Methods of Construction

Water Resources Engineering

Fourth Year (2017 – 2018)
2 Hours / Week, 3 Units

Ayub Mirza
MSc Civil & Environmental Engineering
Outlines of the Course
 Introduction about the construction industry.

 Construction Activities, Project development.

 Site planning
 Project control, project Supervising

 Earthworks and Soil Stabilization

 Construction Equipment

 Air Compressors and Pumps

 Form Works

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References

1. Construction Planning, Equipment and Methods,2006.

By Robert L. Peurifoy
2. Construction Methods and Management, 2007.
By S.W. Nunnally
3. Construction Equipment Management for Engineers Estimators and
Owners, 2006,
By Richard Ryan.
4. Construction Management, 2010.
By Barbara J. Jackson

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The Construction Industry

The construction industry is essentially a service industry whose responsibility

is to convert plans and specifications into a finished product. It is exceedingly

complex and highly individual in character.

The construction industry (including design, new and renovation construction,

the manufacture and supply of building materials and equipment) is one of the

largest industries. While construction has traditionally been a very conservative

industry, the increasing rate of technological development and growing

international competition in the industry are serving to accelerate the development

of new construction methods, equipment, materials and management techniques.

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Construction industry divisions:

Constructing any project includes many steps and relations among owners,
engineers, contractors, companies, factories, materials and equipment
providers, workers and others.

The engineer should be aware of various methods of construction and its

cost to be able to perform the work with least cost.
The engineer should take into consideration the different methods that the
project can be done and the equipment which are going to be used.

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Industry Sectors: There are five basic sectors of the industry:
1- Residential building
2- Commercial building
3- Heavy civil construction
4- Industrial construction
5- Environmental construction
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Each sector is characterized by different means, methods, and

materials of construction. Each sector requires specific expertise and
familiarity in order to optimize the construction operations and
management efforts. Therefore, the majority of builders focus their
attention on only one sector or market of the industry.
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1- Residential Building
Residential construction addresses the housing needs of a society.
Housing construction takes many forms: individual homes, apartments
(flats), townhouses and prefabricated units such as modular and
manufactured homes.

2- Commercial Building
This sector of the industry primarily addresses the needs of commerce,
trade and government. This is the category that includes banks, schools,
office buildings, hotels, shopping malls, religious facilities, baseball
stadiums, theatres, universities, amusement parks, hospitals, some
government buildings, and other facilities where people gather.
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3- Heavy Civil Construction
This sector of the industry impacts all of society in a very big way.
Often referred to as horizontal construction, the heavy civil sector
includes roadways, bridges, tunnels, dams, airports, and railways.
Any work that is associated with infrastructure and transportation.
Equipment operators play a huge role in the work of a heavy civil
project. Heavy civil contractors make huge investments in
equipment. Keeping the earth movers, excavators, scrappers, and
trucks rolling is the name of the game for this sector of the industry.

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4- Industrial Construction
This sector of the industry is highly specialized and requires firms
with vast resources and significant construction and engineering
expertise. The number of contractors qualified to work within the
industrial sector is limited.
Manufacturing plants, electrical generating facilities, oil refineries,
pipelines, steel mills, and chemical processing plants are all
examples of industrial construction projects.

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5- Environmental Construction
Generally, this sector of the industry is comprised of projects that
improve the environment, maintain public health, and contribute to a
community’s quality of life. clean water, sanitary sewers, and waste
management.

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Project Development
For major projects, steps in the project development
process include:
1. Recognizing the need for the project
2. Determining the technical and financial feasibility of the
project.
3. Preparing detailed plans, specifications, and cost
estimate for the project
4. Obtaining approval from regulatory agencies. 11
Project Cost
The cost of any project is a very important factor and can be divided
into:
a) Material cost
b) Labour cost
c) Machine and equipment cost
d) Engineering supervision cost
e) profits
The design engineer has a strong influence over the first four points
while it is hard to control the profit.
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Some ways in which productivity can be increased and
costs minimized during construction include:
1) Good work planning.
2) Carefully selecting and training workers and managers.
3) Efficiently scheduling labour, materials and equipment.
4) Using laboursaving techniques such as prefabrication and
preassembly.
5) Minimizing rework through timely quality control.
6) Preventing accidents through good safety procedures.

