Research Progress and Prospects of Total Factor Productivity in the Construction Industry

The high-quality development of the construction industry fundamentally stems from the significant improvement of total factor productivity.Therefore,it is of crucial significance for promoting the development of the construction industry to a higher level by scientifically and accurately measuring the total factor productivity of the construction industry and deeply analyzing the influencing factors behind it.Based on a comprehensive consideration of research methods and influencing factors,this paper systematically reviews the existing relevant literature on total factor productivity in the construction industry,aiming to reveal the current research development trend in this field and point out potential problems.This effort aims to provide a solid theoretical foundation and valuable reference for further in-depth research,and jointly promote the continuous progress and development of total factor productivity research in the construction industry.

A Building Information Modeling-Life Cycle Cost Analysis Integrated Model to Enhance Decisions Related to the Selection of Construction Methods at the Conceptual Design Stage of Buildings

Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) provides a systematic approach to assess the total cost associated with owning, operating, and maintaining assets throughout their entire life. BIM empowers architects and designers to perform real-time evaluations to explore various design options. However, when integrated with LCCA, BIM provides a comprehensive economic perspective that helps stakeholders understand the long-term financial implications of design decisions. This study presents a methodology for developing a model that seamlessly integrates BIM and LCCA during the conceptual design stage of buildings. This integration allows for a comprehensive evaluation and analysis of the design process, ensuring that the development aligns with the principles of low carbon emissions by employing modular construction, 3D concrete printing methods, and different building design alternatives. The model considers the initial construction costs in addition to all the long-term operational, maintenance, and salvage values. It combines various tools and data through different modules, including energy analysis, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) to execute a comprehensive assessment of the financial implications of a specific design option throughout the lifecycle of building projects. The development of the said model and its implementation involves the creation of a new plug-in for the BIM tool (i.e., Autodesk Revit) to enhance its functionalities and capabilities in forecasting the life-cycle costs of buildings in addition to generating associated cash flows, creating scenarios, and sensitivity analyses in an automatic manner. This model empowers designers to evaluate and justify their initial investments while designing and selecting potential construction methods for buildings, and enabling stakeholders to make informed decisions by assessing different design alternatives based on long-term financial considerations during the early stages of design.

Discussion on Construction Project Cost Budget Settlement Review

Construction project cost control involves many complex contents,forming a large amount of data information.If the processing method is unreasonable,it will likely affect the cost control efficiency.Therefore,in the current construction project management,the review of project cost budget settlement is the focus to solve the cost management problems of construction projects and promote the development of the construction industry.This article mainly analyzes the influencing factors and current situation of construction project cost budget settlement review,and based on this,it explores the project cost budget settlement review strategy to promote the healthy development of construction project cost work.

Cost Control Strategies in the Pre-Construction Period of Highway Construction

Effective cost control in the investment and design phases of highway construction is crucial for managing project expenses.However,current management practices often overlook pre-construction cost management,leading to budget overruns and project delays during later stages.To ensure the smooth execution and cost control of highway construction projects,this paper examines the significance of cost control,evaluates the current state and challenges of highway construction,and proposes strategies for cost management.These strategies aim to establish a robust foundation for cost management in highway projects.

Comparison of School Building Construction Costs Estimation Methods Using Regression Analysis, Neural Network, and Support Vector Machine

Accurate cost estimation at the early stage of a construction project is key factor in a project’s success. But it is difficult to quickly and accurately estimate construction costs at the planning stage, when drawings, documentation and the like are still incomplete. As such, various techniques have been applied to accurately estimate construction costs at an early stage, when project information is limited. While the various techniques have their pros and cons, there has been little effort made to determine the best technique in terms of cost estimating performance. The objective of this research is to compare the accuracy of three estimating techniques (regression analysis (RA), neural network (NN), and support vector machine techniques (SVM)) by performing estimations of construction costs. By comparing the accuracy of these techniques using historical cost data, it was found that NN model showed more accurate estimation results than the RA and SVM models. Consequently, it is determined that NN model is most suitable for estimating the cost of school building projects.

