Design is widely accepted as a factor that affects construction work. Although knowledge about this effect will contribute to the improvement of construction practice, this is very limited. No study has been focused on establishing how the effect of design on construction work can be evaluated. The primary objective of this research was to formulate an approach enabling the assessment of the effect of building design on construction work. To achieve this, a quantitative index based on field data, termed the 'index of difficulty,' was established. Given a construction activity, this index relates the effective work effort per unit of output expended in completing a construction part under two distinct designs: one under evaluation and the other designated as the base design for common comparison. The greater the index of difficulty associated with a design, the higher the required work effort, consequently resulting in a greater affect of the design on construction work. Multiple ways of utilizing the index of difficulty to assess the effect of building design on construction activities are suggested. Additionally, application cases are exhibited to illustrate the implementation of the proposed approach and the required computations.

Virtual Reality (VR) has been used in the sphere of training and education in the construction field. Research has investigated the different applications of VR in construction-focused simulations to report its benefits and drawbacks in training and education. Although this is significant, they were not albeit explicitly studied through the lens of accreditation at undergraduate educational levels. The American Council for Construction Education (ACCE) established twenty Students Learning Outcomes (SLOs) that equip students with essential knowledge and industry-oriented technical and managerial skills that maintain quality education in undergraduate construction programs. This paper analyzes the trends in VR literature through reported benefits and unexplored learning outcomes of VR in construction training and education and investigates the ways by which these trends do or do not contribute to the learning experience by targeting the content areas associated with the ACCE’s SLOs. To accomplish this, the author reviewed 59 articles from 2014 to 2023 found through a keyword search for “Virtual” AND “Reality” AND “Construction” AND (“Training” OR “Simulation” OR “Education”) AND “Students”. The learning outcomes of the VR training reported in the 59 articles were mapped to their corresponding content areas from ACCE’s SLO(s). The results demonstrate the content areas of SLOs that were addressed in literature (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, and 20) and the SLOs that were not explored (4, 12, 14, and 17) due to lack of studies in some contexts. This study reveals trends and patterns of VR training, some of which exemplify benefits of addressing content areas of SLOs through virtual on-site immersion, manipulation of time, cost efficiency, and ethical measures, while others indicate unexplored learning outcomes of VR training in targeting content areas of SLOs that involve human interaction, complex quantitative calculations or require construction management tools, delivery method and stakeholders’ management, and risk management. While this research does not seek replacement of traditional trainings, it encourages consideration of VR training under the lens of ACCE’s accreditation. This research’s findings propose guidance to educational researchers on how VR training could address content areas from ACCE’s SLOs.

The practice of Facility Condition Assessments (FCA’s) has received academic attention with over 20 condition assessment methodologies to date, focusing on condition gradients and scale ratings. However, little attention has been brought to the life cycle of an FCA, specifically how building owners and managers plan and conduct an FCA. FCA methodologies in academic research are complex, sophisticated and require time for implementation that a typical facility manager does not have. This work showcases the need for simpler, more practical planning variables for a facility manager to begin the process of planning for an FCA in their management of a facilities portfolio. This research is a compilation of two national studies, the creation of an FCA project lifecycle analytical framework, and the creation of an organizational FCA maturity self-assessment model. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews from facility managers and facility condition assessment service providers to gain in-depth insight and understanding of the current practice of facility condition assessments in the facility management profession. This data was used to develop national surveys for both facility owners/managers and FCA service providers. An FCA project delivery model was developed through a Delphi study, representing an FCA project lifecycle. The development of a multi-phased FCA project delivery method provides a relative position and sequence of phases representing an FCA project lifecycle. An organizational FCA maturity self-assessment model was created as the first step for organizations to measure their current state of FCA awareness, FCA practice, state of reliability, asset knowledge posture and historical capital spending. The resulting research makes two distinct contributions to the literature. The first contribution is the sequencing of FCA project phases provides an analytic framework for understanding an FCA project lifecycle, providing owners, FCA practitioners and researchers to acknowledge that an FCA project represents a lifecycle model. The second contribution is an FCA planning tool for building owners and managers that allows an organization to bring to light the current state of FCA awareness and help communicate the value proposition FCA’s can afford to an organization. Recommendations for future research on the role of an FCA are provided.

Imagery data has become important for civil infrastructure operation and

maintenance because imagery data can capture detailed visual information with high

frequencies. Computer vision can be useful for acquiring spatiotemporal details to

support the timely maintenance of critical civil infrastructures that serve society. Some

examples include: irrigation canals need to maintain the leaking sections to avoid water

loss; project engineers need to identify the deviating parts of the workflow to have the

project finished on time and within budget; detecting abnormal behaviors of air traffic

controllers is necessary to reduce operational errors and avoid air traffic accidents.

Identifying the outliers of the civil infrastructure can help engineers focus on targeted

areas. However, large amounts of imagery data bring the difficulty of information

overloading. Anomaly detection combined with contextual knowledge could help address

such information overloading to support the operation and maintenance of civil

infrastructures.

Some challenges make such identification of anomalies difficult. The first challenge is

that diverse large civil infrastructures span among various geospatial environments so

that previous algorithms cannot handle anomaly detection of civil infrastructures in

different environments. The second challenge is that the crowded and rapidly changing

workspaces can cause difficulties for the reliable detection of deviating parts of the

workflow. The third challenge is that limited studies examined how to detect abnormal

behaviors for diverse people in a real-time and non-intrusive manner. Using video andii

relevant data sources (e.g., biometric and communication data) could be promising but

still need a baseline of normal behaviors for outlier detection.

