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Accurate assessment of a project's progress enables managers to control and manage costs and schedule. Automating the processes to monitor and inspect the progress of works in construction, and ensure that the data acquired and retrieved are able to produce an accurate ‘as-built’ model is an issue that has received ubiquitous attention in the literature. Emphasis has been placed on utilizing technologies such as mobile augmented reality, laser scanners, and computer visions to monitor and control physical objects that possess geometrical properties. Connected systems such as Electrical, Instrumentation and Control Systems (EICS), however, do not possess geometrical properties and as a result have been overlooked, receiving limited attention. This paper utilizes a digital System Information Model (SIM) to enable a project control system based on human-machine interactions, to be developed, in order to monitor progress during the construction of connected systems. By incorporating the design, schedules, activities, and tasks into a digital, cloud-based model, the system enables different parties involved in a project to synchronously work together. Information can be recorded, distributed and shared in real-time therefore significantly improving decision-making, the approvals process, and management of information. A SIM is discipline-specific and there is a need to ensure its interoperability with building information modeling software. Therefore, a bi-directional link between the SIM and the project's overall schedule and three-dimensional model needs to be developed in the future.

Rail infrastructure that operates at its optimum will be economical and sustainable and thus positively contribute to the productivity and competitiveness of an economy. The health of rail infrastructure, however, needs to be monitored, measured and maintained, which falls within the remit of asset managers who are often charged with balancing costs, opportunities and risks against the desired performance of the assets and their respective systems at varying levels. Having appropriate and reliable information about an asset is pivotal for enabling asset management to support decision-making, planning and execution of activities and tasks of assets, particularly during operations and maintenance. But, having access to the right information at the right time, has been and remains a pervasive problem, hinders an asset owner’s ability to ensure their rail infrastructure performance is being optimized. A new approach to facilitate the acquisition and integration of information to support digital asset management (DAM) for rail infrastructure is presented. The research uses a case study to empirically assess the quality of ‘as-built’ documentation for electrical systems of Bayswater railway station that forms an integral part of the Forrestfield Airport Linkage project, in Perth Western Australia. Errors, omissions and information redundancy contained within the existing ‘as-built’ documentation is quantified. Then, a case for the adoption of a Systems Information Model is put forward as the rail industry moves toward a digital future and seeks to future-proof their assets and networks.

The evaluation and optimization of the carrying capacity of urban resources and environment is an important basis for sustainable development of cities and society. The change of urban space scale indicates that serious unbalance crisis of urban space distribution is hidden behind the rapid development. This paper aims to provide a brand-new way for meeting the unbalance characteristics when evaluating carrying capacity of resource and environment. Firstly, an analysis on the unbalance characteristics of urban development was conducted for providing a foundation for this research. Secondly, the thought of urban grid and finite element analysis were introduced to this study. As a result, a conceptual framework was designed for evaluating resources and environment carrying capacity (RECC) under the unbalance condition. This conceptual framework includes four steps, which are construction of basic database, the division of urban grid and the mechanical analysis of RECC, finite element analysis of urban unit grid, and integration of RECC. A detailed introduction of the whole process was provided. The research results will provide an innovative idea for the evaluation of urban RECCs. It can also inspire urban managers to proceed from the status quo and make full use of urban resource and environmental systems.

In this study, a three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) model of multiple-tendon fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) cable-anchor system (CAS) was established to reveal the stress and deformation of an FRP cable. The model was firstly validated by the previous experimental results. The failure mechanism of FRP cable was clarified through FE analysis. Three types of optimizations, including changing the spacing of the FRP tendons, conducting the radial variable stiffness of the load transfer component (LTC) and changing the inner cone form of the anchorage, were conducted to improve anchor behavior. For FRP tendons, the radial compressive stress, as well as the relative radial displacements, were found to be nearly identical at different positions. An evident uneven axial tensile stress was observed for both the intra- and inter-tendon scenarios, in which the maximum axial tensile stress occurred in the outermost layer tendon. The failure of the FRP cable was dominated by the excessive tension-bending stress and radial compressive stress at the loading end. Applying radial variable-stiffness LTC was found to be the most effective method, and was validated in different tendon diameters and number of tendons.

