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.

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.

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.

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.

Long Run Relationships, Vertical Integration and International Competition： Can They Contribute to Explaining Regional Construction Cost Differences？

The existence of opportunistic behavior by contractors or sub-contractors in the bidding process encouraged by the governance structure of construction companies as well as the kind of relationship that exist between contractors and clients is thought to have some bearing on the rising construction cost observed in some regions of Sweden. Three hypotheses that are intended to test the impact that long run relationship between contractors and developers, vertically integrated firms, and the increase of international competition could have on the construction cost increase levels were tested on a predetermined number of projects from six cities in different regions. The semi-structured survey produces inconclusive results. Long run and collaborative relationship was prevalent in small region though respondents in this region did not draw strong connection between construction cost increase levels and the kind of observed relationship. In Stockholm region, short-term relationship was mostly prevalent. Vertical integration and foreign competition impacts on construction costs were not significant in either region.

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.

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.

Research on Computer Technology in Construction Cost Management

Computer technology has been comprehensively popularized in all walks of life with its continuous development. The construction cost management industry is surely no exception. To improve the application of computer technology in construction cost management industry, this thesis would respectively discuss and analyze the importance of computer technology application in construction cost management, status quo of computer technology application in construction cost management, measures of improving computer technology application in construction cost management as well as the development prospect of computer technology application in construction cost management. The author is striving to arouse the attention and exploration of relevant departments as well as practitioners in the same industry.

Comments on the development trend of the construction cost management in the new period

Building construction projects generally needs a long period, and there are many fixed factors in the process of building, therefore, the management of the project cost is a little difficult. On the basis that the quality of construction is not affected, the effective management of the project cost can effectively control the costs so that the economic and social benefits of the construction unit will be raised, and then continue to promote the development of construction industry in China.

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.

Method for Estimating of Construction Cost of a Building Based on Previous Experiences

In a real estate project, the estimated cost of construction and the revenues generally represent together the most important values of its feasibility study. When a decision of undertaking a project is made, often there are few definitions of what is about to be constructed, and frequently not enough to ensure the accuracy of the estimated costs. Considering a global tendency on reducing margins of return over the real estate markets, slight variations of the construction cost can jeopardize the success of the whole real estate enterprise and even the financial stability of the builder or of the developer. This article aims at presenting a method of estimating the building construction costs applicable at the stage of feasibility studies, being able to provide acceptable errors.

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.

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.

Research on Cost Overrun Risk of Construction Phase of Vietnam Highway International Contracting Project

Recently, the highway construction projects increase rapidly in Vietnam and most of them are international contracting projects. It results serious negative influence on the local government and enterprises that the common cost overrun of projects, and the risk factors of it is different in the different countries, different stages and projects types. So in this paper, we generate an evaluation index system of highway construction projects cost overrun risk in Vietnam in the perspective of different project participants, and also evaluate the effects of these factors in method of regression analysis. The empirical results confirmed 7 main factors that have aggravated cost overrun risk in construction stages, e.g. survey and design scheme risk. In final, the corresponding suggestions are proposed to reduce the project cost overrun risk.

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.

工程造价超预算的原因分析和控制方法研究

在工程项目实施过程中,工程造价控制成为项目管理中的关键环节。本文从工程造价预算控制有益于项目顺利结算、有利于项目合理投入、有助于减少变更数量三个方面阐述了其意义。提出了造成超预算是因为施工组织设计脱离实际、工程施工进度失去控制、项目成本管理缺乏力度三个主要原因,提出了相应的控制方法,应严审施工组织设计以减少施工变更、严控工程施工进度以降低延期消耗、强化预算控制意识以提升投入效能。

装配式建筑成本控制方法与措施探究

近年来,国家大力倡导绿色低碳、节能环保理念,传统建筑业污染严重、材料浪费大、效率低,装配式建筑采用工业化生产模式,代表建筑业一大发展趋势。目前,装配式建筑成本居高不下,高成本成为制约其发展的阻碍。基于此,文中根据工程案例进行装配式建筑项目成本影响因素分析,并提出控制对策建议,为推动装配式建筑发展提供参考。