cardiff Metropolitan University. The paper will be useful to academics, designers, contractors, environmental engineers, and building owners.

Recent efforts in the development of innovative, “green” building materials and components have primarily focused on reducing the initial embodied energy and carbon of conventional materials (e.g., concrete, plastics). While these efforts are often commended and advocated by sustainable material certification programs and green building rating schema, recent research has shown that reducing the cradle-togate impacts of building materials may actually compromise their long-term durability, effectively reducing their ultimate in-service lifetime. This paper highlights research progress on the implementation of a next-generation sustainable materials evaluation framework that reconciles initial reductions in environmental impact (e.g., embodied energy, embodied carbon) and the effects on service life through integrated service-life/lifecycle assessment models for innovative materials. Using “green” concrete as a case-study example, this paper demonstrates that the “sustainability” of a material is spatiotemporally dependent and that end-of-life (functional obsolescence) is an important metric that must be considered in evaluating sustainable material alternatives.

The paper is based on work undertaken for the 2014 edition of the “access management guidelines,” developed for the Western Cape Provincial Government of South Africa, and which will replace the “road access guidelines” published by that Government in 2001. The aspect covered in the paper deals with the spacings that should be allowed between different categories of unsignalised intersections along different categories of urban at-grade roads. Firstly, the paper examines the candidate criteria for determining spacings of unsignalised public roads and private driveways, and then presents the conclusions reached on the appropriate criterion for each combination. The rationale for selecting criteria is based on one of the two presumptions: the task facing the driver negotiating the road and who must undertake processes of decision-making and actions when approaching an intersection ahead (i.e., operational requirements); or alternatively, the manoeuvre required of a driver to avoid a collision (i.e., safety requirements). The application of these principles is used to establish appropriate spacing distances along the through road, depending on the classification of the through road and the type of intersection or driveway intersecting with the through road.

The application of wind power on buildings is principally refers to the technology of breeze use. Studies show that the technology is more economical and practical than the use of large wind farm. This paper gives a brief introduction to the progress of the latest technology about the application of wind power on industrial and civil construction, and wind power products industry. China has taken the advanced wind power technology, with the several use case of large high-rise buildings, but not yet universal. In this paper, the preliminary designs of the wind power utilization on high-rise buildings and public buildings in urban areas are made, by taking Xiamen as an example life cycle cost in high-rise building used wind power is estimated, and we concluded that wind power technology is economically feasible. With the rich wind resources in China, it is easier to trial in rural areas. This article proposes the promotion of wind power construction should follow the route from the countryside to the city, rather than the reverse.

At present, it is common for constructors to attach their certificates to construction enterprises they don’t belong to. The consequent legal matters and the construction quality problems are worthy of thinking about deeply. The paper summarizes the reasons of constructor certificates attachment phenomenon including the scarcity of building talents, the imperfection of related construction laws and rules, the lack of government’s supervision, personal interests of constructors, and so on. This paper applies interpretative structural modeling (ISM) method to divide the influential factors of constructor certificate attachment into different levels and accordingly puts forward some specific and practical countermeasure system to solve the problems effectively.

The construction, distribution and management of public housing are important social problems which are related to social fairness and the basic right of citizens. So it is meaningful to set a series of indicators which can objectively indicate the performance level of public housing during the whole duration of construction and distribution. However, former studies focus on the performance of time, cost, quality and site, which can only demonstrate the core problem partly. Based on literature review and expert interview, this paper set a series of indicators which can systematically indicates the performance level of public housing from the aspects of decision making, planning, procuring, constructing, distributing and maintaining. Indicators selected in this paper can be easily quantified, even though some strongly subjective indicators can be studied with appropriate method. Fuzzy Synthetic Evaluation Model is used to build a model to evaluate the performance level of public housing. At last, this paper applied the evaluation model to several real projects in Harbin to research problems that exist in Chinese Public Housing. Results implied that government should pay more attention to the period of planning and distributing, and this paper provided some policy advice at last to help low-income family to live a better life.

At present, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are fast developing and have been applied in many fields. The Internet of Things (IOT) provides a new direction for their development. This paper first introduces the concept and structure of the IOT and states the high integration between the IOT and ITS. At the same time, it presents the frame of the ITS based on the IOT and describes the system function. Then, the paper elucidates the application of an intelligent sensor, radio frequency identification (RFID), positioning technology and a geographic information system (GIS) in ITS from three stages: data collection, data transmission and information processing. The paper discusses the differences between the new system frame and the existing system frame. Finally, the paper presents the application prospects of ITS based on IOT.