Probabilistic prediction of expected ground condition and construction time and costs in road tunnels

Ground condition and construction （excavation and support） time and costs are the key factors in decision-making during planning and design phases of a tunnel project. An innovative methodology for probabilistic estimation of ground condition and construction time and costs is proposed, which is an integration of the ground prediction approach based on Markov process, and the time and cost variance analysis based on Monte-Carlo （MC） simulation. The former provides the probabilistic description of ground classification along tunnel alignment according to the geological information revealed from geological profile and boreholes. The latter provides the probabilistic description of the expected construction time and costs for each operation according to the survey feedbacks from experts. Then an engineering application to Hamro tunnel is presented to demonstrate how the ground condition and the construction time and costs are estimated in a probabilistic way. In most items, in order to estimate the data needed for this methodology, a number of questionnaires are distributed among the tunneling experts and finally the mean values of the respondents are applied. These facilitate both the owners and the contractors to be aware of the risk that they should carry before construction, and are useful for both tendering and bidding.

Control and Management of Construction Project Cost

Project cost can control the input in construction project and improve economic benefits of construction enterprises,so it is an important section of construction engineering.Reasonable control and management of project cost is the principle that building units must obey in the whole process of project,particularly in the construction stage,so it is extremely important to control and manage the project cost.This paper first analyzed possible causes for the unreasonable cost of construction projects,and put forward pertinent strategies for the control and management of construction project cost.

Strategies for Prioritizing Ecological Construction with Consideration of Agricultural Industry Development in Northern China’s Agro- pastoral Ecotone : A Perspective of Opportunity Cost

In northern China’s agro-pastoral ecotone,there are conflicts between agricultural industry and ecological construction resource competition,and also problems urgently to be solved for economic growth and sustainable ecological improvement.Taking the development concept of"lucid waters and lush mountains being mountains of gold and silver"as the guiding principle of prioritizing ecological and green development,this paper studied the strategies for prioritizing ecological construction with consideration of economic development of agricultural industry from the perspective of opportunity cost.Through the analysis of opportunity cost,externality,and Pareto optimal theory,and using the calculation method of the unit equivalent factor value of terrestrial ecological service function,this paper calculated the ecological service value of forest,grassland,and farmland.It found that the ecological value of forest and grassland per unit area was greater than the ecological value of agricultural industry.This indicates that the opportunity cost of farmland for ecological construction was less than that of agricultural industry.Based on the theoretical and quantitative analysis,it came up with recommendations for establishing a comprehensive system for prioritizing ecological construction with consideration of agricultural industry development and establishing and improving the incentive mechanism of ecological construction.

A Review of Deepwater Pipeline Construction in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico-Contracts, Cost, and Installation Methods

The offshore pipeline network in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico is the largest and most transparent system in the world. A review of deepwater projects in the region provides insight into construction cost and installation methods and the evolution of contract strategies. Pipeline projects are identified as export systems, infield flowline systems, and combined export and infield systems, and three dozen deepwater pipeline installations from 1980–2014 are described based on Offshore Technology Conference(OTC) and Society of Petroleum Engineers(SPE) industry publications and press release data. Export lines and infield flowlines are equally represented and many projects used a combination of J-lay, S-lay and reel methods with rigid steel, flexible line, and pipe-in-pipe systems. The average 2014 inflation-adjusted cost for pipeline projects based on OTC/SPE publications was $2.76 million/mi and ranged from $520 000/mi to $12.94 million/mi. High cost pipelines tend to be short segments or specialized pipeline. Excluding the two cost endpoints, the majority of projects ranged from $1 to $6 million/mi. The average inflation-adjusted cost to install deepwater pipelines in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico based on available public data is estimated at $3.1 million/mi.

Leaf Construction Cost and Related Ecophysiological Parameters of Rice Crop and Its Important Weeds

To understand the reason for the success of weeds,we investigated the energetic cost of leaf construction,and certain ecophysiological traits of rice and its dominant weeds.On physiological basis among all weeds,Caesulia axillaris Roxburgh was found to be the most serious,followed by Echinochloa cruss-galli L.Beauv and Echinochloa colonum L.Link,while Fimbristylis miliaceae L.Vahl and Cyperus iria L.were moderate weeds of the rice fields.C.axillaris had the lowest leaf construction cost （LCC） both on a mass basis （1.15 g/g） and on a unit area basis （22.93 g/m2）.Comparatively higher specific leaf area,photosynthetic rate,photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency,leaf area ratio and leaf area index provided C.axillaris with further competitive advantage.Low LCC suggests that weeds utilize carbon resource more efficiently than the crop and potentially spend the saved energy on other competitive strategies viz.seed production,biomass production and high relative growth rate,which results in low crop yield and increase in weed seed bank.

