Some learning cases in the Port of Rotterdam

The purpose of this paper is to present an Integrated Life Cycle Bridge Information Modeling that can be used throughout different phases of the bridge life cycle including: design, construction, and operation and maintenance phases. Bridge Information Modeling (BrIM) has become an effective tool in bridge engineering and construction. It has been used in obtaining accurate shop drawings, cost estimation, and visualization. In this paper, BrIM is used as an integrated tool for bridges life cycle information modeling. In the design phase, BrIM model can be used in obtaining optimum construction methods and performing structural advanced analysis. During construction phase, the model selects the appropriate locations for mobile cranes, monitors the status of precast components, and controls documents. Whereas, it acts as a tool for bridge management system in operation and maintenance phase. The paper provides a detailed description for each use of BrIM model in design, construction, and operation and maintenance phases of bridges. It is proven that BrIM is an effective tool for bridge management systems throughout their life phases.

In 2011, the shipping company Maersk announced Triple-E class ships, expected to be the world's largest ships in service. Following this, 22,000 TEU container ships may become a future reality. This proposed evolution in vessel size will necessitate engineering evaluation of most modern ports to determine the capacity to receive these mega vessels. Basic infrastructure, such as the entrance channels, basins, turning circles, and the berthing and waiting areas in a port, must have adequate capacity. Quay walls, jetties, etc. must have sufficient strength to berth and moor these mega vessels safely while supporting heavier quay cranes with longer outreaches. Recently constructed infrastructure in the Port of Rotterdam, designed for Suezmax vessels, was examined to determine if there is sufficient reserve capacity to cope with the much larger 22,000 TEU vessels. The conclusion was that growth in vessel size had been anticipated during the design phase. Therefore, relatively small adaptations were required in the infrastructure. In some scenarios, operational limitations could be imposed to compensate for increased ship dimensions and associated capacity requirements.

With the wave of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the construction industry is also witnessing the application of numerous state-of-the-art technologies. Among these, augmented reality (AR) technology has the advantage of utilizing existing 3D models and BIM data and is thus an area of active research. However, the main area of research to date has either been in visualizing information during the design phase, where architects and project stakeholders can share viewings, or in confirming the required information for construction management through visualization during the construction phase. As such, more research is required in the application of AR during the facility management (FM) phase. Research utilizing BIM in the FM phase, which constitutes the longest period during the lifecycle of a building, has been continuously carried out but has faced challenges with regard to on-site application. The reason for this is that information required for BIM during the design, construction and FM phases is different, and the reproduced information is vast, so identifying the required BIM data for FM and interfacing with other systems is difficult. As a measure to overcome this limitation, advanced countries such as the US and UK have developed and are using Construction Operations Building information exchange (COBie), which is an open-source BIM-based information exchange system. In order to effectively convert open-source BIM data to AR data, this research defined COBie data for windows and doors, converted them to a system and validated that it could actually be applied for on-site FM. The results of this system’s creation and validation showed that the proposed AR-based smart FMS demonstrated faster and easier access to information compared with existing 2D blueprint-based FM work, while information obtained through AR allowed for immediate, more visual and easier means to express the information when integrated with actual objects.

Purpose This paper aims to analyze the impact of sustainability measures taken during the design and construction phases, by examining two categories of sustainability: energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions and material selection and waste management. These aspects are examined from the perspectives of long-term building performance and maintenance practices, as well as user/tenant satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach This study includes a literature review related to the two topics under consideration, followed by a comparative case study analysis of four projects to determine practical validity. All case studies in this paper used a semi-structured survey with various project stakeholders, which helped the authors identify measures taken as well as obstacles and challenges during the process. Findings According to the four case studies, adequate attention should be paid to the two areas of interest during a project’s design and construction phases. Including case studies from around the world (four case studies from three different countries) offers insights into effective sustainability practices in building design and construction, providing instances of successful implementation and emphasizing the obstacles and potential when incorporating sustainability into the design and construction phases. Research limitations/implications The findings also show that design and construction participants and companies should reduce waste generation and carbon emissions. In addition, they should make decisions on material selection to enhance projects’ sustainability and to contribute to creating a habitable planet for the future. Originality/value The influence of the design and construction phases on long-term project sustainability is of major importance and concern to users, owners, designers, contractors and facility managers. This study illustrates the necessity of including sustainability measures in the design and construction phases, highlighting the importance of sustainability in building design and construction through effective implementation techniques and interdisciplinary teamwork to realize sustainable goals.