Express freight transportation plays an important role in railway transportation, and express freight train diagram is the integrated plan for railway freight transportation. This paper discusses the coordinating methodology during express freight train scheduling process. Base on analyzing the procedure of railway transportation plan and relation to other railway operation plan or technical work, the coordination between express freight train scheduling and railway station operation, passenger train plan, maintenance time window plan and locomotive scheduling were considered, some proposed methods were put forward to optimized the express freight train diagram, which would benefit the quality and robustness for express freight train. With the development of national economy, adjustment of industry structure and productivity layout, improvement of consumption level, express freight transportation demands increased rapidly. Moreover, customers need higher requirements for rapidity, punctuality, convenience, safety of freight transportation to railway companies. Therefore, express freight transportation has become an important part of freight transportation market. Express freight train diagram is the integrated plan for railway freight transportation, based on train plan, express freight train diagram defines many parts such as train class, departure and arrive station, goods category, running cycle routing and etc. And then, train lines are drawn according to running speed, outgoing time or terminate time, service and technical operations. Reliability and accuracy are the important and direct indicators to measure the level and quality of service for train diagram. Express freight trains consist of regular freight train and direct freight trains. During the process of express freight train scheduling, not only rail passing capacity and train plan, but conditions of other equipment and constraints for technical operations were took into account. This paper discusses the coordination between express freight train scheduling and railway station operation, passenger train plan, maintenance time window plan and locomotive scheduling.

With the rapid development of high-speed railways, high-speed railway express freight trains - which operate as passenger trains to transport some fast goods, such as intercity parcels - bring a probable rewarding opportunity. In this paper, the high-speed railway express freight train's operation diagram comprehensive optimization model is built based on the value of time consumption and economic benefits for transportation enterprises. The genetic algorithm was employed to get a solution to the model, then a model dedicated algorithm was designed and its effectiveness was verified by experimental practice. The China Railway Express Company will set up high-speed railway express business in 20 cities from April 1, 2014. Using high-speed railway to transport express freight is one of the best ways for those in the transportation industry. High-speed railway transport express freight is not affected by factors such as traffic jams or air traffic control, and the degree of punctuality is very high in addition to extreme weather conditions. Using the high-speed railway to transport express freight has very strong competitiveness from the aspects of timeliness and cost. Many domestic scholars have discussed the feasibility of using high-speed railway to transport express freight. They all agree that using high-speed railway to transport express freight is completely feasible according to its advantages, future development, and tariff. Nanchang Railway Bureau and Guangzhou Railway (Group) Corporation experimented with the use of high-speed railway to transport express freight and achieved some accomplishments. However, if high-speed railway express freight trains are organized and operated as passenger trains, there is an issue of how to optimize the train operation diagram. This paper attempts to build the comprehensive optimization model of a high-speed railway express freight train operation diagram to solve the problem according to the indexes of time limitation and cost effectiveness of a transportation enterprise.

Based on considering the phenomenon of resulting defective products because of the machine and the equipment recession in the process of the production, this paper discussed proper interruption of production, maintenance of machines and defective when closing down the machine, and found out the way of improving the product quality, accordingly obtained the lowest total cost. At last, this paper composed the numerical example and sensitivity analysis.

The City of Corpus Christi, 8 largest city in Texas, is a booming, coastal city in south Texas that relies heavily on both tourism and oil and petrochemical industry as the main engine driving growth and redevelopment. As a result, the need to make substantial improvement to the aging sanitary sewer infrastructure which is constructed primarily of vitrified clay pipe lines that have been in service for more than 50 years has increased. The City’s wastewater collection system taxed by the development has experienced significant amounts of infiltration and inflow (I/I), debris deposits, collapsed lines and cave-ins. In order to address the growing demands on the infrastructure and provide the ability to quickly mobilize to an emergency type repair, the City has established a program of implementing various indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts for wastewater system rehabilitation. This paper will discuss the process the City of Corpus Christi went through to implement the rehabilitation program and outline its results, rehabilitation procedures for pipe lines and lessons learned. This paper provides details on the evaluation and prioritization for project selection, the development of specific projects, experiences with projects constructed and the implications of the rehabilitation program in terms of reduction in sanitary sewer overflows and cost savings for emergency repairs.

