Contractor-Related Factors and Performance of Bridge Construction Projects Implemented by Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) Kenya

The performance of bridge projects in Kenya is poor in terms of completion by schedule, cost, and quality (scope). Yet, there is less evidence of empirical research on what factors contribute to this outcome. This study aimed to bridge this gap by examining the effects of contractor-related factors on the performance of bridge construction projects in Kenya through a case study of the Bridge projects Implemented by the Kenya National Highway Agency (KeNHA). The theory of constraints (TOC) was adopted as its theoretical framework. Descriptive research was used, and the target population was 18 bridge construction projects, which were the units of analysis from 2012 to 2022. In each of these projects, 18 respondents, namely clients, consultants, contractors, engineers, environment and social guards, project managers, stakeholders, subcontractors, technical advisors, and inspectors, were included in a target population of 144 respondents. A census was conducted and a structured questionnaire was administered from which a response rate of 68% was achieved. The information was analyzed using descriptive, correlation, and multiple linear regression analysis. The contractor-related factors considered in the study were staff and management factors. The findings indicated that staff and management factors had a positive and significant outcome on performance of bridge construction projects. The study recommends continuous training and a safe learning environment for staff to improve their skills and performance in future projects. The study also recommends that a special category for bridge contractors be created in Kenya’s National Construction Authority rankings to ensure that only qualified contractors implement the Bridge projects.

Application of system dynamics for assessment of sustainable performance of construction projects

Sustainable performance is expected to become a major factor when examining the feasibility of a construction project in terms of its life cycle performance. The study on which this paper is based developed a simulation model, using system dy- namics methodology, to assess the sustainable performance of projects. Three major factors are used to examine project sus- tainable performance (PSP): the sustainability of economic development (E), the sustainability of social development (S), and the sustainability of environmental development (En). Sustainable development ability (SDA) was used as a prototype to evaluate the degree of sustainable performance. The simulation software ‘ithink’ was used to help with the application of the model to a real life case. This paper explains and demonstrates the procedures used to develop the model and finally offers an approach for assessing the feasibility of a construction project in terms of its sustainable performance.

Performance Evaluation Management and Meta-norm Execution Cost of Major Science and Technology Project

Major science and technology project generally got high social expectations as a result of harge investment.To ensure that the science and technology teams follow the norms of S&T research and make full use of the investment,the effective norms maintenance mechanism must be established which includes punishment for violators and burnout of teams of supervisors,namely setting up the meta-norm execution mechanism.It is very important to establish the effective major science and technology project evaluation system to reduce the norm and metanorm execution cost.In this paper,the principles,methods and implementation system guarantee of evaluation system building are studied as well.

Making Sense of Hospital Project MisPerformance: Over Budget, Late, Time and Time Again—Why? And What Can Be Done About It?

Hospital projects worldwide often experience misperformance,showing a tendency to exceed their estimated cost,miss their deadline,suffer quality problems,and yield benefit shortfalls.Considering this ubiquitous problem,this paper aims to make sense of this phenomenon by addressing the following research question:How can we make sense of hospital project misperformance,and what can be done to mitigate its occurrence?We use an illustrative case study approach and the analytical lens of sense-making to examine the misperformance of three mega-hospital projects.Our research reveals issues such as scope changes,an inability to adapt and respond to risk and uncertainty,ineffectual project management and governance,and optimism bias,which combine to impact project performance adversely.We suggest that the two prominent theoretical perspectives dominating the literature in this field fall short of adequately explaining hospital project misperformance.We provide suggestions for improving the procurement process of hospitals and submit there is a need to develop a robust and balanced theory of project misperformance.

