Site Construction Basics
Site Construction is the process of constructing a building, infrastructure or any projects. While construction typically takes place on location for a known client, which is called as site or field of construction.Construction as an industry comprises six to nine percent of the gross domestic product of developed countries.Construction starts with planning, design, and financing; it continues until the project is built and ready for use.
Large-scale construction requires collaboration across multiple disciplines like Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Instrumentation, Pipeline or infrastructure etc. A project manager normally manages the job, and a construction manager, design engineer, construction engineer or architect supervises it. Those involved with the design and execution must consider zoning requirements, environmental impact of the job, scheduling, budgeting, construction-site safety, availability and transportation of building materials, logistics, and inconvenience to the public caused by construction delays and bidding. Large construction projects are sometimes referred to as mega projects.
In general, there are three major or main types of construction: buildings, infrastructure and industrial.
Building construction is usually further divided into residential and non-residential (commercial/institutional).
Infrastructure is often called heavy civil or heavy engineering that includes large public works, dams, bridges, highways, railways, water or wastewater and utility distribution.
Industrial site construction basics includes Oil & Gas, Refineries, Process chemical, Power generation, mills and manufacturing plants. There are also other ways to break the industry into sectors or markets.
Further to above it is also classified as,
Agricultural: Typically economical buildings, and other improvements, for agricultural purposes. Examples include barns, equipment and animal sheds, specialized fencing, storage silos and elevators, and water supply and drains such as wells, tanks, and ditches.
Residential: Residential construction includes houses, apartments, townhouses, and other smaller, low-rise housing, small office types.
Commercial: This refers to construction for the needs of private commerce, trade, and services. Examples include office buildings, “big box” stores, shopping centres and malls, warehouses, banks, theatres, casinos, resorts, golf courses, and larger residential structures such as high-rise hotels and condominiums.
Institutional: This category is for the needs of government and other public organizations. Examples include schools, fire and police stations, libraries, museums, dormitories, research buildings, hospitals, transportation terminals, some military facilities, and governmental buildings.
Industrial: Buildings and other constructed items used for storage and product production, including chemical and power plants, steel mills, oil refineries and platforms, manufacturing plants, pipelines, and seaports.
Heavy civil: The construction of transportation infrastructure such as roads, bridges, railroads, tunnels, airports, and fortified military facilities.[3] Dams are also included, but most other water-related infrastructure is considered environmental.
Environmental: Environmental construction was part of heavy civil, but is now separate, dealing with projects that improve the environment. Some examples are water and wastewater treatment plants, sanitary and storm sewers, solid waste management, and air pollution control.
Building Construction
A process of adding structure to real property or construction of buildings is called building construction. Small renovations to existing building, structure or a room, such as addition of a room, or renovation of a bathroom are the majorly and widely constructed jobs. Generally, the owner of the property acts as labourer, paymaster, and design or select contractor or a persons for the entire construction or a project.Even though building construction projects consist of common elements such as design, financial, estimating and legal considerations, projects of varying sizes may reach undesirable end results, such as structural collapse, cost overruns, and/or legal issues. For this reason, those with experience in the field make detailed and well-designed plans and maintain careful oversight during the project to avoidundesirable end results.
Infrastructure or Industrial construction
Infrastructure of industrial construction, largely depends on contracting agreements like Engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC),where the contractor is made responsible for all the activities from design, procurement, construction, to commissioning and handover of the project to the End-User, Owner or client. It is also refereed as EPC/Turnkey. Some of the abbreviations used for this type of contract are “LSTK” for “Lump Sum Turn Key”, “EPIC” for “Engineering, Procurement, Installation & Commissioning”, and sometimes also “EPCC” which is short for “Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Commissioning”.
“Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management” (EPCM) is a special form of contracting arrangement. In an EPCM arrangement, the client selects a contractor who provides “management services” for the whole project on behalf of the client or owner. The EPCM contractor coordinates all design, procurement and construction work and ensures that the whole project is completed as required and in time. The EPCM contractor will not actually involved in any design or not doing any procurement or construction work even may or may not undertake actual site work.
Contractors are assigned to a construction project during the design or once the design has been completed by a design team. This is done by going through a bidding process with different contractors. The contractor is selected by using one of three common selection methods: low-bid selection, best-value selection, or qualifications-based selection.