This paper studies the scientific, quantitative, beforehand, and comprehensive evaluation method for railway station freight safety. Based on the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process and fault tree theory, a railway freight safety evaluation index system was established. By use of the theory of fuzzy mathematics, a railway station freight safety evaluation model was constructed, and freight safety status was evaluated comprehensively and quantitatively. Taking the example of a train operation depot of the Nanchang railway bureau, empirical analysis, comprehensive system safety, and quality evaluation were done. Then, the paper analyzes the weak links of station safety work and puts forward corresponding opinions and suggestions.

This paper takes Rizhao City as an example and adequately studies its integrated passenger hub layout planning. First, through the investigation and analysis of the passenger market, this paper analyzes Rizhao's passenger hub status problem in order to identify its hub problem. Based on the population and gross domestic product (GDP) development, a forecast of the passenger hub traffic and station should be appropriately made to determine the size of the hub. According to the city size and layout forms, as well as the area's status and function, the passenger hub layout principles and experts' ideas should be combined to decide the hub layout mode carefully, and determine the location of the passenger hub. Secondly, there should be planning for comprehensive transportation convergence programs in order to form a fast and convenient transportation system.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been found to be one of the most promising advancement in the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Operations and Management (AECOM) industry. BIM integrates the geometric and parametric properties of the 3D model of a facility with all the information and properties of building features and components. However, finding the current location of a specific component or navigation through an unfamiliar facility can be difficult and time consuming. Visualizing the location in real-time can provide the ability to reduce the time for manual searching and locating. This paper demonstrates how the BIM model can be utilized for real-time visualization and localization when integrated with sensing technologies. Real-time visualization and localization requires context-aware information (e.g. space, location, time) in order to function properly. Therefore, the BIM model can provide the spatial relationships while the location sensing technology can provide location and time information. Current indoor localization techniques utilize probabilistic algorithms to estimate landmarks or components, which often require great computational power. Since the model contains the exact locations of components, utilizing BIM provides the advantage of not needing to estimate the true location of the landmarks, drastically reducing the complexity and computing time of the algorithm. PROBLEM DESCRIPTION In an industry where time is crucial for remaining on schedule and lowering facility management costs, manual inspection remains especially inefficient and costly. Current methods of planning and executing facility management are based on personal knowledge and experience (Akcamete et al. 2010). Additionally, current manual efforts and paper-based quality inspections involve labor-intensive methods and are shown to be unreliable, ineffective, and time consuming (Wang 2008). Additionally, building systems are becoming increasingly complex, causing challenges for the management and operation of the facility (Kean 2011). The process of manual inspection proves to be time consuming as it relies distinctly on a worker

This paper examines the evaluation of BIM-enabled projects. It provides a critical review of the three main areas of measurement, namely technology, organization/people and process. Using two documented case studies of BIM implementation, the paper illustrates the benefits realized by project owners and contractors, and illustrates a lack of attention relative to contextual factors affecting the adoption and deployment of BIM. The paper has three main contributions. First, it identifies and discusses the lack of and difficulty surrounding standardized assessment methods for evaluating BIM-enabled projects. Second, it proposes a conceptual model that includes contextual attributes and demonstrates how the proposed framework reaches beyond simple evaluation to encompass the documentation of BIM’s benefits, lessons learned, challenges and adopted solutions. Third, it shows how the framework can account for existing business processes, organizational process assets, and enterprise level factors. The paper aims to provide a conceptual basis for evaluation and a starting point for benchmarking.

Cross-cultural interaction in global business has become standard in design and construction industry. This paper presents lessons learned from a study aimed to determine how different multi-cultural team settings and cultural awareness trigger different conflict situations and influence team dynamics and processes. We build on extant classic mono-cultural studies and extend it to focus on analyzing the influence of different multicultural team settings on global project product and process success. We used empirical data from the 2012 generation of the 19 th AEC Global Teamwork course offered by the PBL Lab at Stanford with partners worldwide. We took an inductive approach integrating qualitative and quantitative methods for date analysis. The paper presents cultural team compilation cases of AEC global student teams that were successful or challenged in producing high quality solutions and achieving effective team processes. The paper discusses findings related to: the relation between nationality and migration backgrounds indicating that mono-culture studies do not suffice to analyze global teamwork; correlation of project outcome and the multicultural team compilation; correlation of cultural awareness and diversity of global team processes towards successful multi-cultural team interaction.

