Work-related injury insurance (WRII) is essential for protecting workers’ rights and enhancing workplace safety, yet its promotion in construction faces challenges. This study investigates WRII adoption barriers and facilitators in China’s construction sector using a mixed-methods approach. Semi-structured interviews with 14 industry experts were conducted, followed by thematic analysis to identify key barriers. An analytic hierarchy process was then applied to prioritize these barriers. The findings reveal six main barriers: (1) cumbersome claim process, (2) incomplete law and regulation system, (3) weak right-protection awareness of construction workers, (4) weak legal consciousness of contractors, (5) unreasonable compensation treatment and fund management, and (6) difficulties in employment relationship identification. To address these challenges, the study proposes five targeted measures: (1) simplifying the claim process, (2) promulgating authoritative and detailed laws and regulations, (3) strengthening supervision and law enforcement, (4) strengthening advocacy, and (5) improving insurance compensation and fund management. These findings offer practical guidance for policymakers to enhance WRII effectiveness in China’s construction industry and provide insights applicable to other developing countries. Despite limitations related to expert judgment and sector focus, the study offers valuable recommendations for future research on cross-industry comparisons and digital solutions for WRII.

This study evaluates the effects of fineness-modified Class F fly ash (FA) on the performance of Type I and Type II Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) mortars. FA was mechanically ground to achieve 90% (GFA1) and 98% (GFA2) passing through a 45-µm sieve, replacing OPC at 10%, 30%, and 50% by weight. Comprehensive testing included compressive strength, water demand, setting time, heat of hydration, acid resistance, and microstructural analysis. Results demonstrated that increasing FA fineness reduced water demand by up to 6.3% (Type I) and 5.9% (Type II) at 30% replacement, while enhancing long-term strength. Mortars with 10% GFA2 achieved 58.6 MPa at 56 days. Type II OPC blends exhibited superior acid resistance, with mass loss reductions of 43% (50% GFA2) compared to Type I, attributed to lower C₃A content and denser microstructures. Hydration heat decreased by 10.9% in Type II OPC, further reduced by 40% with 50% FA replacement. The microstructural analysis confirmed reduced ettringite formation and enhanced compactness in FA-modified mortars, correlating with improved durability. These findings highlight the viability of finely ground FA as a sustainable supplementary material, enabling highvolume FA utilization (up to 50%). The study provides critical insights for optimizing greener cement formulations, particularly in regions prioritizing Type II OPC for sulfate resistance and moderate heat applications, advancing Malaysia’s net-zero carbon goals through reduced clinker reliance.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been widely adopted for construction inspections due to its ability to integrate multiple data sources. Engineers use BIM to identify and review site issues, yet inspection systems face several challenges. Firstly, positioning inspection areas on a construction site using BIM with Augmented Reality (AR) requires complex model manipulation. Additionally, signal or Internet connectivity issues may limit positioning technologies. Secondly, human error or interference is common in traditional inspection processes due to their complexity. To overcome these barriers, this research applied BIM and AR with Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (VSLAM) to help inspectors quickly and effectively record construction defects as photographs with notes and their locations. An efficient approach is proposed to integrate BIM and AR with VSLAM, and a prototype is developed to validate and demonstrate how the proposed system can assist a site inspector in performing quality management, even offline. The system uses a two-phase indoor positioning method: initial localization via visual markers and real-time tracking with VSLAM, enabling precise defect tracking and efficient model adjustments. While significantly improving inspection accuracy and efficiency, its performance is affected by environmental factors like lighting and marker placement, providing insights for future refinement.

The worldwide interest on value creation has triggered an increasing number of articles, especially after a new paradigm named service-dominant logic was announced in 2004. However, limited research exists on the whole picture of value creation in the field of construction projects. Therefore, the current study is expected to reveal the status and future directions of value creation studies under construction projects. A number of 63 journal articles between 2004 and 2022 were analysed via a combined bibliographic and bibliometric approach, which covers annual publication, institutional and regional contribution, author contribution and keyword analyses. Results indicated that most published articles were based on the developed economies, such as the United Kingdom, Finland and Norway. Keywords such as megaproject, governance, social value and co-creation are emphasised, as analysed using CiteSpace software. Three implications, namely, value creation in developing areas, megaproject value creation, and perceived value perspective, are highlighted. The better understanding of the relevant literature could largely benefit academic peer researchers on value creation. Moreover, the holistic review of the literature body efficiently identifies the knowledge gaps and outlines avenues for following scholars and facilitating high-quality development of the construction engineering industry.

Relationship conflict is commonplace during the cooperation period between the general contractor and subcontractor. However, how to prevent the adverse effect arising from relationship conflict on the final project outcome is scarce, especially in empirical studies. Drawing on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, a theoretical model revealing the underlying deteriorating mechanism (relational behavior) and corresponding prevention strategies (prior ties) is developed. Based on 174 questionnaires collected from the Chinese construction industry, the model and proposed hypotheses are empirically examined. The results suggest that relationship conflict between the general contractor and subcontractor harms cooperation performance, and relational behavior mediates this relationship. If the general contractor and subcontractor have a prior cooperative relationship, the devasting impact of relationship conflict can be undermined. These findings deepen the understanding of the underlying mechanism by which relationship conflict impairs the final cooperation performance and afford insights into relationship conflict management from a pre-prevention perspective.