This dissertation presents an anomaly detection framework that uses contextual

knowledge, contextual information, and contextual data for filtering visual information

extracted by computer vision techniques (ADCV) to address the challenges described

above. The framework categorizes the anomaly detection of civil infrastructures into two

categories: with and without a baseline of normal events. The author uses three case

studies to illustrate how the developed approaches can address ADCV challenges in

different categories of anomaly detection. Detailed data collection and experiments

validate the developed ADCV approaches.

At least 30 datacenters either broke ground or hit the planning stages around the United States over the past two years. On such technically complex projects, Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) systems make up a huge portion of the construction work which makes data center market very promising for MEP subcontractors in the next years. However, specialized subcontractors such as electrical subcontractors are struggling to keep crews motivated. Due to the hard work involved in the construction industry, it is not appealing for young workers. According to The Center for Construction Research and Training, the percentages of workers aged between 16 to 19 years decreased by 67%, 20 to 24 years decreased by 49% and 25 to 34 age decreased by 32% from 1985 to 2015. Furthermore, the construction industry has been lagging other industries in combatting its decline in productivity. Electrical activities, especially cable pulling, are some of the most physically unsafe, tedious, and labor-intensive electrical process on data center projects. The motivation of this research is the need to take a closer look at how this process is being done and find improvement opportunities. This thesis focuses on one potential restructuring of the cable pulling and termination process; the goal of this restructuring is optimization for automation. Through process mapping, this thesis presents a proposed cable pulling and termination process that utilizes automation to make use of the best abilities of human and robots/machines. It will also provide a methodology for process improvement that is applicable to the electrical scope of work as well as that of other construction trades.

As construction and building methods advance so should their focus on reconstruction post-natural disasters. For the past 50 years there has been an average of 6.2 hurricanes making landfall, and several recent unfortunate occurrences in the past year that have caused immeasurable damage and taken priceless lives (Chris Landsea 2017). Damages could have been significantly reduced to residential homes and lives saved if proper, hurricane-resistant construction was used. It is important to continue advancement in efficient planning and reconstructive methods to restore individuals into their homes and ensure their safety in the future. Utilizing tested resilient building methods may increase construction costs but has a visible payoff through mitigation of economic losses in the future. This can also help develop response and mitigation plans based on the very specific conditions of each community or affected location. To do so, it is crucial to continue research and test various methods of construction and materials in residential homes. This study was a comparative analysis of the current roof systems implemented in residential homes, the role of hurricane testing facilities in maintaining building codes, and how damage incurred by hurricanes can be significantly reduced through a shift in the approach of homeowner insurance incentive. The purpose of this study was to provide a feasible and practicable solution for increasing implementation of hurricane resistant construction into homes. The results of this analysis concluded that there is a low percentage of homeowners investing in making their homes hurricane resilient. By re-inventing the incentive methods that insurance companies offer, this problem can step into the right direction in making more homes hurricane resilient consequently reducing damages, deaths, and economic loss.

Building information modeling (BIM) has already sparked changes in design and construction practices, ranging from new methods to coordinate work during design to supporting paperless construction sites where crews use handheld devices in lieu of paper plans. It is seen as the starting point for the larger picture, virtual design and construction (VDC). While some research has explored the feasibility of using BIM for Facilities Management (FM) this practice is yet to become widely accepted and integrated. This paper explores how VDC could improve the operations of a Facilities Management department at a large state university. Specifically, the authors examine the degree to which institutional requirements foster BIM use during building operations, the ability of models to interface with existing FM software, and the willingness of FM executives to incorporate BIM into their processes. The authors also discuss the sorts of information contained in building models that FM could find most useful, and highlight those pieces of information required for FM that many building models do not contain. Finally, the paper closes with a set of recommendations about how to create building models that more seamlessly integrate into existing Facilities Management processes at the university studied, in order to draw a set of recommendations that may apply more broadly to state universities and similar institutions.

Emerging information and communication technology (ICT) has had an enormous effect on the building architecture, engineering, construction and operation (AECO) fields in recent decades. The effects have resonated in several disciplines, such as project information flow, design representation and communication, and Building Information Modeling (BIM) approaches. However, these effects can potentially impact communication and coordination of the virtual design contents in both design and construction phases. Therefore, and with the great potential for emerging technologies in construction projects, it is essential to understand how these technologies influence virtual design information within the organizations as well as individuals’ behaviors. This research focusses on understanding current emerging technologies and its impacts on projects virtual design information and communication among projects stakeholders within the AECO organizations.

In this era of high-tech computer advancements and tremendous programmable computer capabilities, construction cost estimation still remains a knowledge-intensive and experience driven task. High reliance on human expertise, and less accuracy in the decision support tools render cost estimation error prone. Arriving at accurate cost estimates is of paramount importance because it forms the basis of most of the financial, design, and executive decisions concerning the project at subsequent stages. As its unique contribution to the body of knowledge, this paper analyzes the deviations and behavior of costs associated with different construction activities involved in commercial office tenant improvement (TI) projects. The aim of this study is to obtain useful micro-level cost information of various construction activities that make up for the total construction cost of projects. Standardization and classification of construction activities have been carried out based on Construction Specifications Institute’s (CSI) MasterFormat® division items. Construction costs from 51 office TI projects completed during 2015 and 2016 are analyzed statistically to understand the trends among various construction activities involved. It was found that the interior finishes activities showed a much higher cost of construction, and a comparatively higher variation than the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) trades. The statistical analysis also revealed a huge scope of energy saving measures that could be achieved in such TI projects because of the absence of energy management systems (EMS) found in 66% of the projects.