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Elements of Construction Management
Skillful in construction management resulted in
construction completion on time and within budget. Poor
construction management practices, on the other hand,
often result in one or more of the following:

1. Project delays that increase labour and equipment cost.

2. High material cost cause by poor purchasing procedures.
3. Increased subcontractor cost and poor contractor-subcontractor
relations.
4. High insurance costs resulted from poor safety records.
5. Low profit margin.
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Safety and Health
The following construction operations have been found to account
for the majority of serious construction injuries:
1. Concrete construction, especially construction of formwork, placing
concrete into formwork and failure of formwork during construction.
2. The erection of prefabricated trusses, precast concrete elements and
structural steel.
3. The construction and operation of temporary facilities including
scaffolding, construction plants, lifts and storage facilities.
4. Working from elevated positions resulting in falls.
5. Construction equipment operations.
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Construction Activities
Most construction projects are divided into specific activities of
work, each with a specific objective and length of time to accomplish.
Each activity generally has a specific beginning and ending point and
may require a specific trade classification.

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Example: The construction of a reinforced concrete retaining wall
can be divided into following activities:
1 – Layout (planning) of site.
2 - Excavating of earth mechanically.
3 - Excavating of earth manually.
4 - Building and erecting of forms.
5 - Erection of reinforcing steel.
6 – Pouring) Casting) of concrete.
7 - Curing of the concrete.
8 - Removing of forms.
9 - Finishing the concrete surface.
10- Clean up of the site. 17
The following steps should be followed before commencing
the work program:
 Preparing a list of the project activities.
 Estimating the time required to complete each activity.
 Specifying the time of performing each activity and the sequence
of the activities.

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 Job Layout
One of the first duties of the supervisor engineer is to prepare a job
layout for the project.
On this layout a plan should be drawn to scale the area available for:
Offices, Warehouses, Storage of materials, Equipment, Construction
forms and Work shops for fabricating reinforcing steel.

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Steps should be considered when preparing the layout
1. Arrange all areas to reduce the time consumed in carrying materials from storage
areas to the project.
2. Materials that are similar in use should be stored close together.
3. The general office and warehouse should be located near the main entrance in
order to avoid travelling around the construction areas to reach the office.
4. The general warehouse should be near the entrance in order to facilitate the
delivery of materials to be stored in the warehouse.
5. If a warehouse is needed to store heavy materials, such as machines that will be
incorporated into the project, it may be desirable to consider using additional
warehouses, located near the project.

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The figure shown below illustrates a job layout for a multistorey
reinforced concrete frame building.

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 Project Control
Once the process of construction started, controlling the progress of
construction is important.
The project must be monitored from beginning to end to ensure that
all of the following targets are met .
Time

Cost Quality

Project control requires continuous monitoring and evaluation of

actual performance relative to the estimated performance for all
aspects of the job that have an impact on cost, time and quality.
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1- Quality Control:
The plans and specifications are the primary tools used to verify
project quality.
The best way to track quality performance on a project is to
prepare and implement a complete quality plan. The project
manager and superintendent usually team up to put this plan
together and use it to monitor the project from start to finish.
The fundamental purpose of the plan is to verify that all materials
and workmanship comply with the requirements spelled out in the
plans and specifications prepared by the designer.
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Quality Control Inspection

 Organization and Staffing Responsibilities

• Responsibilities of various organizations
• Number of staff and availability required
• Lines of communication and authority
• Approval and rejection of work
• Authority to stop work

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Quality Control Inspection

 Inspection Plan and Field Practices

 Knowledge of contract plans and specifications
 Inspection equipment and resources
 Coordination with contractor's schedule

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Quality Control Inspection

 Documentation
 Daily inspection reports
 Nonconformance reports

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Quality Control Inspection

 Material Testing
 Testing schedule
 Testing standards
 Adequacy of on-site laboratory
 Adequacy of off-site laboratory
 Evaluation of testing data and actions required

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2- Controlling cost:
The original estimate used for bidding purposes is converted to a
project budget and establishes the benchmark from which project
costs are monitored. During this conversion process, which
usually takes place right after the contract award, quoted prices
are confirmed with purchase orders and subcontracts. Sometimes
there are minor adjustments made in the budget because of price
fluctuations between the time when the job was bid and when the
work begins, but generally the budget contains the same work
packages developed in the estimate.
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3- Time Control:
Time controlling is done through scheduling which is a time
phased plan.
Schedules are used as guides during the performance of an
operation in order to control the pace of activities and to permit
completion of the operation at the desired or required time.
There are a number of different forms of schedules that may be
used, including written schedules, bar graph schedules (Gantt
charts), network schedules and others.

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A simple bar graph

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 Deficiencies in Bar Graph Schedules:
 Failure to show relationships between project
activities
 Failure to identify those activities which
actually control the project duration
 Failure to show the effect of delay or change
in one activity on the entire project
The Network Diagram
The Network Diagram
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