A construction manager is a major or vital role in any infrastructural or industrial project site construction and should have the ability to handle public safety, time management, cost management, quality management, decision making, mathematics, working drawings, and human resources.
Pre-Construction
The pre-construction stage begins when the owner or client gives a notice to proceed to the contractor that they have chosen through the bidding process. A notice to proceed is when the owner gives permission to the contractor to begin their work for site construction on designed project. The first step is to assign the site construction team which includes the project manager (PM), Construction Manager, residential construction Manager (RCM), contract administrator, superintendent, Material controllers, Site planners and field engineer and labours like welders, fitters, riggers or helpers.
During the pre-construction stage, a site investigation must take place. A site investigation takes place to discover if any steps need to be implemented on the job site. This is in order to get the site ready before the actual construction begins. This also includes any unforeseen conditions such as historical artifacts or environment problems. A soil test must be done to determine if the soil is in good condition to be built upon.
The construction phase initiates with a pre-construction meeting brought together by construction manager, the superintendent, field engineers. The pre-construction meeting is meant to make decisions dealing with work hours, material storage, quality control, and site access. The next step is to move everything onto the main construction site activities and set it all up.
Progress Payment Schedule
A Contractor construction progress payment schedule, is a schedule when project milestones will be completed and subcontractors, contractors will be paid for the current progress of site construction work after billing to owner or a client.
Progress payments are partial payments for work completed during a portion, usually a monthly, during a construction period. Progress payments are made to general contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers as construction projects progress. Payments are typically made on a monthly basis but could be modified to meet certain milestones. Progress payments are an important part of contract administration for the contractor. Proper preparation of the information necessary for payment processing can help the contractor financially complete the project.
Construction issues
Dust and mud
Construction site or field is having many vehicles are driving around, a lot of dust is created, especially during summer or dryer months. This may cause interruption for surrounding work or businesses or society. A usual method of dust control is to have a water truck driving through the site spraying water on the dry dirt to minimize the movement of dust within and out of the construction site. On the other hand water usage creates mud. This mud sticks to the tires of the construction vehicles and is often transfers to the surrounding roads, which becomes dirty. A street sweeper may clean the roads to reduce dirty road conditions.
Environmental protections
Storm water pollution: As a result of construction, the soil is displaced from its original location which can possibly cause environmental problems in the future. Runoff can occur during storms which can possibly transfer harmful pollutants through the soil to rivers, lakes, wetlands, and coastal waters.
Endangered species: If endangered species have been found on the construction site, the site must be shut down for some time. The construction site must be shut down for as long as it takes for authorities to make a decision on the situation. Once the situation has been assessed, the contractor makes the appropriate accommodations to not disturb the species.
Vegetation: There may often be particular trees or other vegetation that must be protected on the job site. This may require fences or security tape to warn builders that they must not be harmed.
Wetlands: The contractor must make accommodations so that erosion and water flow are not affected by construction. Any liquid spills must be maintained due to contaminants that may enter the wetland.
Historical or cultural artifacts:Artifacts may include arrowheads, pottery shards, and bones. All work comes to a halt if any artifacts are found and will not resume until they can be properly examined and removed from the area.
Documentation of Construction activities
Project meetings take place at scheduled intervals to discuss the progress on the construction site and any concerns or issues. The discussion and any decisions made at the meeting must be documented in the form of minutes of meetings called as MOM’s.
Diaries, log books, and daily field reports keep track of the daily activities on a job site each day.
Diaries: Each member of the project team is expected to keep a project diary. The diary contains summaries of the day’s events in the member’s own words. They are used to keep track of any daily work activity, conversations, observations, or any other relevant information regarding the construction activities. Diaries can be referred to when disputes arise and a diary happens to contain information connected with the disagreement. Diaries that are handwritten can be used as evidence in court.
Logs: Logs keep track of the regular activities on the job site such as phone logs, transmittal logs, delivery logs, and RFI (Request for Information) logs.
Daily field reports: Daily field reports are a more formal way of recording information on the job site. They contain information that includes the day’s activities, temperature and weather conditions, delivered equipment or materials, visitors on the site, and equipment used that day.
Labour statements are required on a daily basis. Also list of Labour, PERT CPM are needed for labour planning to complete a project in time.