Design & Construction Progress and Prospect of TGP

The construction of the TGP has proceeded smoothly since its commencement of construction in 1994 and the construction quality is good in general. The construction proceeds in accordance with the master project schedule in preliminary design approved by the central government and the investment can be controlled within the total budget of the preliminary design. The Changjiang Water Resources Commission, taking charge of the general design jobs of the TGP, has consistently paid attention to the project quality in the first place and carried out large amount of investigation, design and scientific research work. This paper makes an overall summarization and presentation on important technical issues in the design, such as dam, powerhouse structure, permanent ship locks, ship lift, project safety monitoring, main river closure and the 2nd stage cofferdam, mechanical and electric design etc., and put forwards a lot of suggestions about optimizing design schemes and measures for smoothing away construction difficulties in accordance with construction progress.

Construction Management and Cost Control of Landscaping Projects

Uniqueness of landscaping projects was analyzed,and cost was regarded as an important index evaluating performance of landscaping construction enterprises. Based on reviewing limitation of cost control on landscaping construction enterprises,enhancing construction management,controlling cost reasonably,and reducing project cost were proposed as the foundation and core content of enterprise cost management,and also the key to successful project management.By combining with design practices,suggestions for enhancing construction management of landscaping project,controlling cost and improving profits were given.

Professionals’ Perceptions on Construction Progress Measurement Methods Used in Ghana

Progress measurement is cardinal for effective project delivery. It assesses the physical amount of completed work within budgeted cost and manpower performance at a specified stage of the project. Effective progress measurement facilitates progress monitoring, an inevitability for identifying early warning?signs and confirmation of structured work proceeding. Different progress measuring methods are available and used for construction projects. They range from the traditional to the contemporary ones like three-dimensional and four-dimensional models. This paper examines current progress measurement methods used in the Ghanaian construction industry. Eight commonly employed methods were identified from the literature?and?rated by sixty-two construction professionals, practicing with tier one construction firms and construction consultancy services. Relative Important Index ranking and Mann-Whitney?U?test statistics were used to rank and check the consistency of survey responses. Cost Ratio ranked?the?highest, followed by Supervisor’s Opinion and Units?Completed. The fourth-ranked method was Time Ratio, then Incremental Milestone before Start-Finish.?Weighted/Equivalent Units?was at?the penultimate with Earned Value Analysis ranked?the?lowest. The study will not only underscore the relevance of the current project progress measurement practices and provoke prolific debates on their merits, but will also serve as a precursor for critical evaluation of the methods with the view to identifying?barriers militating against realistic progress assessment of construction works.

Representing the Knowledge of Public Construction Project Cost Estimator by Using Rule-Based Method

Despite the presence of various construction project cost estimate softwares, human experience and knowledge cannot be disregarded. This fact has been proven in practice, where the success of construction cost estimate process is mainly based on knowledge of human estimator. The main question concerns what human knowledge determines the success of the construction cost estimation process. To address this question we have applied Delphi technique and the output is eleven factors that are enough to precisely represent construction cost estimator knowledge. Then we have used First Order Logic (FOL) to represent these factors in terms of predicates and rules. These FOL rules could be used for evaluating construction cost estimator knowledge in five classes: fail, pass, acceptable, good, and very good. As a validation process we have done experiments using history data and the results have proved the accuracy of our proposed method.

An Exploratory Study into Social Cost Considerations in Ghanaian Construction Industry

Construction causative nuisances, inconveniences, interferences and disruptions to the routine economic and social life patterns of adjacent or neighboring communities are referred to as social cost. This study explores the understanding and level of consideration of social cost by construction professionals in Ghana. Relevant literature sources are reviewed to define, rationalize and classify social cost. The study used the survey approach with a set of questionnaires addressed to construction contractors and professionals to gather the data. It was realized that not much consideration is given to social cost at the tender stage of the construction process. The five factors hindering social cost inclusion in tendering are “difficulty in allocating social costs”, “governmental interferences”, “lack of historical data”, “lack of appreciation of social costs” and “low stakeholder agitation”. The paper advocated for integration of social cost into the tendering process. The study will serve as a foundation to design a social cost assessment system at the pre-contract stage.