Evaluating Contractors’ Safety Record and Its Influence on Performance of Road Infrastructural Projects

A number of studies conducted in Kenya and internationally indicated that most of the construction firms and contractors do not seem to strictly observe safety administration in construction industry, hence compromised performance at implementation stage of projects and even later in the post implementation or post-delivery stage. The study aimed to examine the influence of contractors’ safety record on road performance. This is to create better understanding of how the safety record of contractors could either positively or negatively influence performance of roads during post-delivery stage. The study used both descriptive survey research design and correlation design based on a pragmatic mixed method approach. Through stratified sampling and proportionate sampling, a sample of 210 was drawn from a population of 460 comprising of registered contractors and Public Service Vehicles (PSV) drivers within Nairobi County in Kenya. Questionnaires were distributed using simple random sampling. The questionnaires returned were 153 in total representing 72.8% of all questionnaires distributed to the respondents. Data was descriptively analyzed using percentages, frequencies, means and standard deviations for measuring central tendency and variability. Inferential analysis was done by use of correlation and regression. The descriptive analysis revealed that safety policy management system, insurance policy, and adequacy of standards in addressing safety outcome are to some extent practiced and adhered to. However, compliance behavior to safety procedures is still weak and requires improvement. The null hypothesis was tested and the results obtained from a simple linear regression indicated that, R = 0.657, R2 = 0.431, B = 0.359, t = 10.703, F (1,151) = 114.558, p = 0.000 < 0.05. This means that contractors’ safety record has a strong positive and significant relationship with road performance and that 43.1% of variation in performance is explained by safety record. This study recommends that contractors’ safety record should be part, and parcel of the evaluation criteria used in selection of a suitable road contractor to ensure road performance is achieved even after construction is completed. The study is significant in that it contributes to the body of knowledge by providing empirical data on the need for safety procedures in urban road construction and beyond.

Traffic Impact on Incentive Contracting Project Time Performance during Highway Construction

The volume of highway traffic in the United States continues to increase. In the face of this there is a concomitant need to improve and repair transportation infrastructure. Construction frequently requires a reduction in capacity during construction activity; consequently road users as well as adjacent businesses must endure the delays and inconveniences associated with transportation construction. Recognizing the problems that construction can produce, state highway agencies （SHAs） have continually sought ways to minimize the negative impact from their construction operations. Incentive contracting has played an important role in this effort to improve project performance. The Florida Department of Transportation （FDOT） is one of the leading SHAs using such innovative contracting methods as Incentive/Disincentive （I/D）, A＋B （cost plus time bidding） combined with I/D, No Excuse Bonus, and Liquidated Savings. This paper analyzes the traffic impact on incentive project time performance using highway construction projects recently completed in Florida. Project data obtained from FDOT were evaluated using time performance indices. A survey of traffic impact on project work types was performed in Florida in order to evaluate the relationship between construction project types and road traffic influence during construction. Based on the survey results, the 38 most frequently used work types in Florida during the study period were categorized into three traffic impact levels： （1） high traffic impact, （2） medium traffic impact, and （3） low traffic impact. Statistical analysis was performed. The results show that there are significant differences on project time performance between low and high impact levels as well as low and medium impact levels.

Research on the agricultural comprehensive development project performance evaluation problems and countermeasures

The agricultural comprehensive development project performance evaluation refers to the evaluation and assessment of the expected target original and effectiveness after the completion of a project, discuss how to according to different projects to form a reasonable evaluation system for agricultural comprehensive development project, make a reasonable assessment, which can not only ensure the project quality, but also to achieve the project plans to further improve and perfect, make agricultural development operation became more efficient, so it has the practical significance. This paper describes the construction of the performance evaluation system of agricultural comprehensive development project problems, and puts forward some countermeasures for construction of agricultural comprehensive development project performance evaluation system.

Research on performance evaluation of small water conservancy facilities construction project in Hebei Province

This paper takes Hebei province of small water conservancy facilities construction project as the research object, the performance evaluation purposes of construction of farmland water conservancy facilities project, the data sources when carry out performance evaluation, performance evaluation procedures and limitations of farmland water conservancy facilities construction project performance evaluation were discussed.

