John I. Messner

An investigation of Chinese BOT projects in water supply: a comparative perspective

China has used the Build–Operate–Transfer (BOT) delivery method since the early 1980s. However, there has been a varying degree of success achieved through the use of this method aimed toward the increased development of economic infrastructure projects. The Chinese government continues to shift and revise their delivery approach on BOT projects to maintain public welfare and improve the potential for project success based on lessons learned from practice. Private sponsors accordingly design or adjust their strategies to survive and succeed in this turbulent market environment. Three representative BOT water projects in China were compared to provide both descriptive and predictive insights to both public and private parties involved in water BOT projects in China. Critical lessons were drawn from government initiatives in project institutional settings regarding government support, procurement method, tariff formulae, approval system, and dispute resolution process. Four generic strategies used by private sponsors were identified through these case studies including cost leadership, transaction size maximization, localization, and involvement of multilateral financial organization.

BIM server requirements to support the energy efficient building lifecycle

Energy efficient building design, construction, and operations require the development and sharing of building information among different individuals, organizations, and computer applications. Building Information Modeling (BIM) servers are tools used to enable an effective exchange of data. This paper describes an investigation into the core BIM server requirements needed to effectively support information sharing related to energy efficient retrofit projects. The requirements have been developed through an analysis of existing functional capabilities combined with a case study analysis. The set of requirements identified includes fine-grained queries such as selective model queries, information queries (e.g. weather, building description), and operational information queries (by building parts, proximity, and context). A set of RESTful programming interfaces for building tools to access and exchange data, including security and data privacy issues, is being explored to provide a server-centric building information model exchange and interoperability to facilitate energy efficient retrofit.

Educational Simulation in Construction: Virtual Construction Simulator

Students in the architecture, engineering, and construction disciplines are often challenged with visualizing and understanding the complex spatial and temporal relationships involved in designing and constructing three-dimensional (3D) structures. An evolving body of research traces the use of educational computer simulations to enhance student learning experiences through testing real-world scenarios and the development of student decision-making skills. Ongoing research at Pennsylvania State University aims to improve engineering education in construction through interactive construction project learning applications in an immersive virtual reality environment. This paper describes the first- and second-generation development of the Virtual Construction Simulator (VCS), a tool that enables students to simultaneously create and review construction schedules through 3D model interaction. The educational value and utility of VCS was assessed through surveys, focus group interviews, and a student exercise ...

A Recommended Practices System for a Global Virtual Engineering Team

Abstract The use of a global virtual engineering team (GVET) for the execution of engineering projects has been increasingly applied in the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) industry, but identifying the best methods for organizing and managing these geographically dispersed teams is a significant challenge. These teams, organized through communication and information technologies, need to overcome space, time, functional, organizational, national and cultural barriers for the completion of an engineering task. This study identifies and categorizes recommended practices for GVET design and implementation by an extensive study and survey from both owner and EPC contractor perspectives. An outcome of the study is a framework for execution plan generation to establish overseas (support) offices and execute geographically distributed engineering projects. A computer application is also developed to facilitate the use of the framework and accumulate lessons learned during the use of the tool. The practices collected provide a wide range of references for owner organizations and EPC contractors to establish and manage GVET according to specific capital project scenarios.

Permanent versus Mobile Entry Decisions in International Construction Markets: Influence of Home Country- and Firm-Related Factors

When entering a selected foreign market, the contractor must decide between permanent entry mode and mobile entry mode. By following theories and previous studies in international business, hypotheses were developed regarding the influences of several firm- and home country–related factors upon the selection between the two generic entry modes. These factors include home market attractiveness, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, firm size, and multinational experience. A binary logistic regression analysis was then performed, with results supporting most of the hypotheses. With other conditions held constant, contractors do not tend to determine entry mode under the influence of their long-term orientation but are more likely to use permanent entry than mobile entry when home market size is insignificant and uncertainty avoidance, firm size, or multinational experience is significant. The interaction effects of entry restriction by other factors were also explored. The findings can aid contracto...

Towards a Cyber-Physical Systems Approach to Construction

There have been several isolated attempts to automate aspects of the construction project delivery process. These have only been marginally successful and it is increasingly being recognized that significant improvements can only be made through an integrated approach that involves the synergistic integration of information technologies into the project delivery process. A cyber-physical systems approach is expected to reduce the tremendous losses that are directly attributable to the inefficiencies associated with the lack of effective integration. This paper describes a specific effort that seeks to facilitate real-time consistency checking between virtual models and the physical construction. It argues for the effective integration of computational resources (such as wireless sensors, virtual prototyping, real-time tracking and data fusion) with the design and construction process, and outlines how bi-directional consistency can be maintained between the virtual models (which are often ignored once the physical construction commences) and the physical facility. The opportunity offered by the adoption of a cyber-physical systems approach to make the construction process more intelligent and sustainable is discussed and the key benefits highlighted.

