A 5D BIM-based Integrated Analysis of Design Impact on Project Constructability and Cost

Abstract

The importance of adopting the Constructability concept in construction projects has been recognized for quite a while now. However, it still remains very challenging to use available tools to implement the concept and assess the constructability during the design phase. The bigger challenge has been how to build a tool the assesses and quantifies the nature of the constructability of the project from its design phase. This thesis reviewed the current understanding of the importance of the concept and what are the design factors that affect the constructability of a construction project. It also reviewed current methods and approaches for assessing the constructability in the design phase. It studied models and methods that were adopted to quantify the assessment of the constructability for a better understanding of the situation of the project. It studied the capability of BIM technology to ease the process of measuring the constructability. BIM technology is an excellent tool to collect all the data of the project in one platform which facilitates the process of assessing and measuring constructability. After reviewing the previous related work, the constructability factors that were to be studied were identified. A questionnaire survey was conducted to identify the relative importance of the constructability factors. The purpose of the questionnaire is to collect construction personnel opinions about the level of effect of each factor on the constructability of a project. Respondents opinions were collected as rankings using the “Likert-type scale” which ranged in value from 1=very low impact to 5=very high impact. Contributions were made by this study in advancing the field of implementation of constructability concept. The main contribution of this research is in using BIM technology as a data collecting platform to be used to assess the constructability. This thesis also proposed an assessment model to quantify the constructability of a project during the design phase. Using a user interface created by Microsoft Access to analyze all the data collected in the BIM model using queries and checklists to obtain a Constructability score for the project. This user interface was created specifically for the purpose of this research to act as a tool that will facilitate the quantifying process for the constructability of any project. The interface of the model was chosen based on the factors that are to be studied and how they will be calculated. This score reflects how extent does the design facilitates the construction of the project which improves time and cost.