The fragmented nature of the construction industry, lack of supervision on the operational status of buildings after completion and complexity of scoring systems of some sustainability assessment tools are among the reasons that make the implementation of such tools in developing countries difficult. The aim of this paper is to introduce a new criteria-based sustainability assessment tool for residential buildings in Iran by considering the project management body of knowledge as a reference for developing categories and a guideline to define a framework for evaluating different phases of construction. The analytic hierarchy process is employed as a method of prioritisation of the sustainability criteria studied. All the criteria are categorised into five groups: resource management, quality management, environmental impacts management, zone management and risk management, in which they are assessed in the three phases of design, construction and operation. The unique features of the tool that distinguish this tool from others are: assigning the project manager as the sole authority to implement, monitor and control the sustainable assessment tool; simplicity of assessment method; cyclic evaluation of project after completion; incorporating a managerial approach towards solving the environmental problems; and phasic appraisal of construction works.

The complexity of constructing medical institutions is higher than that of general buildings, and many change orders in the design and defect repairs in the construction phase are required due to strict government regulations. The priority control of constructions and impact factors of medical institutions were analyzed in this study, and difficulties in the control in the design and construction phase were identified. First, the priority management factors that were identified were as follows: architecture, facilities, and electricity. Second, 1) priority management in constructions and factors resulting in change orders and 2) priority management in constructions involving defect repair were analyzed. Third, the importance recognized by the construction managers were analyzed. The priority management in constructions and factors that were recognized by the construction manager were deducted as having low importance, although there were many change orders and defects. The work of finishing, wall building, joining, office automation and communication function, and lighting were analyzed in the design phase, and waste, the office automation and communication function, ceilings, contamination control, and plumbing were analyzed in the construction phase. The results showed that there will be a decrease in change orders and defects if the concentration of the manager was elevated and priorities were managed.

Purpose The recent research trend of building information modelling (BIM) involves interoperability and issues pertaining to the design, construction, operations, and maintenance phases of a building. However, few researchers are concerned with problems encountered in the last two phases of the building life cycle. Since BIM has been widely used in the design and construction phases, further expanding the BIM data stream to the post-construction phase can not only establish a consistent, shared database for information exchange between the phases but assist in current facility management applications. This research reconceptualises BIM with object-oriented thoughts to a space-based representation, and tries to construct an interface between BIM and existing facility management software. Method Model-driven architecture (MDA) is one of the modern software design approaches. With its foundation – meta-object facility (MOF) – and model transformation, MDA provides an ideal solution for easily maintaining the interoperability. In this research, a MOF of a building is constructed by imitating the MDA approach, encapsulating BIM data and providing an interface for external facility management software. This MOF of a building is designed with spatial interference due to the maintenance and repair work is usually based on the space. Results & Discussion A conceptual demonstration of disaster mitigation is conducted to test the feasibility of using MDA to encapsulate BIM data for extended applications. Furthermore, the expected results are reconstructing maintenance records to a space-based database for a better software design and a solution for interoperability.

Regardless of potential benefits of design for safety (DFS) concept for lifecycle safety management in construction industry, DFS adoption as an early intervention has been slower than expected. While existing research mainly con­centrates on construction and operation phases, the role of design phase in construction safety management is always ignored. To validate the influence of DFS concept on lifecycle safety performance, this research conducted an incident case analysis (ICA) based on 442 cases collected from lifecycle subway projects, and a subway design-incident classification model (SDICM) was developed to help identify their relationship to DFS concept. Network theory was applied to study the interdependence of 22 subsystems obtained from China’s code for metro design in lifecycle safety performance. Research findings show 236 out of 442 accidents are linked to DFS. Compared with construction phase, operation phase is more susceptible to design work. Station Building (SB), Section Construction (SC), Platform Screen Doors (PSD), Vehicle Systems (VES) and Power Supply Systems (PSS) are identified as having the highest number of accidents. The results of network analysis are consistent with ICA and demonstrate the safety interdependence of subsystems. This research can help improve the cognizance of DFS, and the identified subsystems should be given priority in the design phase.

