Hassanein, A (2003) Planning and scheduling highway construction using GIS and dynamic programming. PhD thesis, Concordia University, Canada.
Abstract
This study presents a model to plan, schedule and control the construction of highway projects. A two-state-variable, N-stage dynamic programming procedure, in conjunction with a set of heuristic rules, is capable of generating schedules to meet a specified budget or duration restraints, and can select the optimum expediting technique to reduce project duration. The proposed model incorporates both typical (equal quantity of work in all units) and non-typical (varying quantities along highway length) repetitive activities in the optimization procedure. The proposed model accounts for the impact of practical factors, such as transverse obstructions, on crew assignment and project duration and cost. The impact of inclement weather on crew productivity is accounted for, as well as the beneficial effects of the learning curve. A relational database model is developed to store: (1) local weather conditions, (2) swell and shrinkage factors for various soil types, and (3) the available resource pool. The model supports tracking and controlling project progress utilising the earned value concept. A flexible and practical methodology is proposed to forecast project time and cost at completion, enabling the assignment of a higher weight to recent crew performance. A prototype software based on the model is developed, coded in Visual C++ (version 6. 0), employing object oriented programming. ArcView® version 3. 1 is employed as the GIS engine, and the 3-D data analysis is carried out employing ArcView® 3D Analyst. (Abstract shortened by UMI. )
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Moselhi, O |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | duration; optimization; highway; crew productivity; learning; productivity; programming; heuristic; weather |
| Index terms: | programming, methodology, weather, data analysis, relational database, scheduling, prototype, highway construction, dynamic programming, crew performance, duration, heuristic, crew productivity, productivity |
| Subjects: | programming, risk assessment, air quality, data analysis and analytics, operations research, modelling and simulation, management, research methods, algorithms, civil engineering, project controls, data management |
| Topics: | Engineering Principles, Risk Management, Sustainability, Business Strategy, Research Practice, Digital Applications, Time Control, Site Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here