The quality of information contained in tender documentation produced using Computer-Aided-Design (CAD) and provided in a hard-copy format to an electrical engineering contractor for a port expansion facility, which formed an integral part of an Iron Ore mega-project is analyzed. A System Information Model (SIM), which is an object oriented approach, was retrospectively constructed from the documentation provided to assist the contractor with their tender bid preparation. During the creation of the SIM, a total of 426 errors and omissions were found to be contained within the 77 tender ‘drawing’ documents supplied to the contractor by an Engineering, Construction, Procurement and Management (EPCM). Surprisingly, 70 drawings referenced in the tender documentation, and the Input/Output lists and Cause/Effect drawings were not provided. Yet, the electrical contractor was required by the EPCM organization to provide a lump sum bid and also guarantee the proposed schedule would be met; the financial risks were too high and as a result the contractor decided not to submit a bid. It is suggested that if the original tender documentation had been prepared using a SIM rather than CAD, the quality of information presented to the contractor would have enabled them to submit a competitive bid for the works. The research concludes that the economic performance and productivity of mining projects can be significantly improved by using a SIM to engineer and document electrical instrumentation and control (EIC) systems.

Low productivity levels have contributed to the cost and schedule overruns that have plagued the construction of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) processing facilities in Australia. Traditional paper based methods such as Computer-Aided-Design have been relied upon to create, manage, store and retrieve information throughout each phase of a project's lifecycle for Electrical, Instrumentation and Control Systems (EICS). As a result of utilizing CAD to document (e.g., specifications, and ‘as-builts’) ECIS, the propensity for errors, omissions and information redundancy to occur, significantly increases. Attending to issues of this nature during the construction of a facility can result in scope changes, losses in productivity, and increases in project costs. Using a case study, this paper examines the nature of the documentation produced to up-grade a domestic gas metering system that formed an integral part of a LNG plant's production process. Issues hindering productivity during the production of the documentation, communication and information exchanges, and change management involved with the deliver of the EICS are presented. In addressing problems identified in the case study, it is suggested that EICS for an LNG plant should be digitized (i.e process of converting information into a digital format) using a Systems Information Model to ensure effective and efficient production and management of information throughout its lifecycle, and contribute towards safeguarding the assets integrity.

Governments in Australia place great emphasis on the development and expansion of their rail networks to improve productivity and service the increasing needs and demands from businesses and commuters. A case study approach is used to analyze the cost performance of 16 rail projects constructed by a contractor between 2011 and 2014, which ranged from AU$3.4 to AU$353 million. Findings indicate that scope changes during construction were the key contributors that lead to the amendment of each project’s original contractual value. As a result, there is a need for public and private sector asset owners to establish a cost contingency using a probabilistic rather than a deterministic approach to accommodate the potential for scope changes during construction. To improve cost certainty during the construction of rail projects, it is suggested that use of collaborative forms of procurement juxtaposed with the use of Building Information Modelling and Systems Information Modelling are implemented. The utilization of such technological and process innovations can provide public and private sector asset owners charged with delivering and maintaining their rail networks with confidence projects can be delivered within budget and are resilient to unexpected events and adaptable to changing needs, uses or capacities.

In this study, an optimized anchor system to enhance the anchor performance of multiple-tendon fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) cables was proposed and evaluated. The manufacture of the cable...

