• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.255-258
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• 2015

Scaffolds are frequently used in construction projects. Despite the impact on the entire safety, scaffolds are rarely analyzed as part of the safety planning. While recent advances in BIM (Building Information Modeling) provides opportunity to address potential safety issues in the early planning stages, it is still labor-intensive and challenging to incorporate scaffolds into current manual jobsite safety analysis which is time-consuming and error-prone. Consequently, potential safety hazards related to scaffolds are identified and presented during the construction phase. The objective of this research is to integrate scaffolds into automated safety analysis using BIM. A safety checking system was created to simulate the movements of scaffolds along the paths of crews using the scaffolds. Algorithms in the system automatically identify safety hazards related to activities working on scaffolds. Then, the system was implemented in a commercially available BIM software program for case studies. The results show that the algorithms successfully identified safety hazards that were not noticed by project managers of the projects. The results were visualized in BIM to facilitate early safety communications.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.730-731
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• 2015

This study aims at giving the framework to estimate the environmental load at planning and schematic phase. With increasing awareness of environmental issues, the effort to reduce the environmental impacts caused by human activity has been increasingly enlarged. So far most of researches estimating CO₂ emissions have analyzed energy consumption based on BOQ (Bills of Quantity) acquired after detailed design. There is also lack of reliability in the estimated environmental impact using the basic unit of a facility at the planning stage, because it uses a limited specific section of historical data. Thus, this study is targeted at developing framework to assess reliable environmental loads based on information available at project early phases by making case-bases from historical design information on PSC Beam Bridge. Historical database is built on the basis of the LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) and in order to set input information for estimating model, the literature about information in an early project phase are reviewed. Using the information available in the planning and schematic design stage, the Framework is presented to estimate the environmental load in an early stage in the project. Developing an environmental load estimation model in accordance with the Framework presented in this study, it is expected that the environmental load in the initial project phase can be estimated more quickly and accurately.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2020.12a
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• pp.237-242
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• 2020

Construction noise is among the most critical stressors that adversely affect the quality of life of the people residing near construction sites. Many countries strictly regulate construction noise based on sound pressure levels, as well as timeslots and type of construction equipment. However, individuals react differently to noise, and their tolerance to noise levels varies, which should be considered when regulating construction noise. Although studies have attempted to analyze individuals' stress responses to construction noise, the lack of quantitative methods to measure stress has limited our understanding of individuals' stress responses to noise. Therefore, the authors proposed a quantitative stress measurement framework with a wearable electroencephalogram (EEG) sensor to decipher human brain wave patterns caused by diverse construction stressors (e.g., worksite hazards). This present study extends this framework to investigate the feasibility of using the wearable EEG sensor to measure individuals' emotional stress responses to construction noise in a laboratory setting. EEG data were collected from three subjects exposed to different construction noises (e.g., tonal vs. impulsive noises, different sound pressure levels) recorded at real construction sites. Simultaneously, the subjects' perceived stress levels against these noises were measured. The results indicate that the wearable EEG sensor can help understand diverse individuals' stress responses to nearby construction noises. This research provides a more quantitative means for measuring the impact of the noise generated at a construction site on neighboring communities, which can help frame more reasonable construction noise regulations that consider various types of residents in urban areas.

• Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.54-58
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• 2016

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.13-20
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• 2020

Steel corrosion in embedded steel causes a significant durability problems and this usually propagates to structural degradation. Large-scaled concrete structures, PSC (Pre-stressed Concrete) or RC (Reinforced Concrete) structures, are usually constructed with mass concrete and require quite a long construction period. When they are located near to sea shore, chloride ion penetrates into concrete through direct or indirect exposure to marine environment, and this leads durability problems. Even if the structures are sheltered from chloride ingress outside after construction, the chloride contents which have been penetrated into concrete during the long construction period are differently evaluated from the initially mixed chloride content. In the study, chloride profiles in cores extracted from anchorage concrete block in two large-scaled suspension bridge (K and P structure) are evaluated considering the exposure periods and conditions. Total 21 cores in tendon room and chamber room were obtained, and the acid-soluble chlorides and compressive strength were evaluated for the structures containing construction period around 3 years. The test results like diffusion coefficient and surface chloride content from the construction joint and cracked area were also discussed with the considerations for maintenance.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.148-158
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• 2013