Study and practice
Construction Management education comes in a variety of formats: formal degree programs (Two-year associate degree; four-year baccalaureate degree, master’s degree, project management, operations management engineer degree, doctor of philosophy degree, postdoctoral researcher); on-the-job-training; and continuing education and professional development.
The academic field of construction management encompasses a wide range of topics. These range from general management skills, through management skills specifically related to construction, to technical knowledge of construction methods and practices. There are many schools offering Construction Management programs, including some offering a master’s degree.
New developments in construction methodologies.
Many well-known construction academic departments of construction managements take an opportunity to improve efficiency and performance while reducing construction waste.
New techniques of building construction are being researched, made possible by advances in 3D printing technology. In a form of preservative building construction, similar to the additive manufacturing techniques for manufactured parts, building printing is making it possible to flexibly construct small commercial buildings and private houses in around 20 hours, with built-in plumbing and electrical facilities, in one continuous build, using large 3D printers.
In the current trend of sustainable construction, the recent movements of New Urbanism and New Classical Architecture promote a sustainable approach towards construction, that appreciates and develops smart growth, architectural tradition and classical design. This is in contrast to modernist and short-lived globally uniform architecture, as well as opposing solitary housing estates and suburban sprawl.
Wood is being introduced as a realistic material for skyscrapers (nicknamed “plyscrapers”) thanks to new developments in super-strong engineered timber, whose collective name is “mass timber” and includes cross-laminated timber.
Basic supports of construction
Design Team
In the industrialized world, construction usually involves the translation of designs into reality. A formal design team may be assembled to plan the physical proceedings, and to integrate those proceedings with the other parts. The design usually consists of drawings and specifications, usually prepared by a design team including Architect, civil engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, structural engineers, fire protection engineers, planning consultants, architectural consultants, and archaeological consultants. The design team is most commonly employed by (i.e. in contract with) the property owner. Under this system, once the design is completed by the design team, a number of construction companies or construction management companies may then be asked to make a bid for the work, either based directly on the design, or on the basis of drawings and a bill of quantities provided by a quantity surveyor.
Financial advisors
Major risk of any construction projects which can suffer from financial problems. Underbids happen when builders ask for too little money to complete the project. Cash flow problems exist when the present amount of funding cannot cover the current costs for labour and materials, and because they are a matter of having sufficient funds at a specific time, can arise even when the overall total is enough. Fraud or corruption is a problem in many fields, but is notoriously prevalent in the construction field.Financial planning for the project is intended to ensure that a solid plan with adequate safeguards and contingency plans are in place before the project is started and is required to ensure that the plan is properly executed over the life of the project.
Mortgage bankers, accountants, and cost engineers are likely participants in creating an overall plan for the financial management of the building construction project. The presence of the mortgage banker is highly likely, even in relatively small projects since the owner’s equity in the property is the most obvious source of funding for a building project. Accountants act to study the expected monetary flow over the life of the project and to monitor the payouts throughout the process. Cost engineers and estimators apply expertise to relate the work and materials involved to a proper valuation. Cost overruns with government projects have occurred when the contractor identified change orders or project changes that increased costs, which are not subject to competition from other firms as they have already been eliminated from consideration after the initial bid.
Legal aspects or advisers
A construction project must fit into the legal framework governing the property. These include governmental regulations on the use of property, and obligations that are created in the process of construction.
A construction project is a complex net of contracts and other legal obligations, each of which all parties must carefully consider. A contract is the exchange of a set of obligations between two or more parties, but it is not so simple a matter as trying to get the other side to agree to as much as possible in exchange for as little as possible. The time element in construction means that a delay costs money, and in cases of bottlenecks, the delay can be extremely expensive. Thus, the contracts must be designed to ensure that each side is capable of performing the obligations set out. Contracts that set out clear expectations and clear paths to accomplishing those expectations are far more likely to result in the project flowing smoothly, whereas poorly drafted contracts lead to confusion and collapse.
Legal advisors in the beginning of a construction project seek to identify ambiguities and other potential sources of trouble in the contract structure, and to present options for preventing problems. Throughout the process of the project, they work to avoid and resolve conflicts that arise. In each case, the lawyer facilitates an exchange of obligations that matches the reality of the project.