Architectural heritages, especially heritages of tourism, were destroyed in the process of urban reconstruction of China because of lacking protection from stakeholders. Therefore, there is an urgent need to identify the critical stakeholders to perform the responsibility of protection. The paper, focusing on architectural heritage of tourism, aims to identify the most important stakeholders for making them realize their critical roles in maintaining architectural heritages. Moreover, this paper also aims to evaluate the enthusiasm of stakeholders. As a result, the stakeholders with high importance and enthusiasm would be the critical stakeholders in maintaining architectural heritages. Thirteen stakeholders were selected through comprehensive literature review and the reality of China. A questionnaire survey was conducted with the qualified respondents in Mainland China. A five-point Likert scale and other statistical methods were used for achieving the results of evaluation. The findings demonstrated local government, central government, real estate development enterprise, expert groups, administration of architectural heritage protection, and construction company of architectural heritage are considered as the critical stakeholders for the sustainable development (SD) of architectural heritage of tourism. Finally, some helpful implications were introduced for improving the efficiency of participation and cooperation among all stakeholders.

Quality of CAD generated 'As-built' documentation is evaluated for a High Voltage Switchgear System.CAD drawings are used to create a Systems Information Model.Significant errors, omissions and information redundancy identified in the CAD drawings.CAD drawings took 10,680 man-h to develop compared to 80 man-h required to construct a SIM.A SIM should be to design and document electrical control instrumentation systems. The quality of computer-aided-design (CAD) generated 'As-built' documentation is evaluated for a High Voltage Switchgear System (HVSS), which forms part of a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition up-grade within a geo-thermal power plant. A total of 267 CAD drawings for the HVSS were used to create a Systems Information Model (SIM) whereby the physical components and associated connections were constructed in an object orientated database. Throughout the modelling process a considerable amount of errors and information redundancy were identified and examples are presented. The production of the CAD drawings took 10,680 man-h in stark contrast to the 80 man-h required to construct the SIM, illustrating the efficiency and effectiveness of SIM compared to CAD for the documentation of electrical instrumentation and control systems (EICS). To realise this significant potential cost and productivity saving requires a shift in mindset and a move beyond the use of CAD, to an object oriented SIM, with a 1:1 relationship between objects in the model, and components in the real world.

The electrical instrumentation control systems (EICS) ‘As-built’ documentations of a copper mine were found to possess a significant errors and omissions, which hindered the asset owner’s ability to undertake effective and efficient operations and maintenance. A Systems Information Model (SIM) was used to retrospectively create a connected system to ensure all physical equipment and the associated connections that were constructed are modelled in an object-orientated database. In creating the SIM, the existing errors and omissions in the ‘As-built’ documentation were quantified, and cost savings that could be achieved for a future planned copper mine, with a similar design, were identified. The limitations of using conventional computer-aided-design (CAD) to design and document EICS are discussed. It is recommended that retrospectively creating a SIM can provide owners and operators with significant productivity benefits as well as ensure the asset’s integrity. The case study presented provides asset owners and operators with the empirical evidence to challenge conventional thinking surrounding the design, engineering and documentation of EICS using CAD and alternatively consider the use of SIM.

A quadratic assignment problem (QAP), which is a combinatorial optimisation problem, is developed to model the problem of locating facilities with material flows between them. The aim of solving the QAP formulation for a facility layout problem (FLP) is to increase a system’s operating efficiency by reducing material handling costs, which can be measured by interdepartmental distances and flows. The QAP-formulated FLP can be viewed as a discrete optimisation problem, where the quadratic objective function is optimised with respect to discrete decision variables subject to linear equality constraints. The conventional approach for solving this discrete optimisation problem is to use the linearisation of the quadratic objective function whereby additional discrete variables and constraints are introduced. The adoption of the linearisation process can result in a significantly increased number of variables and constraints; solving the resulting problem can therefore be challenging. In this paper, a new appro...

The mining industry in Australia is in a period of intense introspection as it seeks to improve its productivity and competitiveness in global markets. With mining projects experiencing increasing overruns on capital expenditure, there is a need to re-examine existing business practices to address the prevailing productivity crisis that the industry is experiencing. In addressing this issue, within the context of electrical instrumentation and control systems (EICS), a case study that examines the development of a systems information model (SIM) to improve productivity during the engineering, construction, maintenance, and operations processes of a magnetite iron ore processing plant is presented and discussed. By transforming the established document oriented information exchanges that are typically used in EICS projects to a more collaborative data-sharing environment, processes were streamlined and errors, as a result of duplication and inconsistency, were significantly prevented from occurring. While still working within the restriction of discipline-specific models, the creation of a SIM is the first step towards an integrated and interoperable data without a reliance on drawings.