Generally, building construction projects have a complex decision-making process because of the participation of various agents. In this situation, a final decision is arrived at by relying on subjective judgments based on the experience of project participants. For this reason, a method of assessing the objectivity of opinions is needed. In previous studies, the multi-criteria decision making method was applied to arrive at a final decision objectively, but this method has a limitation, in that the experience of each decision maker is not considered differently in the decision making process. Therefore, this study proposed a theoretical model using the S-shaped growth curve and regression analysis by building construction project type to quantitatively estimate decision-making reliability according to the experience of individual project participant`s. The developed model could be added to the Multi-criteria decision making method, and secure the objectivity and reliability of project participants' final opinion.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.984-991
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• 2022

The use of the sustainability rating systems in infrastructure construction projects is not as common in comparison to building construction projects. While the sustainability rating systems share some commonalities, they differ from one another in certain ways. Thus, project teams cannot make reliable decisions when choosing the best sustainability rating tools for a given infrastructure projects. The Department of Transportation (DOT) in several states are developing its own rating system to address the infrastructure sustainability, but not in the case of California. Therefore, this paper presents the statistical results on the important sustainability determinants that affects the success of meeting sustainability goals of infrastructure construction projects. The authors conducted an online survey using the structured questionnaires. The categories considered include site, water/wastewater, energy, materials/resources, environmental, and others. The statistical analyses such as Kruskal-Wallis and ANOVA are conducted using a total of 25 valid and complete data out of 59 surveys collected. The results demonstrate several factors under each of six major sustainable categories have received higher ranks than other factors. The results also show that a statistically significant difference can be found from water, energy, and environmental categories against the other category based on the pairwise comparisons.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.35 no.11
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• pp.809-814
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• 2013

In this study, physical properties and heavy metal contents of sediments obtained from the bottom of Gwangan bridge were measured to determine pollution level of the sediments. From the results of the oxide contents of the sediments, $SiO_2$ was decreased as the sampling points became more distant from the stream of river. On the contrary, CaO showed opposition aspect to $SiO_2$. Ignition loss of sediments ranged from 7.2 and 14.3% and 0.9 and 5.5% for TOC. For EPA guidelines of ignition loss, all sampling points were classified as heavily polluted areas. When TOC was considered, all areas were classified as lowest effect level except for GW7 where classified as no effect level. All areas were free of heavy metal contamination evaluated by USEPA and Canadian guidelines. However, all areas were classified as heavily contaminated areas due to the high value of ignition loss when USEPA was used.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.52-60
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• 2018

In the construction industry, attempts to evaluate the environmental impact of products through life cycle assessment (LCA) approach has been on the rise. However, the domestic construction industry needs to make rapid decisions due to limited budget and schedule, so it is difficult to carry out a review of the environmental load on all resources. The decision-making process requires information on the major influence factors that should be focused on to reduce environmental load. And this information should be quantified so that it can be linked to environmental impact assessment. In this study, the LCA results of road construction cases were analyzed to provide such information. As a result, diesel, ready-mixed concrete, urethane-based paint, aggregate, and asphalt concrete were found to be the main factors that generated 93.17% of the environmental load in the earthwork type of road project. The total environmental cost caused by these affecting factors when constructing 1 km of earthwork type of road project is 242 million won. The analysis also shows that a 10% reduction in the amount of ready-mixed and asphalt concretes can reduce carbon emissions by 5.02% and 2.28% while reducing environmental costs by 11 million won per kilometer. In order to reduce carbon emissions of the earthwork type of road project, it is necessary to actively develop and introduce new methods and eco-friendly materials to reduce the overall use of ready-mixed concrete and asphalt concrete.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.35 no.10
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• pp.737-742
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to remove sediments obtained from breeding ground using supersonics and micro-air flotation method. Sediments from Tongyong breeding grounds showed no contaminations of heavy metals but had great amount of organics. Thus, efficient removal of sediments was required to preserve water quality near breeding ground. Supersonics treatment for sediments was determined to be essential because higher removal efficiency of sediments was obtained when supersonics treatment was used. In addition, application of coagulants increased removal efficiency because its usage increased particle size of sediments, which enabled easy trapping of sediments particle into micro-air bubbles. Removal efficiency of sediments slightly decreased from 95.8% (1 g/L) to 83.9% (8 g/L) at the tests for different amount of sediments, but most of tiny particles were removed from water where sand size particles were left in the bottom of reactors.