Construction Procurement
Procurement describes the merging of activities undertaken by the client to obtain a building. There are many different methods of construction procurement; however the three most common types of procurement are traditional (design-bid-build), design-build and management contracting.
There is also a growing number of new forms of procurement that involve relationship contracting where the emphasis is on a co-operative relationship among the principal, the contractor, and other stakeholders within a construction project. New forms include partnering such as Public-Private Partnering (PPPs) aka private finance initiatives (PFIs) and alliances such as “pure” or “project” alliances and “impure” or “strategic” alliances. The focus on co-operation is to ameliorate the many problems that arise from the often highly competitive and adversarial practices within the construction industry.
Construction Site Safety
Site safety is a key factor for any site construction work or activities, as it is a hazardous land-based job. Construction work includes many hazardous task and conditions such as working with height, excavation, noise, dust, power tools and equipment. The most common fatalities are caused by the fatal four: falls, being struck by an object, electrocutions, and being caught in between two objects. Construction work has been increasing in developing and undeveloped countries over the past few years. With an increase in this type of work occupational fatalities have increased. Within the field of construction it is important to have safe construction sites.
Proper safety equipment such as harnesses, hard hats and guardrails and procedures such as securing ladders and inspecting scaffolding can curtail the risk of occupational injuries in the construction industry.
Other safety risks for workers in construction include hearing loss due to high noise exposure, musculoskeletal injury, chemical exposure, and high levels of stress.Construction has been identified by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) as a priority industry sector in the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) to identify and provide intervention strategies regarding occupational health and safety issues.
Nature of hazards during site construction activities
Hazards to construction workers
The leading safety hazards on construction sites include falls, being caught between objects, electrocutions, and being struck by objects.These hazards have caused injuries and deaths on construction sites throughout the world. Failures in hazard identification are often due to limited or improper training and supervision of workers. Areas where there is limited training include tasks in design for safety, safety inspection, and monitoring safety.Failure in any of these areas can result in an increased risk in exposing workers to harm in the construction environment.
Falls are the leading cause of injury in the construction industry, in particularly for elder and untrained construction workers. Fall protection is needed in areas including but not limited to ramps, runways, and other walkways; excavations; hoist areas; holes; form-work; leading edge work; unprotected sides and edges; overhand bricklaying and related work; roofing; precast erection; wall openings; floor openings such as holes; residential construction; and other walking/working surfaces.
Motor vehicle crashes are another major safety hazard on construction sites. It is important to be cautious while operating motor vehicles or equipment on the site. A motor vehicle should have a service brake system, emergency brake system, and a parking brake system. All vehicles must be equipped with an audible warning system if the operator chooses to use it. Vehicles must have windows and doors, power windshield wipers, and a clear view of site from the rear window. All employees should be properly trained before using motor vehicles and equipment.
Education and safety
All construction sites or projects have safety trainings and education on the task being done before working to avoid possible injuries for fatalities. In oil and gas or refinery site construction sites, have daily tool box talks which provides information on daily work to be done and possible hazards involved and safety briefing before step in to job. Many site construction jobs, workers are not from the same language being used for communication, hence common language to be used to assure the best communication.
Another method is ensuring that all workers know how to properly use electronics, conveyors, skid-steer, trucks, aerial lifts, and other equipment on the construction site.Equipment on the job site must be properly maintained and inspected regularly before and after each shift. The equipment inspection system will help the operator make sure that a machine is mechanically sound and in safe operating conditions. An employee should be assigned to inspect equipment to insure proper safety. Equipment should have lights and reflectors if intended for night use. The glass in the cab of the equipment must be safety glass in some countries.The equipment must be used for its intended task at all times on the job site to insure workers’ safety.
Before any excavation takes place, the contractor is responsible for notifying all applicable companies that excavation work is being performed. During excavation, the contractor is responsible for providing a safe work environment for employees and pedestrians.
Access and egress are also important parts of excavation safety. Ramps used by equipment must be designed by a person qualified in structural design. No person is allowed to cross underneath or stand underneath any loading or digging equipment. Employees are to remain at a safe distance from all equipment while it is operational. Employees who have training and education in the above areas will benefit their co-workers and themselves on the construction site.