In 2007, following continued dissatisfaction with the lack of cost certainty on publicly funded projects, the Irish Government introduced the Capital Works Management Framework (CWMF). This framework had stated strategic objectives of achieving greater cost certainty at contract award stage; better value for money at all stages during project delivery and, more efficient end-user delivery. The framework, in particular, sought to rebalance risk, so that there was an optimal transfer of risk to the contracting authority and the contractor through the implementation of fixed price contracts. Coinciding with the introduction of the CWMF, there was significant debate around the introduction of Building Information Modelling (BIM) internationally, in assisting with the delivery of greater efficiency and, cost certainty of Public Works Contacts (PWCs). In this paper the authors’ aim was to investigate how best to align the virtues of BIM methodologies with the stated aims of the CWMF. In particular, this paper will focus on the experiences of PWC teams working on two recent pilot projects where lean and BIM technologies were deployed.

With the growing use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) for vertical building projects, the use of BIM in infrastructure projects steadily increases. Construction companies that build infrastructure facilities are expecting the adoption of BIM since they have observed high return on investment (ROI) resulting from BIM for vertical building projects. In this paper, the focus is placed on the utilization of BIM for quality management in highway and bridge construction. A review of the literature on quality information model and quality control process is presented. The application of BIM for quality management is described. The results of pilot study by the authors on the model-driven approach to quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) is reviewed. Finally the issues and obstacles to BIM implementation in the infrastructure sector are discussed. Discussions in this paper are the critical aspects of the utilization of BIM for quality management in infrastructure construction project. Based on the results of this study, great potential of using BIM for quality management in infrastructure projects has been identified. Nonetheless, only limited amount of literature on this topic is currently available. It is believed that this study will set a stepping stone to future research and practice for promoting BIM technology in horizontal construction projects.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is considered as a common language in construction industry projects today. It is rapidly being acknowledged as a driver for change on a global scale. The perceived benefits of BIM by the early adopters and various researches indicate that collaborative BIM approaches help in delivering projects with reduced time, lower cost, higher quality, and greater customer satisfaction. Recent government uptakes and demands for fully collaborative BIM as a requirement in different countries have resulted in a strong interest towards BIM adoption and its uses, creating a huge demand of BIM competent workforce. Thus, there is an accelerated need for upskilling the industry practitioners and educate the future engineers. However, there is a major challenge for academic organizations to embrace BIM in their curricula for educating the future professionals due to lack of skilled BIM educators. Engineering education is still often based on drafting, since most teachers are experts in 2D or 3D modeling, and only few in BIM. The present lack of skilled BIM educators calls for educating the educators and thus becoming acquainted with the BIM processes, concepts and technologies. The present paper presents the current state and strategies of BIM academic integration in the School of Civil Engineering and Building Services (SCEBS) of Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Finland. It describes both an initiation and the results derived from “OpeBIM” (BIM for teachers) implemented to educate the educators. The paper collects the feedback and recommendations provided by the participating educators.

The increasing focus on Building Information Modeling (BIM) enables massive utilization of model checking software. Several software applications, such as Solibri and Navisworks , are applicable with a large list of powerful functions. Existing computer-supported model checking applications are mainly concentrated on verifying various codes and constructability based on as-designed 3D model which derived from 3D design results or 2D drawings. The effectiveness of these kinds of model check largely relies on the accuracy of the as-designed 3D model itself. Unfortunately, rare research is implemented to review the as-designed 3D model and assure information accuracy. This paper develops a systematic approach for BIM model fitness review through predefined standards. Firstly, the paper starts by discussing the need for automated BIM model review and analysing the limitations of existing model checking efforts in this regard. Then, an overview of the proposed BIM Model Fitness Review System (BIM 2 FRS) is provided. Thirdly, the paper presents a case study to validate the BIM 2 FRS. The result shows that: (1) the system can efficiently assess BIM model fitness and support BIM model management; (2) the development of the ABIM 2 R system is still very young; and (3) only limited types of model fitness review are presented.