The design and selection of indicators of agricultural comprehensive development project performance evaluation system

Integrated Agricultural Development Project is an important part of China＇ s fiscal expenditure. Make a reasonable assessment to Integrated projects for agricultural development, not only can to protect the quality of the project has been implemented, but also has important practical significance for enhancing China＇ s comprehensive agricultural production capacity. In this paper, combined with the present situation of China＇ s comprehensive agricultural development project performance evaluation, proposed the design process of comprehensive agricultural development project performance evaluation system, and analysis of the performance evaluation method selected.

A Study on the performance evaluation of the agricultural comprehensive development project

Agricultural comprehensive development project is an important component of our country＇s financial expenditure. Making a reasonable evaluation of comprehensive agricultural development projects is not only to guarantee high quality of project implementation, but also of practical significance to the enhancement of our country＇ s comprehensive agricultural production capacity. Being based on the present situation and characteristics of the project, this paper has raised the general thinking about the overall performance evaluation for the project and analyzed the dimension factors in the evaluation system.

Project-based Learning （PBL） for Enhancing Chinese College Students＇ English Performance

Project-based learning （PBL） as an instructional approach focuses on student-centeredness through contextualizing learning by presenting students with real world issues and practices that aim at achieving enduring learning effects. As a challenge to traditional lecture-based instruction, PBL may generate positive backwash assessment effects via documenting the process of developing authentic language skills. These skills-oriented outcomes are achieved through proper curricula in appropriate learning situations via various dimensions. However, problems may occur such as management, pressure from administration, evaluation doing their selected projects. teacher/student attitude, class size and proper group process and criteria, and students＇ likely frustrations in

Prediction of roadheaders' performance using artificial neural network approaches (MLP and KOSFM)

A pplication o f m echanical excavators is one o f th e m o st com m only used excavation m eth o d s because itcan bring th e p ro ject m ore productivity, accuracy and safety. A m ong th e m echanical excavators, roadhead ers are m echanical m iners w h ich have b een extensively u se d in tu n n elin g , m ining an d civil indu stries. Perform ance pred ictio n is an im p o rta n t issue for successful ro a d h e a d e r application andgenerally deals w ith m achine selection, p ro d u ctio n rate an d b it consu m p tio n . The m ain aim o f thisresearch is to investigate th e c u ttin g p erfo rm an ce （in stan tan eo u s c u ttin g rates （ICRs）） o f m ed iu m -d u tyro ad h ead ers by using artificial neural n etw o rk （ANN） approach. T here are d ifferent categories forANNs, b u t based o n train in g alg o rith m th e re are tw o m ain k in d s： supervised and u n su p erv ised . Them u lti-lay er p ercep tro n （MLP） an d K ohonen self-organizing feature m ap （KSOFM） are th e m o st w idelyused neu ral netw o rk s for supervised an d u n su p erv ised ones, respectively. For gaining this goal, ad atab ase w as prim arily provided from ro ad h e a d e rs＇ p erfo rm an ce an d geom echanical characteristics o frock form ations in tu n n els and d rift galleries in Tabas coal m ine, th e larg est an d th e only fullymech an ized coal m ine in Iran. T hen th e datab ase w as analyzed in o rd e r to yield th e m ost im p o rtan tfactor for ICR by using relatively im p o rta n t factor in w hich G arson eq u atio n w as utilized. The MLPn etw o rk w as train ed by 3 in p u t p ara m e te rs including rock m ass pro p erties, rock quality d esignation（RQD）, in tact rock p ro p erties such as uniaxial com pressive stre n g th （UCS） an d Brazilian ten sile stren g th（BTS）, and o n e o u tp u t p a ra m e te r （ICR）. In o rd e r to have m ore v alidation o n MLP o u tp u ts, KSOFM visualizationw as applied. The m ean square e rro r （MSE） an d regression coefficient （R ） o f MLP w e re found tobe 5.49 an d 0.97, respectively. M oreover, KSOFM n etw o rk has a m ap size o f 8 x 5 and final qu an tizatio nan d topographic erro rs w e re 0.383 an d 0.032, respectively. The results show th a t MLP neural n etw orkshave a strong capability to p red ict an d ev alu ate th e perfo rm an ce o f m ed iu m -d u ty ro ad h ead ers in coalm easu re rocks. Furtherm ore, it is concluded th a t KSOFM neural n etw o rk is an efficient w ay for u n d e rstand in g system beh av io r an d know ledge extraction. Finally, it is indicated th a t UCS has m ore influenceo n ICR b y applying th e b e st train ed MLP n etw o rk w eig h ts in G arson eq u atio n w h ich is also confirm ed byKSOFM.

