In recent years, timber has been considered as an alternative source of building material because of its sustainability and design efficiency. However, the cost competitiveness of timber buildings is still under study due to the lack of available cost information. This paper presents a comprehensive cost comparative analysis of a mass timber building mainly developed with cross-laminated timber (CLT). The actual construction cost of the project is compared with the modeled cost of the same building designed as a concrete option. The result shows that the construction cost of timber building is 6.43% higher than the modeled concrete building. The study further investigated the change orders associated with the project and found that the total cost of change orders contributed 5.62% to the final construction cost of mass timber building. The study is helpful to provide insight into the construction cost of typical mass timber buildings. It also can be used as a guide for the project owners to make decisions regarding their initial investments on a mass timber project.

Analysis of cost comparison and effects of change orders during construction: Study of a mass timber and a concrete building project

Previous research have shown that change orders have a detrimental effect on cost growth and schedule growth of construction projects. These studies mainly concentrated on the number of cha...

Effects of Change Orders on Cost Growth, Schedule Growth, and Construction Intensity of Large Highway Projects

Change orders are common problems in construction projects, and the effect of change orders on cost and schedule have been studied. However, few studies have considered the effect of change...

Effect of Change Orders on Cost and Schedule Overruns of School Building Renovation Projects

A comprehensive study of the effects of change orders on cost growth and the relationship of change order values with project size and schedule, particularly in road maintenance projects, h...

Effects of Change Orders on the Cost and Schedule of Rural Road Maintenance Projects

Purpose




Risks play an important role in the success of construction projects. Failure in identification and assessment of risks can lead to inadequacy in the process of managing risks, which in turn can critically affect the projects’ resources. A formal risk management is rarely practised in construction projects due to the lack of contractors’ awareness of key risks. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the investigation of risk factors in construction projects in Italy from contractors’ perspective.




Design/methodology/approach




Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data, based on which a total of ten key risks were ascertained. The identified risks were compared with the findings of the surveys conducted in the Australian and Chinese construction industry to address the unique risks associated with construction projects in Italy.




Findings




The key risks included delays in payments, client variations, design variations, inaccurate cost estimates, and tight project schedules. The comparison between those three countries specified the delays in payments and project funding problems as the most critical factors that are related to cultural influences and behaviour of clients. The findings assist contractors in the risk identification process, and can be applied to the development of a risk management framework for construction projects.




Research limitations/implications




The findings of this study cannot be generalised statistically for the whole of Italy as it was constrained geographically, with respondents drawn only from a self-selection sample of construction projects in the Veneto region of Northern Italy. The findings represent a snapshot of the key potential internal and external risks from the perspective of contractors.




Originality/value




The results of the study specified the key risks of construction projects from the perspective of contractors which can contribute to risk management for construction projects.

/pdf/key-risks-in-construction-projects-in-italy-contractors-24nbk190b5.pdf

Key risks in construction projects in Italy: contractors’ perspective

One of the most important problems in the construction industry is variations. They occur in every construction project and the magnitude of these variations varies considerably from project to project. Hence, the variations orders bear great importance right from the inception to completion in the construction industry. Most of the road construction projects in Sri Lanka have experienced a large number of variation orders. The client had to spend more than what was initially estimated in most cases. Sometimes, disputes and unnecessary delays occur due to variations. This study attempted to reveal the possible causes of variation orders in the road construction projects in Sri Lanka. The data were collected through a literature review, a case study analysis focused on 11 road construction projects, and a questionnaire administered to professionals in the road construction industry in Sri Lanka. The study found out that the causes in the local context differ from those in the international context. According to the questionnaire survey, poor estimation was the most significant cause of variation orders. Unforeseen site conditions, political pressure during construction stage, poor investigation, and client-initiated variations occupy the 2nd to 5th places, respectively, in the ranking. This ranking was further proven through the case study analysis.

/pdf/causes-of-variation-orders-in-road-construction-projects-in-165sk6rvx2.pdf

Causes of Variation Orders in Road Construction Projects in Sri Lanka

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Causes of Variation Orders in Road Construction Projects in Sri Lanka