Employees on construction sites also need to be aware of dangers on the ground. Cables running across roadways were often seen until cable ramp equipment was invented to protect hoses and other equipment which had to be laid out. Another common hazard that workers may face is overexposure to heat and humidity in the environment.Overexertion in this type of weather can lead to serious heat-related illnesses such as heat stroke, heat exhaustion, and heat cramps.Other hazards found on construction site include asbestos, solvents, noise, and manual handling activities
Road Construction Safety
Workers in highway work zones are exposed to a variety of hazards and face risk of injury and death from construction equipment as well as passing motor vehicles. Workers on foot are exposed to passing traffic, often at high speeds, while workers who operate construction vehicles are at risk of injury due to overturn, collision, or being caught in running equipment. Regardless of the task assigned, construction workers work in conditions in poor lighting, poor visibility, inclement weather, congested work areas, high volume traffic and speeds.
Road construction safety remains a priority among workers. Several states have implemented campaigns addressing construction zone dangers and encouraging motorists to use caution when driving through work zones.
Hazards to non-workers
Some of the site construction sites, hazards may happen to non-workers are site. Road construction sites must often allow traffic to pass through, which may lead to non-workers at some degree of risk.
This sign and advisory plate penetrated the wind-shield and roof of a car in a side-impact test crash. A safer sign would have stiffer uprights, no advisory plate and the flashing light would be moved to the point of the sign to spread the impact force.
Sometimes even these signs and barricades can be a hazard to vehicle traffic. For example, improperly designed barricades can cause cars that strike them to roll over or even be thrown into the air. Even a simple safety sign can penetrate the windshield or roof of a car if it strikes from certain angles.
Role of Site Construction in Project Design Engineering
Most of the design engineering activities covers major milestones of projects, calls different type for reviews. These reviews involves all relevant direct and indirect parties, disciplines, clients, sometimes vendors for betterment of the projects.
During these reviews, site construction team involvement is a vital role, to highlight upfront construction issues, based on engineering design and resolve the same during design itself, is a key of success.
In Oil and Gas and Refinery projects, major Site Constructability Review carried out with site construction team and design engineering team, to aware about locations of equipment’s, road access issues, or any other construction or demolition issues.
Most of these reviews will be attended by site Managers with Site Engineers of various disciplines, including site planners.
Most of the projects, during ongoing site construction design engineering team also involved, on account of physical site conditions and modifications or changes occurs in actual design. Site team will raise concerns or site queries to design team, for confirmation or for resolution.
General Site Construction Basics Scope of work
Generally for all the construction sites, construction work is defined upfront to avoid ambiguities during construction. Below are some of the general site construction basics scope of work, which will be carried out by construction team.
- The construction team will perform all tasks and services and provide all equipment, construction supervision, consumables, materials, labor, transportation, utilities etc. necessary for the construction, erection and testing of the new facilities as per the approved construction drawings were issued. Physical measurement/verification at site by construction team will be done before commencement of any fabrication or site work.
- In piping site construction scope to include, Fit-up, Welding, hydro test, NDT, post weld heat treatments as required, Painting, insulation and reinstatement of pipe supports.
- Installation of sign boards and other safety equipment.
- Construction team responsibility for any defects in the newly installed facilities during commissioning.
- Disposal of spoiled material.
- Provision of temporary arrangements, spools for testing, pre-commissioning activities.
- Requirement of high capacity cranes will be identified and arranged accordingly.
- Coatings and paintings for site construction work.
- Back filling of any excavation done.
- Site storage and ware house facilities.
- Electrical, Water or any other utilities required arrangements.
- Transportation arrangements.
- Demonstrate competence and adequacy of resources to perform required duties.
- Verify competence and resources allocation of any sub-contractors.
- Prepare, develop, communicate, implement and amend the construction phase plan.
- Plan and manage construction processes.
- Manage subcontractors.
- Ensure provision of adequate welfare facilities, prevent unauthorized site access, prepare and enforce site rules.
- Supply key documents to subcontractors such as health and safety file information, site surveys, designers’ information, risk assessments, and the construction phase plan.
- Inform subcontractors of their mobilization time.
- Ensure the workforce is consulted on health and safety matters and provided with suitable information and training.
- Liaise with the coordinator for any design undertaken during the construction phase.
- Provide information for the health and safety file.
- Display the project notification on the site.