Study of Factors Causing Time and Cost Overrun in Pre-Construction Project (A Case Study of Malaysia)

Cost and time overrun are the key troubles of any improvement ventures. These troubles are inflicting the terrible end result in the development of kingdom monetary improvement and thriving. To overcome these problems, the?paper examines predominant impact on elements causing the mission postponement and cost. A poll review was led for the situation study embracing various information-gathering procedures. The discoveries from the contextual investigation uncovered that the most persuasive factors in Malaysia:?1) contractor’s inappropriate arranging, 2) poor site the board, 3) deficient contractual worker experience,?are the most powerful factors. This paper has likewise broken down the normal and least effective of the postpone variables causing task deferral and cost overrun in Malaysia. It likewise infers that there are various measures as per the idea of deferring components to decrease the effect on task postponement and cost overruns in the development industry.?There are significant factors in the control of time overrun that would be actual thought related to know and tackle in great impact to improvement rate which may additionally no capacity that be recovered. Thirty (30) massive development extensions in Malaysia were exceptional coping with time overrun at some stage in development. Out of 30 undertakings, 17 (56.67%) ventures had been introduced by using 1100 days’ time overrun, 5 (16.67%) extensions in the middle of a hundred and one to 200 days, 5 (16.67%) ventures?201 to 300 days while three (10%) ventures have been deferred for timeframe over 300 days.

Critical Barriers to Traditional Project Progress Measurement: Perspectives of Ghanaian Construction Professionals

Accurate project progress measurement is critical for effective project management. Besides guarantying smooth work progress, it affords project managers the chance to identify early warning signs for peremptory remedial actions to keep the project on schedule and to budget. However, pertinent barriers can suppress the realization of the benefits of an accurate assessment of construction progress. This study aims to identify, examine and prioritize the critical barriers militating against accurate project progress measurement in the Ghanaian construction industry. Sixteen barriers identified from the literature were administered in a questionnaire survey to professionals with tier one construction firms and consultants. Sixty experienced construction professionals practising with tier-one construction firms and consultancy services took part in the survey. The relative importance index technique was used to rank the factors and correlation in responses of the two parties tested by the Mann-Whitney U statistics. The most critical barriers perceived by the professionals were 1) Reliance on Supervisor’s Judgement, 2) Generic and Non-Systematic Approach, 3) Variable Quality of Data and 4) Intricate Measurement Reports. Other highly ranked barriers include 5) Lack of Timely Information, 6) Laborious Data Gathering and 7) Quality Integration Constraint. The findings underpin the need to minimize dependence on subjective opinions and mere experiences of supervisors for assessment of project progress in this age of information technology. Incorporation of a level of automation into traditional progress methods will not only reduce human errors introduced into manually collected data but facilitate visualization of progress reports. Contiguous to a clear specification of the method of progress measurement in the contract document, a system that conveniently integrates cost, time and scope of work into progress measurement must be pursued. Addressing these identified critical barriers will consolidate current construction progress management practices.

Construction economic cost management under the market economy

Currently, how to further improve and perfect construction economic cost management,minimizing construction economic management cost and construction investment of the enterprise have become the important content for the daily management of construction enterprise managers. This article focuses on the construction economy under the conditions of market economy cost management, analyses related concepts and existing questions, and proposes targeted recommendations of the problem.

Analysis of Construction Duration and Cost for Public Sector Civil Engineering Projects in Libya

Public construction project data were analyzed to develop models for the actual construction duration and actual cost. Based on 50 civil engineering projects in Libya from the database of the Great Man-Made River System 1992-2009, the models identified extension as a main factor that affecting both the actual duration and cost of a project, while considering the contract cost and contract duration as fixed for the project. The suitability of each model was confirmed by examining RMSE (root mean squared error), NSE (Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency), and MEF (modeling efficiency factor). The models were validated with data from 17 different projects. The validation of both models demonstrated that models are very practical and accurate. The models are very effective in capturing the uniqueness of Libyan construction industry practice.

Avoiding Cost Overruns in Construction Projects in India

The main aim of this paper is to identify the major reasons for cost overruns in construction projects in India as well as the critical success factors that are helping to avoid the cost overruns. For this, the existing literature is reviewed and critical success factors are identified. Based on them, survey questions and interview questions are prepared. The findings supported the proposed hypothesis, i.e., lack of certain critical success factors leads to cost overruns in construction projects in India. They also confirmed the proposed proactive and reactive strategies of some researchers. The effective critical success factors include appropriate planning in the initial stages, skills of contractors and architects, good relationship and regular coordination among client and contractor, and early contribution of contractor with the project. The ideal methods that help to reduce cost overruns include efficient planning, proper management of site and supervision of the project, suitable planning and arrangement of project, proper methods for construction, regular meetings on development of the project, and hiring proficient subcontractors and suppliers.