George Jergeas

Analysis of the front-end loading of Alberta mega oil sands projects

Recent large capital oil sands construction projects have all experienced significant cost overruns. There are a number of reasons for these overruns, some of which are listed in this article. This article provides a review of recent experiences and challenges in delivering mega oil sands projects in Alberta. In addition, this article focuses on the front-end loading (planning) phases 1, 2, and 3 and describes the effort needed to deliver mega projects, provides schedule comparisons of key engineering milestones, and analyzes scope changes and contingencies.

Construction Productivity Improvement: A Study of Human, Management and External Issues

Advancements in construction are concentrated largely on producing innovative practices to perform construction projects in an efficient and timely manner. Understanding the relationship between performance on the job site and level of productivity is important to develop best and innovative practices to improve construction productivity. This paper explains the ongoing research project within Alberta construction industry to identify the most critical aspects in terms of human, external and management issues that affect construction productivity. The pilot study interviewed very experienced personnel from the construction sector not only to prioritize the factors but also to identify the measurement criteria to improve future construction projects. The second phase of the research and the deliverables are also outlined in the paper.

Why Cost and Schedule Overruns on Mega Oil Sands Projects

Developing and constructing oil sand megaprojects are huge technological, engineering, and construction achievements for Alberta and Canada. Thousands of engineering and project management professionals and workers are contributing to the current effort with great pride and sense of satisfaction. But recent large capital oil sands construction projects have all experienced significant cost and schedule overruns. There are a number of reasons for these overruns. This paper provides a definition of a “megaproject,” illustrates the challenges in delivering oil sands megaprojects, and lists a number of reasons for cost and schedule overruns.

Practical difficulties encountered in attempting to implement a partnering approach

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present practical difficulties in attempting to implement a partnering approach.Design/methodology/approach – The paper comprises empirical evidence from case studies in Norway and Canada and an extensive literature review on partnering.Findings – The authors identified a lack of shared understanding of key partnering concepts, missing initial effort to establish shared ground rules, communication difficulties in inter‐organizational relationships and unclear (perceived) roles and responsibilities. In existing partnering literature, a large number of construction studies have identified conceptual partnering models. However, studies that describe partnering models to take these practical difficulties into account have not been found and the paper develops a practical model that outlines the phases of a typical partnering effort.Research limitations/implications – Partnering has both a legal/contractual side and a management/collaboration side. This paper looks at ...

Decision tree module within decision support simulation system

Decision trees are one of the most easy to use tools in decision analysis. Problems where decision tree branches are based on random variables have not received much attention. This paper introduces a successful application of a special purpose simulation (SPS) program in developing a decision tree module that is part of a unified decision support system (DSS) template. The DSS template consists of three modules: decision tree (DT), shortest and longest path dynamic programming (DP) network, and cost/time (CT) estimate network. The DT module integrates with other modules and allows users to model decision trees with variables that are based on probabilistic random numbers. This paper introduces the DSS-DT module and shows its advantages.

A New Approach to Project Risk Navigation

This chapter briefly outlines a new approach to project risk navigation. It defines the Bermuda Project Risk Triangle symbolized as a territory containing all three categories of risk: operational, strategic and contextual. The new approach to project risk navigation can be compared to navigating in the Bermuda Triangle. Uncertainty and risk have to be expected and accepted. To navigate in the triangle requires new knowledge that is not commonly possessed today. Hence a change process needs to take place. This is illustrated as a three leg journey: explore, adapt, and deliver. The Extended Project Risk Navigator is introduced. This contains three main components: governance system, decision process, and strategic planning. A comparison between the new approach and the conventional way is made.

Hybrid Simulation Environment for Construction Projects: Identification of System Design Criteria

Large construction projects are complex, dynamic, and unpredictable. They are subject to external and uncontrollable events that affect their schedule and financial outcomes. Project managers take decisions along the lifecycle of the projects to align with projects objectives. These decisions are data dependent where data change over time. Simulation-based modeling and experimentation of such dynamic environment are a challenge. Modeling of large projects or multiprojects is difficult and impractical for standalone computers. This paper presents the criteria required in a simulation environment suitable for modeling large and complex systems such as construction projects to support their lifecycle management. Also presented is a platform that encompasses the identified criteria. The objective of the platform is to facilitate and simplify the simulation and modeling process and enable the inclusion of complexity in simulation models.

Design Field Bending Moment Coefficients for Interior Reinforced Concrete Flat Plates

This paper proposes new coefficients for design bending moments for interior reinforced concrete flat plates. These design coefficients are safe for strength and serviceability and are calculated using Hillerborg’s advanced strip method design approach and finite-element method. The Hillerborg-Wood-Armer rules were used to convert field moments to design moments. The paper also introduced graphs. These can be used to determine the length of the top reinforcement in an interior flat plate. The findings are the only available solution for designing flat plates with aspect ratios higher than 2.0.

STAKEHOLDER VIEWS ON IT IN CONSTRUCTION: A NORTH AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE

Recent research study at the University of Calgary, Canada emphasized the immediate need of effective communication among all the construction project stakeholders – i.e. workers, construction managers, consultants, and clients. All these stakeholders identified lack of ‘on-site’ communication as a key reason for low productivity. Construction industry is known for its’ resistance in using Information Technologies (IT) compared to manufacturing, military, and agriculture industries. However, the construction workers participated in this study expressed their willingness and ability to use modern communication technologies in the work environment. The construction companies (managers) were not confident to acquire information technologies to the construction workface. They pointed the unavailability of information on worker abilities, technologies, possible outcomes, related costs, and benefits as the reasons for this resistance. Technology developers had difficulties to understand specific communication needs of the construction industry. This paper presents a summary of the views and concerns expressed by the construction industry stakeholders in North America regarding the possibilities and opportunities in using IT in construction projects. The paper is concluded with a set of recommendation to optimize the IT use in the construction industry.

Analysis of the Usage of the CII/COAA Benchmarking and Project Performance Assessment System

AbstractThe Construction Owners Association of Alberta (COAA) and the Construction Industry Institute (CII), in collaboration with the University of Calgary, researched project performance improvement. The research investigated the usage of the COAA/CII benchmarking system in order to draw attention to the benefit of improved project performance in Alberta. A qualitative research methodology was used for investigating the usage of the system. Interviews, which contained open-ended questions, were conducted with industry practitioners. The results of the research showed that a lack of resources and a lack of an understanding of benchmarking are the major barriers to adopting the benchmarking system. The usage of the system will contribute to better project performance. The system has the potential to contribute to a reduction in cost and schedule overruns. It is concluded that the system can provide a guide for companies to improve project performance in Canada.