Title |
A methodology for an effective utilization of construction equpiment for highway construction projects |
Authors |
Song, Hojeong ; Choi, Jaehyun |
DOI |
http://dx.doi.org/10.6106/KJCEM.2014.15.6.026 |
Keywords |
Highway Construction ; Planning and Scheduling Equipment Combinations ; Process Simulation |
Abstract |
Highway construction is a combination of linear, repetitive, and highly equipment intensive operations. Various types of construction equipment are deployed to ensure undisrupted performance of construction, and thus productivity improvement and cost-saving can be achieved through well-thought-out planning. The selection of construction equipment is dependent upon construction sequence, site conditions, and construction methods. In the process of planning, management should consider various types of construction methods per each type of construction operation. Also, management should map out proper construction equipment operation plan that takes the construction duration and cost measures into consideration. However, limited availability of historic data from the similar types of operations has been a stumbling block to proper construction planning, making the operations performed based upon experience and intuition guided by rules-of-thumb. As a consequence, the planing phase rarely provided an adequate validity in the implementation phase. The researchers developed a process logic for each construction type that management can utilize from early phase of highway construction planning process. Moreover, derived the construction equipment combination optimized for efficiency by using the process simulation technique. The developed method is expected to be useful for the decision-making process that aims to evaluate efficiency of various process plans and to ensure optimal selection of construction equipment for highway construction projects |