The transparent practice of involving stakeholders in the decision making process can largely aid in eliminating opposition against sensitive and highly-debated transportation projects. Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), in particular, is able to consider opposing points of view of multiple stakeholders. This paper presents the research done in the realm of MCDA with the objective of identifying the appropriate technique within the MCDA process that can best aid in building consensus among stakeholders. The work is done by examining a number of widespread techniques used at each MCDA step through its application to a real-case study. Assessing stakeholders' perceptions of each of these techniques is conducted throughout the analysis process. After presenting the case study decision context and the application of the MCDA techniques results in detail, the paper concludes with matrix recommendations for building consensus via MCDA. The research finds weight elicitation via pairwise comparison, scaling via modeling and utility function, and amalgamation via the probabilistic impact index method perform best with regards to providing confidence and building consensus among stakeholders.

Rail transport has and continues to play a key role in the movement of goods and passengers in many countries around the world including Nigeria. However, while rail transport continues to enjoy relative importance in terms of investment, growth and contribution to the national economy in several countries, it has suffered neglect and relegation in Nigeria, resulting in a decline in its modal share contribution. Particularly, in the last decades following independence, not much has been achieved in terms of structural transformation of the Nigerian Railways. However there are new developments and investment on rail and some measures are being put in place to revive the Nigerian rail transport system. Old and unused railways are being modernised, rehabilitated, commissioned and brought into service. Therefore, it is vitally important to understand and analyse the performance criteria that can be applied in measuring and managing the Nigerian rail sub-sector. Currently this measurement criteria has not being established. The focus of this paper is on identifying Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the Nigerian rail sub-sector. The KPIs that have been identified in this paper following the performance measurement framework, can be used to measure the performance of the rail subsector and eventually guide the further development of rail transport in Nigeria, in the sense that the KPIs will assist in identifying key areas for improvement in the sector and also serve as a guide for transport policy makers in making decisions. The KPIs presented in this paper have been categorised into: Safety; Security; Environmental pollution; Internal Business perspective; Financial perspective; Intermodal perspective; Innovation and Learning perspective and Customer Satisfaction.

This paper takes another look at high-speed rail in the United States. Faster rail service will become more important as the nation's population grows, traffic congestion increases, and air space becomes more overcrowded. National interest in faster intercity rail service is growing, especially in corridors up to 400 miles. The paper explores various options for faster rail services that range from full-fledge high speed rail (HSR) with top speeds up to 200 mph to more modest speeds (HrSr) with incremental improvements to existing lines with top speeds up to 110 to 125 mph. It contains a level of service concept that is consistent with Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) track classes. Key factors that are essential for HSR and HrSr are discussed. They include markets, physical environments, costs, and public policy. The more promising projects have these factors mutually reinforcing each other. They have major anchors at both ends of a line, good intermediate markets, and suitable rights-of-way. Within this context, the paper identifies promising corridors. They include the HSR and HrSr corridors under development in California, the Northeast Corridor, and possible corridors in the Midwest, Florida, Texas and the Pacific Northwest.

Technology Transfer (T2) centre is a repository for information about technologies and resources from appropriate technology to good practice. Despite the availability of numerous transportation technologies and innovative practices developed in various countries, much of these are not known outside the country of development. The objective of this paper is to discuss the innovations and strategies adopted in the establishment of T2 centre in Botswana to train and develop transportation engineering professionals. The Establishment of Botswana Transportation T2 Centre came to reality in June, 2004 as a tripartite arrangement between the Ministry of Transport and Communication; the Faculty of Engineering and Technology, University of Botswana; and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) of the United States of America. The mission of the centre is to improve the quality of transportation by having a well-maintained and an efficient transportation system through dissemination of highway technological information and training of both stakeholders and road users. Aims and objectives of the Botswana T2 centre are to facilitate technology transfer through dissemination of relevant best practice in all aspects of transportation; promote research and training of professionals in the transport sector; enhance traffic safety and public welfare of transport users; foster economical, efficient and environmentally sound transportation systems. In conclusion, the paper highlights the outcome of establishing T2 Centre to train and develop transportation engineering professionals through improved technology transfer activities and beneficial uptake of the practice in transportation technology leading to a more efficient and competitive transportation system.

