Factors Affecting Design Quality in Construction Industry in Syria

Poor design is a major factor in reducing the overall performance of construction projects as well as being directly responsible for many projects cost overrun, delay and being plagued with rework, variations and disputation. This research discusses the main factors affecting Design Quality in the Construction Industry in Syria. The result is based on a number of interviews and questionnaire surveys involving 54 designers, contractors and construction professionals. The survey identified 45 different factors classified in categories related to designer, management of the design process, owner and design documents. The severity of those factors was measured by the level of importance and was ranked according to the importance index. It was concluded that, insufficient overall design time, method of selecting the designer based on the lowest price offer, lack of documentation and changes client’s requirements were the most important factors. The results show that designers and contractors have different perceptions of the quality of design factors. The aim of this study is to assist all construction parties to plan effectively before starting a project during the design phase in order to minimize problems and eliminate extra costs needed to complete the defective design. Finally, some recommendations were made in order to improve the design quality in the construction industry.

The Effect of Replacing the Natural concrete aggregate with Recycled aggregate on its Physical and Mechanical Properties

The accelerated structural expansion in most countries has resulted in a major problem related to providing the necessary concrete for these buildings. Besides, the buildings that have become out of service recently has posed a real problem represented in demolishing them creating a large amount of hard-to-manage aggregate. The necessity to get rid of the aggregate have opened up the possibilities for attempting to use it as a relative substitute for the natural aggregate. The research focuses on recycling these aggregate in an attempt to use them in producing concrete and other construction materials. The research deals with one of the mechanisms of benefiting from these recycled aggregate through using them in producing concrete through treating the aggregate produced from demolition, and mixing them in quantities that reflect their actual ratio. The results are of great importance economically and environmentally.

Modeling of Modified Cement Mortar By Polyethylene By Tri-phases aspects to Determent Young's Elastic Modulus

This paper focus on studying the elastic of modified cement mortar by polyethylene (stress-strain) curve in order to have Young's elastic modulus, this made by tri-phases modeling that allow to determination the property of this item depending on the property of it's three components individual. The validation of the proposed model has been studied extensively depending on a sample of cement mortar divided into two groups, the first one patterning normal cement mortar, second patterning modified cement mortar by Polyethylene witch substitute five percentage ratio of weight of sand by the same ratio of Polyethylene. Modified cement mortar is treated as composite of three components, Sand, Paste cement and Polyethylene. It's will be proposed models involving series, parallel and series-parallel coupling. This composite action is described by series-parallel model in which a portion of paste acts in parallel with sand and polyethylene and the remaining portion in series with this parallel coupling. Then according to the model we get Young's elastic modulus theoretically, reliance basic modulus factors of components. The proposed model is calibrated and verified by means of data set by experiment modulus results perform on cast samples in laboratory. It was found quite agreement of measured modulus factors experimentally versus theoretically.

Optimal Strategy for Allocation Budget on Road Maintenance Activities in Lattakia City

The maintenance and repair of road networks became a key and very important issue, because of the large increase in length and the limited budget available for maintenance. This research aims to develop an optimal strategy for maintenance of road in order to distribute the annually limited budget on maintenance programs of road network as a whole according to multiple objectives. The proposed mathematical model ensures raising the performance of the road network in Lattakia for the multiple targets, taking into account the constraints imposed on the maintenance process, using goal programming technique. To validate the proposed model we have studied the central road case, and the samples were Lattakia-Qurdaha and Lattakia-Haffa-Slinfa roads, we have got results represented by the number of meters can be maintained for each type of maintenance for every degree and their locations on the road network within the funds available. A commercial software called lingo has used to solve the linear programming model (phase 1) and Excel program has used to design the interface for data entry required and the formation of equations model, Excel program have also used to determine the segments which have to maintain first on the road network (phase 2). The proposed model may apply for the different situations of the budget (open, closed) and for policies and multiple options in order to reach results related to sensitively model.