This study explores designers, engineers, and managers sharing their knowledge and resolving design-related issues during construction site meetings. It provides new insights into the collaboration and the expertise of the different partners. In addition, the study provides new knowledge of using LPS in the design phase and its influence on the site meeting discussions in the construction phase. The research data comprise video recordings of 17 site meetings in two BIM-based renovation projects. Based on the data, the construction managers were the most active in addressing issues; however, all partners were actively involved in the discussion and shared their expertise to address the open questions. The use of the Last Planner System in the design phase seemed to decrease the number of design-related open questions in the construction phase. The findings emphasize the need to develop more collaborative design management methods and practices for sharing each expertise.

Teaching senior design courses and labs has not been an easy task for the two authors. It has been rather a daunting working task associated with great learning experiences. It was decided early on from the initiation of the mechanical engineering program at the McCoy School of Engineering at Midwestern State University that the senior design project within the senior design class is a testing and enriching experience for senior mechanical engineering students as well as the teaching faculty. The senior design course and labs are conducted as a research experience for undergraduate students and their assigned faculty. The proposed senior project spans over two semesters, fall and spring, where the students experience a full mechanical engineering related project from the inception phase, through the design and construction phases, and finishing with the testing and analysis phases. The inception phase stands essentially for the brainstorming phase where the students are required to come-up with a set of diverse solutions to their assigned project problem. The design and construction phases stand for choosing an optimal particular solution for their problem according to a set of defined criteria. Then, the students start the preliminary design phase with related cost estimation, and then finalize the design with a set of final drawings. After the design phase, the students start building a machine, an apparatus, a prototype or putting together the elements of a process. In this period they work intensely, with their faculty, the purchasing department, and mostly the department machinist, or the surrounding town machine shops. The testing and analysis phase stands for designing an experimental set-up, writing a testing procedure, and obtaining real time recorded data and proceeding with its analysis. In this technical paper, the authors talk about the requirements for a senior project known as the deliverables, the teaching tools used throughout the class work and labs, the students’ partial and final PowerPoints presentations and weekly and final reports. The authors describe the students overall achievements, and the archiving of the projects. Additionally, the authors talk about the twists and turns encountered during a senior project, with students, other faculty, the machinist, the lab technician, the secretary, and suppliers, and other difficulties experienced in running a full project with real final products. Finally, the authors talk about the aftermath of a senior project, eventual publications related to the project, and what is the view point of the American Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) on these senior projects.

Considering sustainability in cruise vessel design and construction based on existing sustainability certification systems

Optimizing the transition between design and operation of ZEBs: Lessons learnt from the Solar Decathlon China 2018 SCUTxPoliTo prototype

Problems of delay occur in all phases of construction projects. While most previous studies have focused on finding causes or overcoming delays in the construction phase, few studies have analyzed delay problems in the planning and design phases. The main purpose of this study is to identify and rank delay causes in the planning and design phases. A structured questionnaire was sent to engineers at the A/E companies for public construction projects in Taiwan. Based on 95 valid responses, this study identified the delay causes and analyzed the importance and frequency of delays using the relative importance index. Analytical results reveal that “changes in client’s requirement” are the main causes of delays in both planning and design phases. The finding is good justification for many public clients who usually change their requirements during the planning and design phases that really delay construction projects.

This paper discusses a 16,000-ft (4,877 m) reclaimed water transmission main project for JEA through a busy corridor in Jacksonville, FL. The pipeline route includes multiple trenchless crossings, two state highway crossings, navigation of easements, and open cut construction along a four-lane divided boulevard. Throughout the design and construction phases, numerous challenges arose. Those include a major crossing of a multilane state highway, an adjacent state department of transportation highway project, crossing a dual box culvert and creek, navigating a key corridor through a college campus area, accessing easements, and COVID-19 impacts. The evolution and resolution of each challenge presents an interesting case study. Throughout the course of the project, multiple stakeholders provided input and expectations that were incorporated, including federal, state, and local agencies, a university, and private landowners. Understanding and addressing multiple viewpoints was critical. Ultimately, continuous collaboration and coordination between the project team and the stakeholders were the key factors in the success of the project. The presentation provides a dynamic overview of the project through the design and construction phases, with a detailed account of the resolution of several challenges that arose, and the benefits of the project team's collaborative approach. © 2021 ASCE.

Development of quality improvement procedures and tools for facility management BIM