As the creators of the external benefits of prefabricated construction implementation, the government, real estate developers, and homebuyers have the right to allocate the external benefits. However, there is no effective quantitative method for achieving this goal. Therefore, this study aims to develop a quantitative analysis model for the reasonable allocation of the external benefits among the creators. The externality theory and bargaining theory were introduced to this study as the research foundation. Through literature review, the environmental benefit quantification index was defined. A bargaining model including Game 1 and Game 2 was designed for determining the external benefits allocation ratios for each player. In Game 1, the government was considered as the agent of homebuyers to conduct the bargaining game with real estate developers. Game 2 reflected the bargaining game process between the government and homebuyers for sharing the ratio of external benefits achieved from Game 1. The powerful position in bargaining game and discount factors of each player were considered as the critical factors influencing the distribution ratio because the value will change with the development of prefabricated construction. A prefabricated construction building was selected as a case to illustrate the applicability of this proposed model. The distribution result is that the government, the real estate developers, and homebuyers should share the external benefits of prefabrication implementation by 38%, 35%, and 27% respectively. This study contributes to aiding the creators to achieve optimal benefits allocation and thus motivates the enthusiasm of practitioners in prefabricated construction implementation.

The construction of rural residential buildings has a great impact on the achievement of sustainable countryside. It needs a cleaner construction method. This study argues that prefabrication should be adopted in rural areas, but different strategies should be designed based on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). This issue has not been involved in previous studies. This paper aims to design a model for determining the suitable strategy of prefabrication implementation. Twelve factors affecting the prefabrication implementation were firstly identified for SWOT analysis, including prefabricated construction standards, ecological benefits, transportation capacity, and so on. A strategy selection model expressed by strategic vector (θ, ρ) was then designed, in which strategic azimuth (θ) determines the strategy type and intensity coefficient (ρ) determines the attitudes that should be taken to the selected strategy. Four types of strategies (aggressing, pioneering, reverse, and avoidant) and two development intensities (conservative and proactive) were summarized. The model was substantiated in a village of Jinan as a case. It was identified that aggressing strategy with conservative attitude is the optimal strategy to the current conditions in rural Jinan. The developed model can be adopted by other rural areas for devising their suitable prefabrication development strategies.

Optimizing construction project scheduling has received a considerable amount of attention over the past 20 years. As a result, a plethora of methods and algorithms have been developed to address specific scenarios or problems. A review of the methods and algorithms that have been developed to examine the area of construction schedule optimization (CSO) is undertaken. The developed algorithms for solving the CSO problem can be classified into three methods: mathematical, heuristic and metaheuristic. The application of these methods to various scheduling problems is discussed and implications for future research are identified.

P. E. D. Love, Ph.D., D.Sc.; J. Zhou, Ph.D.; J. Matthews, Ph.D.; C.-P. Sing, Ph.D., M.ASCE; O. Olatunji, Ph.D.; and B. Carey, Ph.D. John Curtin Distinguished Professor, School of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Curtin Univ., GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia (corresponding author). E-mail: p.love@curtin.edu.au ARC Research Fellow, School of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Curtin Univ., GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia. E-mail: zjyhit@gmail.com Associate Professor, School of Built Environment, Curtin Univ., GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia. E-mail: jane.matthews@curtin.edu .au Senior Lecturer, School of Built Environment, Curtin Univ., GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia. E-mail: Michael.sing@curtin.edu .au Lecturer, School of Built Environment, Curtin Univ., GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia. E-mail: Oluwole.Olatunji@curtin.edu.au Lecturer, School of Built Environment, Curtin Univ., GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia. E-mail: brad.carey@curtin.edu.au