منهجية جديدة لتحسين خلطات البيتون ذاتي التوضع

بدأ استخدام البيتون ذاتي التوضع وفق التسمية الفرنسية (Béton Auto-Plaçant BAP)، أو ذاتي الارتصاص وفق التسمية الإنكليزية (Self-Compacting Concrete SCC) في اليابان منذ العام 1980 بهدف تحسين خواص البيتون و رفع مستوى الأداء في قطاع البناء من خلال الصب المثالي و إنتاج بيتون بمواصفات أهمها عدم الحاجة إلى الرج، و القدرة على الملء المثالي لقالب الصب كثيف التسليح من خلال اكتسابه للميوعة العالية التي تساعده على الجريان تحت تأثير وزنه الذاتي، و اللزوجة العالية التي تحد من ظاهرة انفصال الحصويات. مع المحافظة على ظروف عمل بيئية ملائمة بالحد الأدنى من الضجيج [1]. تكمن الصعوبة في الوصول إلى تصميم جيد لخلطات البيتون ذاتي التوضع من خلال ضرورة تحقيق هذين الشرطين المتناقضين، الأمر الذي يحتاج الى خبرة عالية ، و ذلك لعدم وجود منهجية واضحة للتصميم، و الاعتماد على التجريب بشكل رئيسي. تم في هذا البحث اقتراح منهجية جديدة قابلة للتطبيق لتصميم خلطات البيتون ذاتي التوضع و تحسين مواصفاتها، و ذلك بخطوات تعتمد على التحسين المتتالي لمواصفات البيتون المصمم، مع تقليل الاعتماد على الحكم الذاتي و الخبرة الشخصية. و لمعرفة مدى كفاءة المنهجية المقترحة، تم التحقق منها تجريبياً على خلطات مصممة من مواد محلية، أعطت بعد اعتماد المنهجية المقترحة بيتوناً ذاتي التوضع يحقق الاشتراطات المطلوبة، كما يحقق المواصفات الميكانيكية اللازمة لاستخدامه في صب العناصر الإنشائية.

An approach to cost controlling of Concrete Bridges in Design Phase

This researchdeals with the topic of controlling the cost of concrete bridge projects in the early design phase. The research aims at using cost controlling as an auxiliary tool for designing and decision making.Cost control methodology has been proposed based on modeling the elements of structure, and proposing a method forcost estimate. This method based on estimating of quantitiesfrom the general parameters of the structure and prices are being updated periodically.The proposed methodology studiesmany available alternatives that werechosen by the designer andevaluate thesealternativeseconomically.

Studying Causes of Change Order and Manner of Averting Negative Effects on Construction Projects

Changes in construction projects are considered as prevalent phenomenon. Where, most of projects face changes in drawings, specifications, work scope, or contractual conditions. The traditional construction followed in Syrian projects has a long time span between planning, design, and construction. As result the possibility of changes occurrence in any project becomes considerable. There are many causes of change orders in construction industry. These changes, mostly causes time and cost overrun and managerial complications. The objective of this study is determining the main causes of change orders; arranging them according to their significance; and studying their effects on project’s cost and time. The owner or the engineer supervising the project is the party who is responsible for change orders in the project.

Defining the Areas and Priorities of Performance Improvement in Construction Companies Case Study for General Company for Construction and Building

Performance improvement in Construction companies is a complex task, which requires great effort and care. The research aims to analyze the status of work at the general company for building and construction, in order to determine the available management problems and then determine the priorities that will be areas of possible improvement of the performance of the company. There used three tools to asses inputs ,processes and outputs , The result of evaluating the maturity (inputs) of project management showed weakness in performance as The rate of project management maturity reached 2.3 out of 5. Quality indicators (outputs) , where rates were less than the average, were identified, as it was the results of questionnaire of measuring customer satisfaction for a sample of projects implemented by the company and the mean of customer satisfaction was 2.73 out of 5. Finally main processes of the company were drown and then the “FMEA " was used to identify the processes which face trouble which were 41 process. As a result of this comprehensive analysis the priority areas and procedures for the performance improvement were proposed.

The Evaluation Of the Syrian experience in building construction approach with the concepts of the industrialized building system and identifying aspects and factors of development

The construction sector in Syria - especially in the field of building – is characterized by the domination of traditional methods on building systems, and thus this system is often unable to achieve the requirements and objectives of the construction. Advanced construction sector towards the basis of the construction industry requires the use of developed technology and administrative systems compatible and in harmony with the architectural and constructional and technical building so that they can get the product within modern sophisticated standards. The research aim is to evaluate the Syrian experience in building construction, and compare it with the concepts and characteristics of the industrialized building system (IBS) and determine the position of the Syrian experience regarding these concepts, as well as evaluating the factors affecting the industry. Through the evaluation , we have calculated the degree of IBS for various patterns of the executive solutions used for buildings in Syria , cast in-situ with reinforcement walls has got 13.1%.

Suggestion of Cost Index For School Building Projects in Lattakia

Cost indices are considered as important tools which help both the owner and the contractor to identify the primary evaluation of project depending on the cost of previous and similar project in easy and quick form, and the most important using ways by researchers in process modernization previous cost in shortest time and least effort. Methodology was adopted to help in designing cost index taking into account weights of chosen groups instead of weights of items, so It has been suggested three cost indices for school building in Lattakia by studying a sample consists of 32 schools were constructed between 2001-2012, and then The best cost index between them which explains the biggest portion of square meter cost variations due to escalation was selected, also it has been suggested a model that reflect the relationship between cost of square meter and developed cost index for corresponding year through statically program spss.