Search

Equipment replacement policies have a decisive effect on overall project cost and the achieved profit from construction equipment work. Equipment managers need to predict the resale value of the equipment to an acceptable level of accuracy to make the right decisions concerning equipment replacement. This research focuses on determining the factors affecting the resale value of construction equipment, then using analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and statistical analysis process, those factors were ranked according to their impact on the equipment resale value. Preliminary list of factors affecting the resale value was determined from previous research. The preliminary list contained fourteen factors. Then brainstorm sessions organized for a focus group of experts to discuss the factors affecting the resale value of construction equipment, and to finalize the list of factors. The final list of factors contained eighteen factors that have an influence on the resale value. Factors are classified into five major categories. A questionnaire was developed using the factors, then one hundred experts from private, public companies and consultant offices were consulted about the factors and their impact on the equipment resale value. This research represents those factors and their relative impact on the resale value of equipment.

The focus of this research is to develop a sustainability index for Egyptian highways construction projects that assist highways engineers, mangers and highways agencies to develop sustainable design, construction, operation and maintenance processes for highways. It acts as a sustainable measurement tool for highways construction and maintenance practices to determine the achieved performance of sustainability in the highways construction projects represented by an index. This index reflexes the implementation amount of sustainable choices used throw the highways construction process and even more in the maintenance process. A review on recent studies and available tools on highways sustainability covered to develop appropriate parameters for the indexing model and avoidance of non-compatible parameters with the Egyptian highways nature then performing questionnaire on these model parameters to obtain optimum sustainable choices. In order to get reliable results correlation and reliability analysis performed on the data then extracting the most effective parameters according to Pareto concept then making pairwise comparison questionnaire serving AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) requirements to obtain the weights of each parameter in the model. A scorecard for the indexing model developed to get rating system. Case studies presented to demonstrate the use of the sustainability index for Egyptian highways construction projects. Keywords: Sustainability, Highways, Index, Sustainability index, Evaluation model, Analytical hierarchy process, Rating system

Performing risk management in construction industry has a potential effect on project success. Achieving schedule, cost, quality and other objectives are highly dependent on applying an effective risk management approach. The main purpose of this study is to construct a specific risk management framework for managing Continuous Flight Auger (CFA) piles construction in the Egyptian working conditions to uncover the potential risk categories facing this work package, identifying their causes, behavior of occurrence and effect on project objectives. The identified risks are then prioritized to focus on the most effective elements to optimize risk responses. The study went through planning proactive and/or reactive risk responses for high and moderate risks to enhance positive risks (opportunities) and reduce negative risks (threats) so that the project can smoothly achieve the needs for which it was undertaken. The structured framework will be integrated later with the previously developed time and cost estimating modules to develop an Integrated Management Model (IMM) for (CFA) piles construction to provide more accurate risk data and consequently more reliable time and cost estimates. The framework was presented to a sample of specialized performing organizations to be applied in their projects where the feedback shows a cost and schedule reduction based on considering this framework as a guide to manage risks in their (CFA) projects. Keywords: Construction management, Construction equipment, CFA piles, Deep foundations, Equipment risks, Equipment management, Piles construction, Risk management

Continuous Flight Auger (CFA) piling is widely used in the Egyptian construction industry. There is a dramatic fluctuation in pricing of executing this work package within short periods as a result of unsteady changes in supply-demand equilibrium. Consequently, there is an urgent need for the use of a scientific approach in estimating construction costs. Accordingly, it is crucial to consider the different cost elements of CFA piling construction as a step to reach an accurate and realistic cost estimate to be used by contractors in tendering. This research aims to study these cost elements based on an expert judgment, site observations and statistical analysis in order to develop an effective tool to estimate the total construction cost of the CFA piles in any future project. Expert survey was performed to draw detailed information to construct a cost breakdown structure (CBS) that was used as a basis for developing the proposed cost model. The developed cost model is then validated through the application on fifty two projects. Such projects were carefully selected in different sizes, purposes and locations. Then the collected data were exposed to statistical analysis techniques. An average percentage error of 4.1% was observed upon comparing the estimated costs with the actual costs of these projects. A sensitivity analysis was then performed to recognize the most effective cost factors. The developed recommended model was used by some experienced contractors in the Egyptian market who expressed their satisfaction with the model.

Earned value management (EVM) was originally developed for cost management and has not widely been used for forecasting project duration. In addition, EVM based formulas for cost or schedule forecasting are still deterministic and do not provide any information about the range of possible outcomes and the probability of meeting the project objectives. The objective of this paper is to develop three models to forecast the estimated duration at completion. Two of these models are deterministic; earned value (EV) and earned schedule (ES) models. The third model is a probabilistic model and developed based on Kalman filter algorithm and earned schedule management. Hence, the accuracies of the EV, ES and Kalman Filter Forecasting Model (KFFM) through the different project periods will be assessed and compared with the other forecasting methods such as the Critical Path Method (CPM), which makes the time forecast at activity level by revising the actual reporting data for each activity at a certain data date. A case study project is used to validate the results of the three models. Hence, the best model is selected based on the lowest average percentage of error. The results showed that the KFFM developed in this study provides probabilistic prediction bounds of project duration at completion and can be applied through the different project periods with smaller errors than those observed in EV and ES forecasting models.