During a period of nearly three decades from the 1950s to the 1970s at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne, Professor Ven Te Chow made a large number of major technical contributions that changed the landscape of hydrology, hydraulics, and water resources engineering. These contributions encompass a broad spectrum of areas, including (1) deterministic hydrology, (2) stochastic hydrology, (3) open-channel hydraulics, and (4) water resources. In addition, he greatly contributed to the advancement of the entire water resources area through education, supervision of outstanding graduate students, mentoring of junior colleagues, technology transfer by consulting and lecturing, editorships of journals and book series, organization and direction of conferences, professional service, and founding of International Association of Water Resources. This paper reflects on Chow’s contributions and concludes that our profession and we indeed are better off today, because Chow graced the profession for three decades. He was an outstanding scholar, an extraordinary researcher, a renowned educator, and a water resources engineer par excellence. His accomplishments have inspired generations of water resources professionals. The paper is concluded with a personal note.

The design-build (DB) delivery system has been gaining popularity in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry, in part due to the performance benefits it can offer to project stakeholders. Studies have been conducted to quantify these performance benefits, in terms of commonly used metrics that include unit cost, cost growth, delivery speed, schedule growth, and project quality. This paper summarizes and organizes the construction literature that quantifies the differences in performance between DB and the more traditional design-bid-build (DBB) delivery system, in terms of project cost, schedule and quality. The paper discusses these findings in a meta-analysis format, to uncover patterns, trends, or possible differences in the results. Interestingly, the study reveals that despite several research efforts, few present statistically significant comparative results for all key performance metrics. The paper contributes to the body of knowledge by summarizing two decades of DB performance research and identifying the range of project performance values that can be achieved using DB, which allows for an improved understanding of DB performance.

Value Engineering (VE) is frequently applied to construction projects for better project scope recognition and for elimination of unnecessary cost without impacting the functional requirements of individual components of constructed facilities. A critical phase in the application of value engineering is the evaluation of generated alternatives based on the defined criteria for that purpose. Limited work has been carried out for the automation of this process but yet without adequate visualization for the components being considered. This paper presents an automated model for design professionals, owners and members of VE teams to evaluate and compare different design alternatives of project components using multi-attributed criteria as well as integrating that model with visualization capabilities to assist designers and stakeholders in making related decisions. The Analytic Hierarchy Process is used to develop a multi-attributed decision support model for evaluating competing alternatives. The model is then integrated with BIM model to provide visualization capabilities and assist in cost estimating of the project components being considered. A prototype model that integrates the project BIM model with RSMeans cost data and AHP has been developed. The model has been applied to a case project and evaluates and ranks generated alternatives in its output report. BACKGROUND Value engineering can be described as an integrated problem solving management function; embracing, design alternatives, cost estimating and project driven objectives structured in a suitable selection criteria. It utilizes quantitative methods and knowledge based decisions to improve owners’ job satisfaction and help reduce unnecessary cost. (SAVE, 2007). VE brings an opportunity for owners and stakeholders of constructed facilities to participate in design development and to cooperate in decision making process to select the best project alternative that fulfill their targeted objectives. (CSVE, 2012). The value methodology is commonly applied under the names Value Analysis (VA), Value Engineering (VE), and Value Management (VM) which are used interchangeably in this paper (SAVE, 2007). To identify unnecessary cost that does not satisfy quality, technical and/or functional requirements, VE provides a well-organized procedure to recognize, document and analyze the problems (Miles, 1972). The use of functional analysis to tackle the problems, distinguishes this method from other value improvement

The “Parade of Trades” simulation is a well-known educational tool that illustrates the effect of dependence and variation on the performance of a production process. The “Parade of Trades” illustrates that when the production variability of interdependent trades increases, both the project duration and the trades’ production losses increase. This paper describes and demonstrates an enhancement of the “Parade of Trades” simulation. The enhancement involves assigning a cost to reflect the cost of planning for different levels of variability. The addition of this parameter makes it possible to use the Parade game to explore new issues: (1) The relation between planning costs, delays and production losses; and (2) the distribution of planning effort and benefits among the process participants. The paper describes the rules of the modified game and simulates different strategies in a computer model. Such strategies involve decisions to increase the planning in order to reduce variability. The simulations demonstrate alternatives scenarios and evaluate the cost of planning against the benefits of reduced waste and delays for the different project trades. As a result, the Parade of Trades is used to raise several issues related to the costs and benefits of increased reliability, the allocation of planning costs and benefits between the participants, and the need to align the trades’ planning efforts with the project interests. This increases the value of the Parade of Trades as an educational tool.