University-Business Cooperation in Education： Real and Perceived Performances

The purpose of this paper is to describe and demonstrate the validity of a methodology to distinguish, in the performances of high education institutions （HEIs）, real from perceived performances. The extension of accountability to the evaluation of educational programs involves significant topics concerning the gap between perceived and real performances. It means that, since many actors such as teachers, students, and external stakeholders are involved in the process, the research on methodologies to distinguish subjective from objective parameters is still on the floor. Debate about performance evaluation in this collaboration is still in progress particularly as it concerns the proposal of several parameters and indexes to quantify the topic and reduce the subjectivism in the assessment and the gap between real and perceived performances. After describing and discussing an evaluation model based on three interdependent typologies of indexes, this will be tested in two Tempus projects having the purpose of activating Ph.D. and masters courses. The results encourage deepening researches in this direction and disseminating this methodology and extending and enriching the validation process.

A Performance Analysis Tool for PVM Parallel Programs

In this paper,we introduce the design and implementation of ParaVT,which is a visual performance analysis and parallel debugging tool.In ParaVT,we propose an automated instrumentation mechanism.Based on this mechanism,ParaVT automatically analyzes the performance bottleneck of parallel applications and provides a visual user interface to monitor and analyze the performance of parallel programs.In addition,it also supports certain extensions.

The Creation and Operation of Internal High Performance Modern Enterprises Team

The future of enterprises mainly depends on product research and development. For the modern enterprises, high performance project team is the most important means of R ＆ D projects. According to the interviews and survey found of a plurality of enterprise project R ＆ D team. the internal high performance team of modern business is good or bad, its key lies in whether the team managers for the team creation and management is in place, this is the most difficult place for the high performance team management system, especially the team leadership. Based on this, this paper discusses on the creation and management of high performance modern enterprise team, aiming to provide valuable reference for the enterprise team management.

RISK FRAMEWORK FOR ENERGY PERFORMANCE CONTRACTING BUILDING RETROFITS

Energy performance contracting(EPC)has emerged as a useful project financ-ing and delivery tool for building retrofits,particularly among building owner-ships which have experienced reduced funding for capital projects.Through EPC,a contractor(called the EPC contractor or the energy service company)guaran-tees minimum energy savings performance and enables the building owner to finance the project using utility savings over the length of the project(which is typically 12-15 years,or longer).Despite its growing use,there is a dearth of lit-erature regarding a contractor’s risks related to the delivery and execution of EPC building retrofits.This is particularly important as the performance guarantee effec-tively transfers project performance risk from the owner to the EPC contractor.This research proposes a project factors-based risk framework for EPC building retrofits,initially developed through a comprehensive review of relevant literature and project documents and refined through the elicited expertise of 19 highly expe-rienced EPC contracting professionals.A Delphi technique-based expertise elici-tation strategy was used to confirm the findings of the a priori(literature-based)framework and provide additional analysis related to risk causes and control mea-sures as well as relative risk importance.This information was used to construct a refined risk framework which provides insight into the lengthy project performance period during the earliest phases of the project’s life cycle.This has the advantage of providing rapid screening of the project factors that can potentially lead to the greatest project performance risks.