A Unified Process Approach to Healthcare Project Delivery: Synergies between Greening Strategies, Lean Principles and BIM

The healthcare industry is one of the most significant built environment markets today with over 120,000 buildings in the United States. In spite of the recent decrease in construction spending, it is estimated that healthcare construction will rise dramatically in the next 10 years. Therefore, there is a great opportunity for improvements to be made in this market segment. Healthcare facilities are amongst the most complex facilities to design, construct and operate. Green healthcare can enable improved clinical outcomes, lower operating costs, energy consumption and water use. Lean principles emphasize whole process optimization through collaboration, continuous improvement, elimination of waste and a focus on delivering the value desired by the end-user (patients). Patients are a very special category of end-users, and their needs and health are the highest priority. The complicated healthcare building delivery system can benefit from focusing on the value adding activities and eliminating the wasteful ones. Building Information Modeling (BIM) can be very beneficial for healthcare projects because of the complexity within the building systems in terms of indoor environmental quality, cooling and heating loads, and also the large quantity of medical equipment. This paper examines the synergies existent in the healthcare construction market segment in terms of greening strategies, lean principles and BIM during the programming and early design stages of a project to provide a combined benefit greater than the sum of their individual benefits. A conceptual model is presented to improve healthcare facility delivery. Additionally, a research plan for future work is outlined and explained, and conclusions are drawn.

Cost and Schedule Reduction of Nuclear Power Plant Construction Using 4D CAD and Immersive Display Technologies

A strategic goal of the Nuclear Engineering Institute as defined in Vision 2020 includes the addition of 50,000 MW of safe and reliable nuclear plant capability in the United States by 2020. To meet this goal, the new plants will need to be developed in an efficient and safe manner. New visualization technologies including 4D CAD and immersive display environments offer promising avenues to improve design, construction, and operation processes of these complex facilities. This paper presents our progress to evaluate the application of 4D CAD and immersive display tools to reduce the time to and costs of constructing new nuclear plants. The results from the initial phase of this research show that the use of a virtual immersion environment to display the 3D plant design is beneficial to the designer and contractor. Our current focus is on the development of tools to allow construction experts to better visualize the construction sequence using 4D CAD so they can provide critical design feedback prior to starting construction. This will ultimately reduce the number of construction interferences in the field and help minimize the quantity of changes during construction.

Assessing the Relevance of Media Synchronicity Theory to the Use of Communication Media in the AECO Industry

Recent developments in technology, such as building information models (BIMs), immersive displays, and mobile computing tools, have enabled changes in the means and locations of communication throughout the building architecture, engineering, construction, and operation (AECO) industry. This paper presents the findings from an exploratory study regarding the planning of physical media for effective communication in conjunction with the developments in BIM use. While literature shows that there has been noticeable impact of physical media on communication, there has been little evidence of consistent and thorough planning and evaluation of media for investment or project level planning. The exploratory study identifies media synchronicity theory as a starting point for identifying the media needs by task for more effective planning of communication, as well as potential considerations unique to the AECO industry. The paper concludes with studies which have begun for planning more specific applications for ...

AN INTERACTIVE VISUALIZATION ENVIRONMENT FOR CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING EDUCATION

The ability to visualize the built environment is a critical skill required by design and construction engineering students. Students in Civil and Architectural Engineering programs typically learn to analyze project designs and plan their construction by reviewing 2D CAD drawings and developing Critical Path Method (CPM) schedules. With recent advancements in computer display technology, it is now possible to place students within a large -scale, immersive projection display that allows them to experience and experiment with 3D, full scale virtual prototypes of construction project s. This advanced visual communication can significantly improve the ability of students to comprehend, learn, and gain experience with reviewing designs for constructability and planning the construction of complex building and infrastructure projects. This paper presents the current status and vision for ongoing research into the implementation of advanced visualization technologies within the Construction Engineering and Management option in the Architectural Engineering Department at Penn State. The goal of our ongoing research i s to improve engineering education in building and infrastructure design and construction through the use of interactive construction learning modules in an immersive virtual reality environment. The development of a Virtual Construction Simulator (VCS) is discussed which will allow students to immerse themselves into a 3D construction project, perform a detailed analysis of the design, and develop a plan for the construction process. The successful implementation of 4D Computer Aided Design (CAD) modeling (3D CAD with schedule time as the 4th dimension) in an undergraduate curriculum is presented with important lessons learned. The process for visualizing these 4D CAD models within a large immersive display system is also described. The results of this process yield useful experience in the development of a visualization facility and the implementation of 4D CAD in an immersive display system. These lessons along with the future learning module development are presented.