The level of automation in the construction industry stands in stark contrast to other engineering industries such as automobile manufacturing wherein most of the tasks are done by machines with minimal oversight from human operators. This disparity can be attributed to the distinctive nature of construction vis-a-vis manufacturing: customized projects, uncontrolled outdoor work sites, and necessary collaboration between disparate entities. New approaches to control are required to address these challenges. This paper introduces such a novel method that enables the automation of entire construction operations by using discrete event simulation models to orchestrate and actuate robots on the construction site. It is hypothesized that the adoption of this method would enable hitherto unexperienced levels of operation productivity and quality, cost and time savings, as well as reduction in safety incidents on construction work sites. A preliminary demonstration of the orchestration of small scale electronically operated equipment models in the real world using a DES model is also presented in this paper.

In order to gain deep insight into the underlying causation and identify correspondent management strategies in the prevention of construction workers’ unsafe behaviors, a conceptual system dynamics model was proposed. The paper mainly focuses on the confidence building of the model through model testing, which basically contains tests of model structure, model behavior and model’s policy implication. The conceptual model is quantified first before the formal process of model tests. Second, the paper applies semi-structured interviews for the structure-verification test to ensure the model’s appropriateness in depicting the structure of the real system. Third, tests of model behavior such as extreme-condition tests and behavior-reproduction tests are conducted, so as to demonstrate the plausibility of the patterns and behaviors the model generates. Fourth, model’s policy implication tests are presented to examine whether the model’s responses to predesigned policies are consistent with the real system. As a result, the model shows confidence in revealing the underlying causation of unsafe behaviors, which can be used as reference to the routine safety management in practice. Further suggestions for the application of the model as a tool of simulation in real construction projects are also given.

Meeting the national infrastructure challenges will require that an answer to the question posed by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE): "How can the processes be more effective, more quality conscious, more flexible, simpler, and less expensive?" In this paper, the authors share one approach to identify solutions meeting the "simpler" characteristic of NAE's question. Through an interdisciplinary literature review, the authors characterize "elegant" solutions—those that meet user needs with minimal complexity. Whereas elegance can appear simple in hindsight, it represents a deeper understanding of the actual problem. As with other project outcomes, elegance is dependent on infrastructure project delivery processes: an owner who contracts with a designer to provide a reduction in traffic is encouraging a more elegant solution than an owner who specifies that the designer must add an additional lane. Behavioral scientists have developed choice architecture theory, which is being applied to improve decision processes in fields from medicine to law to finance. The authors believe choice architecture also could be used to arrange infrastructure delivery processes to encourage elegance. The authors describe the reasoning by connecting behavioral science theory and common infrastructure project delivery scenarios. The authors hope this paper begins a discussion to identify and motivate future research in this area.

With the development of high-speed railway construction, existing services cost generally high, delivery time long, poor services quality, affecting the lifting Materials distribution service level of China Railway. In this paper, in order to improve the scientific decision making in China Railway Materials Distribution System, making reference to relevant research field of the latest achievements, research on the Materials Distribution related decision problems. In this paper, the comparative analysis of the railway logistics operation mode is to be done, put forward index system of "mode selection better", and then with the traditional AHP and TOPSIS method, operation mode optimization model is improved and constructed based on GAHP and GTOPSIS. Research shows that, the system of railway Materials Distribution, the selection of service operation mode is practical, effective, can help enterprises to choose the best operation mode that match their needs.

North America has an aging fleet of coal plants which contain substantial ductwork systems. This ductwork is exposed to harsh conditions associated with plant operations and environmental conditions. These harsh conditions increase risk of metallurgical deterioration over time. This paper will discuss the effects of high temperature operations and the resulting graphitization effects within ductwork. Graphitization is the breakdown of the material’s metallurgical microstructure, thus forming a weakened failure path. There have been documented failures in coal fired power plants due to graphitization which have caused plant shutdowns and injuries to personnel. Currently, there is no industry consensus document providing information on the formation of graphitization and how to combat this problem. Multiple individual reports and technical papers on graphitization and its effects have been written in the past 50 years, the formation of a single source document outlining guides and standards would be beneficial to the power industry. The primary goal of this report will be to condense the relevant industry information on this topic into a summary, discussing the formation characteristics of graphitization. Additionally, the report will provide technical information on the graphitization process including critical components, design considerations, and inspection and remediation methods to correct possible existing conditions. Through research of top industry documents, it has been concluded that the effects of graphitization need to be closely considered and monitored as temperatures exceed 800⁰F. Temperatures below 800⁰F may experience graphitization, but at such a marginal rate that it can be neglected over the design service life. By providing a single location outlining the formation characteristics of graphitization, engineers will benefit from standardized procedures for the inspection, analysis and design of existing and new hot-side ductwork components, thus, yielding improved consistency and product quality.