RISK MODEL FOR ENERGY PERFORMANCE CONTRACTING IN CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES

Energy performance contracting provides guaranteed minimum energy savings to building owners,enabling them to finance project costs using utility savings over the duration of the project.This has been an attractive project delivery method for organizations with reduced budgets for capital projects,particularly among correctional facilities which frequently have lengthy periods of deferred maintenance and ongoing building operations and maintenance concerns.This research builds on a previously developed project factors risk framework for energy service companies undertaking building retrofits.This paper proposes a risk analysis and evaluation model that includes quantitative,expert-based,and probabilistically derived information.Expected cost was used to evaluate risks over lengthy project life cycles and a new metric was developed for use in the model-expected life cycle value.Model results reveal that the most critical risk factors relate to the reduced availability of“low-hanging fruit”energy conservation measures,work scopes based on traditional design-bid-build procurement,unavailable or inaccurate facility information,facility age and current code requirements,and conducting the investment grade audit too quickly.The life cycle cost-based risk model employed in this paper is proposed as an advancement over traditional risk management methods,and it is expected to be applicable,with modification,across other municipal and state government subdomains,especially high security projects.

Test Studies on Performances of TGP Total Gradation Concrete

The Three Gorges Project (TGP) is the largest water conservancy and hydropower complex in the world, with a concrete consumption of 28 million m^3 in total. For such a significant world-attracting project, first rate quality concrete is needed. Various mechanical and deformation performances of hydraulic mass concrete are determined conventionally by the wet screening method to make small specimens and the test results of the small standard specimens are taken to represent the properties of the mass concrete. However, the quantity of the coarse aggregate after wet screening would be reduced by 30% or so and the gel materials would increase by 20% or so, thus causing significant differences between the properties of the small concrete specimen and that of the total gradation concrete. To well understand the performances of the total gradation concrete of TGP dam, test studies have been performed on the total gradation concrete, including compressive strength, split tensile strength, elastic modulus, ultimate tension, dry shrinkage, self volume deformation, creep, seepage prevention, and so on, and comparison made with the small standard specimens to find out the relationship between them, which have provided scientific ground for the design, operation and safety verification of the TGP dam.

基于Projection Pursuit-RAGA-NK-GERT的质量绩效提升路径优化——以组织质量特异性免疫和产品生命周期为主导逻辑的解释框架

依据组织免疫和组织质量特异性免疫的相关理论,引入情境变量产品生命周期,构建基于组织质量监视、组织质量防御软要素、组织质量防御硬要素和组织质量记忆的质量绩效提升路径理论框架。使用基于RAGA的投影寻踪模型、适应度景观和NK模型对产品生命周期不同阶段的质量绩效提升路径进行实证分析,实证结果表明:产品生命周期不同阶段有不同的质量绩效提升路径,产品导入期遵循的质量绩效提升路径为组织质量监视→组织质量防御→组织质量记忆,产品成长期遵循的质量绩效提升路径为组织质量防御软要素→组织质量防御硬要素→组织质量监视→组织质量记忆,产品成熟期遵循的质量绩效提升路径为组织质量防御硬要素→组织质量防御软要素→组织质量监视→组织质量记忆,产品衰退期遵循的质量绩效提升路径为组织质量记忆→组织质量监视→组织质量防御。并建立产品生命周期不同阶段质量绩效提升路径优化的GERT网络,优化产品生命周期不同阶段的质量绩效提升路径。

ProjectA对我军士兵心理选拔研究的启示

美国军队选拔与分类项目(TheArmy’sSelectionAndClassificationProject,ProjectA)是美军20世纪80年代为改进军队人员的选拔、分类和使用,加强军队质量建设而进行的一项大规模的研究工作,其目的是建立一套完整、科学、符合军队建设需要的军队人员选拔与分类方法,形成一整套用于军队人员军队人员选拔与分类的预测工具。本文简要介绍了ProjectA产生的背景、研究目的、基本实验设计、绩效评价系统建立、预测工具以及预测效度,并对我军开展士兵心理选拔分类以及安置的必要性和可行性做了简要分析,提出了基本构想。