Bushfires, also known as wildfires in some parts of the world, is a major hazard with significant risks to communities and the environment. Such fires can initiate from a number of sources including lightning. However, one of the possibilities for initiating bushfires is faults in the power system. Faults in conductors can happen overtime and monitoring is essential for effective maintenance and avoiding unnecessary power failures. Simultaneously, assessing conductor reliability is critical for powerline asset management. This paper comprehensively reviews conductor design and monitoring in the distribution network. Various conductor types and applications are described using population statistics from the Australian power distribution network. Furthermore, the design approach in the Australian Standard is briefly explained and further design methodologies are assessed, emphasizing the progress of innovative approaches. Additionally, potential conductor failure modes in Australia’s distribution network are identified. The paper also outlines different condition assessment methods and explores their advancement. Finally, possible models for evaluating conductor reliability are examined, underscoring their benefits in accounting for weather-induced impacts.

The requisition for maintainable constructions has been greatly raising over the last several years. To fulfil the maintainability necessities of a construction, decisions or changes must be done to a construction in the course of the preconstruction and design steps. This can be plausible utilizing building information modelling. To indicate the utilize of building information modelling in maintainable planning, an example nursing-house is received for modelling research. The energy efficiency of nursing-home is analysed utilizing Autodesk Revit and Green Building Studio simulation which contained different characteristics such as annual heating and cooling loads, annual energy usage. Through using the utilize of different building, insulation and roof materials in the nursing-home modelling, the nursing-home modelling is changed into a greener construction modelling. In addition, the effects of using green walls on the facade of the building on the energy performance were analysed. Utilizing simulation, the utilize of non-natural sources can be dramatically decreased through substituting for them with the utilize of sustainable natural sources by that means energy saving. Building information modelling has substantiated to be effective in providing maintainability with alternative material’s assessment and earlier decision-making. Furthermore, this study employed an integrated new MCDM model to evaluate the performance of four natural stones for utilize in a nursing home setting.

In many European cities, municipal authorities have placed restrictions on private transport in city centres to comply with national and European regulations aimed at reducing traffic congestion, air pollution levels, polluting gases emission from transport and the consequences on climate change that have affected the quality of life of the inhabitants. Park and ride (P&R) facilities are key elements to introduce restrictions on private transport in city centres to reduce congestion. In this paper, a methodology is proposed, through multi-criteria decision methods, to determine a sustainable P&R rating and classification. The optimal solution or set of solutions, for P&R facilities is determined by taking into account sustainability criteria: environmental, economic, functional and social. A modified VIKOR multi-criteria decision method was developed and applied by using the Mahalanobis distance by taking into account the correlation between variables. The proposed methodology provides the most sustainable alternatives of P&R and allows local authorities to prioritize necessary actions to achieve more sustainable urban mobility. The method developed was applied to study the P&R system designed for the city of Madrid.

In Chile, photography arrived at the end of the 19th century together with the establishment of settlements of migrants from central Europe to southern Chile. The aims of this study are: (i) contextualise functional states of existing buildings in a specific sector of the historic Valdivia city centre; (ii) determine the state of conservation of the 42 cases under study; (iii) conduct qualitative and quantitative analyses of the main pathologies presented in the sample; (iv) perform an analysis focused on the urban context according to façade alignment, façade visibility index, and ratio of height versus street width; and (v) comparatively analyse the results achieved. This research reflects the importance of developing innovative procedures and mitigation strategies focused on preventive maintenance actions and future control systems that can maximise the resilience of a specific local context (Los Ríos region) and its surroundings. This study revealed that the number of pathologies detected was directly proportional to the state of conservation of the cases, classified by the functional service life model. Properties in Condition C were mainly affected by pathologies of a structural nature, which indicates that their functionality is not guaranteed, and a deeper inspection is needed for conservation and preservation actions.

Monitoring the performance of reinforced concrete structures, particularly in terms of strength reduction, presents significant challenges due to the practical limitations of traditional detection methods. This study introduces an innovative framework that incorporates a non-destructive technique using electromagnetic waves (EM-waves) transmitted via Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, combined with two-dimensional (2-D) Fourier transform, fractal dimension analysis, and deep learning techniques to predict reductions in structural strength. Experiments were conducted on three reinforced concrete beam (RCB) specimens exhibiting various levels of reinforcement corrosion. From these, a dataset of 1,800 EMwave images was generated and classified into “normal” and “reduced strength” categories. These categories were used to train and validate a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), which demonstrated robust performance, achieving a high accuracy of 0.91 and an F1-score of 0.93 in classifying instances of reduced structural strength. This approach offers a promising solution for detecting strength reduction in reinforced concrete infrastructures, enhancing both safety and maintenance efficiency. First published online 5 November 2024