Designers working on historic bridge rehabilitation projects deal with conflicting objectives: rehabilitate and update the structure to meet current design codes and functional requirements or uphold the historic form, nature, and function of the structure. However, the requirements to satisfy each objective may be mutually exclusive. One obstacle commonly encountered is that current seismic code provisions were not required or even understood for 19th century bridges. In rehabilitating the bridge to meet current seismic requirements, it may not be possible to maintain the historic form of the structure. At a certain point, the question arises as to how much can be changed before the structure loses its overall historic nature. If a bridge is no longer truly "historic", is the added expense justified in comparison to replacement? In other words, does a shell of an historic bridge satisfy the requirements for maintaining an historic bridge with just its original form but not true function? Is that bridge still considered "historic"? When is an historic bridge no longer an historic bridge? This paper will discuss and introduce the problem of historic bridge rehabilitation in general terms, and then present some examples. The paper concludes with a discussion addressing the title question and the tradeoffs.

As a key component of the urban passenger transport system, taxi vehicles provide all-weather, convenient, and comfortable direct service for passengers. Due to the frequent starts and long time lower speed operation, taxi vehicles' air pollutant emissions have been increasing, which has seriously affected the urban overall environment and urban residents' physical and mental health. This paper attempts to establish a modeling framework for alleviating and managing air pollutants emission for urban taxi vehicles. In accordance with the idea of "data mining → emission factors choosing → pollution distribution → pollution diffusion → emission reduction strategies," by means of Global Positioning System and Geographic Information System, the paper analyzes urban taxi vehicles' air pollutants emissions real-time distribution and diffusion in the urban road network. Through adoption of emission reduction strategies, taxi survey and transportation policies, the aim is to reduce taxi vehicles' pollution emissions and improve urban environmental air quality. This framework will be helpful for optimizing taxi operating efficiency, reducing air pollution emissions and improving air quality, which has an important theoretical significance and practical value.

The €3.2 billion Danish "Signalling Programme" is one of the largest railway modernizations in the world to provide a total replacement of the signalling systems in Denmark. This paper focuses on the potential benefits to be delivered to the passengers, such as improved punctuality and increased capacity, by implementing advanced train control systems on both the main lines rail network (Fjernbane) and the Copenhagen suburban rail network (S-bane). The main lines network will be fitted with the European standard train control system: ERTMS Level 2, while the Copenhagen S-bane network will be fitted with a Communication Based Train Control (CBTC) system using Automatic Train Operation (ATO). This paper also focuses on the possibility of implementing automatic driving operation (ATO) to the ERTMS level 2 solution for regional and high speed lines.

This paper examines the fuel-cycle passenger-mile emissions from multiple bus and rail technologies using a travel-activity-based bottom-up approach. There is abundant literature on transit's emissions savings, but most prior studies rely on the top-down fuel consumption approach. While the top-down approach paints a broad picture of transit emissions on a national or regional level, it cannot reflect changes in emissions as a function of operational characteristics such as passenger loading. It is also difficult to estimate passenger-mile emissions of new vehicle/fuel technologies for which fuel economy data are hard to obtain using the top-down approach. This paper develops a unified load-based methodology framework that compares fuel-cycle passenger-mile emissions across transit technologies, including alternative fuels and advanced technologies. The methodology reflects the intricate trade-offs between the increased total emissions and decreased passenger-mile emissions as passenger load increases under specific local meteorological and route settings. Using the load-based methodology, the paper demonstrates the varying levels of emissions savings of transit fuels and technologies giving different passenger loadings scenarios. The methodology presented in this paper serves as the foundation of a transit emissions calculator currently under development. The calculator will prove instrumental for local transit agencies to compare fuel/technology alternatives in terms of emissions savings.