The accuracy of early cost estimates in engineering and construction projects is extremely important to both feasibility study and evaluation of design alternatives. In particular, to evaluate alternatives at the design stage, quick and accurate decision-making is needed under a limited definition of scope and constraints in available information and time. This study suggests an approximate cost estimation model for PSC Beam bridges based on the quantity of standard work. For model development, this study analyzed cost structure and proportion of cost items through bill of materials and quantities, identified 8 representative work items (Manufacturing PSC Beam, material, rebar fabrication/placing, supporting post/scaffolding, form work, slab waterproofing, concrete placing, deck finishing), and established approaches for quantify estimating on the work items. By utilizing the characteristics of bridges, the suggested model supports quick cost estimation with only three input values (length of span, total length of bridge, and width). The developed model is applied to 39 real projects for validation. The result of the application showed the accuracy with estimation error less than 4.04%.
During a long-term construction project, numerous stakeholders participate and collaborate with each other. In such scenario, the processes of creating, storing, and managing project documents are highly complicated. Due to the nature of the construction projects, problems arise in document management such as loss of documents and difficulties in tracking, which can result in claim failure and huge damage. This study proposes a method to efficiently record, search, and manage construction documents that can protect legal rights in preparation for claims/disputes. This study designed a system that can generate, transfer, and synchronize blocks based on email communication whenever an event occurs. It also provides functions such as document search, history tracking, automatic extraction of related document, and authenticity verification for document management. The findings of the study have established that reliability of documents is secured during the recording, storing, and managing processes, and thus claim-and dispute-supporting tasks are supported.
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