The COVID-19 pandemic has been the largest global health crisis in decades. Apart from the unprecedented number of deaths and hospitalizations, the pandemic has resulted in economic slowdowns, widespread business disruptions, and significant hardships. This study focused on investigating the early impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the U.S. construction industry since the declaration of the national emergency on 13 March 2020. The study objectives were achieved through 34 telephone interviews with project managers, engineers, designers, and superintendents that represented different states and distinct industry sectors in the United States (U.S.). The interviewees offered information on their experience with the pandemic, including the general and adverse effects experienced, new opportunities created, and risk management efforts being undertaken. The reported adverse effects included significant delays on projects, inability to secure materials on time, reduction in productivity rates, material price escalations, and others. The new opportunities that were created included projects involving the fast-track construction of medical facilities, construction of residential buildings, transportation-related work, and opportunities to recruit skilled workers. The risk management measures that were widely adopted included measures to enhance safety and reduce other project risks. The safety measures adopted included requiring employees to wear cloth face masks, adoption of social distancing protocols, staggering of construction operations, offering COVID-19-related training, administering temperature checks prior to entry into the workplace, and others. Measures to manage other project risks included the formation of a task force team to review the evolving pandemic and offer recommendations, advocating that construction businesses be deemed essential to combat delays and taking advantage of government relief programs. The study findings will be useful to industry stakeholders interested in understanding the early impacts of the pandemic on the construction industry. Industry stakeholders may also build upon the reported findings and establish best practices for continued safe and productive operations.

Environmental regulations can greatly affect the operation of new and existing infrastructure projects. In fact, the economic performance of infrastructure projects is closely related to environmental regulations whose landscape is extremely dynamic. To assist infrastructure project sectors in better coping with environmental regulatory changes, this study proposes guidelines for the robust adaptation to environmental regulations through information collected from an exploratory research process. As part of these guidelines, a process map model was developed that details the different stages in the environmental regulation development process, including prerulemaking, proposed rule development and publication, commenting period, final rule development and publication, and post-promulgation. Five adaptation subprocesses (i.e., regulatory horizon scanning, stakeholder engagement, risk and opportunity assessment, response strategy development, and compliance implementation) are examined to help regulated entities better adapt to regulatory changes across different regulatory stages. This information has the potential to provide companies with a structured stage-by-stage approach for dealing with uncertainties arising from environmental regulation changes.

Infrastructure projects experience different regulatory impacts during permitting, operations, and decommissioning. However, no framework is in place to provide a foundation for infrastructure operators and administrators to take advantage of the opportunities (e.g., gain competitive advantage) and cope with the risks (e.g., risk of noncompliance) related to regulatory requirements. This study aimed to identify the existing methodologies and emerging practices to proactively identify, evaluate, and respond to the impact of regulatory changes. To this end, an exploratory research approach was adopted, through which multiple field studies were conducted with interviewees from various functions and units of regulated entities as well as from regulatory agencies. Accordingly, this study established a future-proofing framework that enables companies operating in infrastructure sectors to more proactively respond to and comply with regulations during their projects. In general, the regulatory future-proofing framework encompasses two main components: (1) core subprocesses, which distinguish job sharing and specific responsibilities in dealing with regulatory changes; and (2) influencing factors, which represent overarching areas that make the subprocesses work more effectively. The framework was validated by experts and would enable companies to more effectively and proactively prepare for regulatory adaptation and response in infrastructure projects.

Project personnel working in construction sites fail to transfer invaluable experiences gained mostly due to the absence of a formalized process to record such information. Construction projects are seldom repetitive in nature and this highlights the need for organizations to have in place robust data repositories to facilitate knowledge sharing. This paper describes an effort in creating a new internal-only web-based lessons learned database named Communicate Lessons, Exchange Advice, Record (CLEAR) for the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT). A Design For Six Sigma (DFSS) approach of Identify, Define, Develop, Optimize, and Verify (IDDOV) model was used. Findings from this study will help NCDOT to institutionalize knowledge and improve project cost variations and schedule predictability. In conjunction with this database, a data dashboard is envisioned to provide effective visualizations for the upper management to make informed decisions based on the lessons information in the database. The dashboard will include success metrics such as detecting reduced numbers of claims and claims amounts, witnessing periodical increase in lessons uploaded into the database, and enhanced communication among specialized staff. This approach is a significant contribution to the existing body of knowledge in lessons learned database implementation for construction applications. The anticipated outcome of this new application will be a more efficient and effective public organization through reduced claims, improved designs, and construction workflows, and improved policies and standards. Future researchers can make use of information presented in this paper to build new robust lessons learned systems to improve organizational efficiency.

Knowledge extraction and sharing is one of the biggest challenges organizations face to ensure successful and long-lasting knowledge repositories. The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) commissioned a web-based knowledge management program called Communicate Lessons, Exchange Advice, Record (CLEAR) for end-users to promote employee-generated innovation and to institutionalize organizational knowledge. Reusing knowledge from an improperly managed database is problematic and potentially causes substantial financial loss and reduced productivity for an organization. Poorly managed databases can hinder effective knowledge dissemination across the organization. Data-driven dashboards offer a promising solution by facilitating evidence-driven decision-making through increased information access to disseminate, understand and interpret datasets. This paper describes an effort to create data visualizations in Tableau for CLEAR’s gatekeeper to monitor content within the knowledge repository. Through the three web-based strategic dashboards relating to lessons learned and best practices, innovation culture index, and website analytics, the information displays will aid in disseminating useful information to facilitate decision-making and execute appropriate time-critical interventions. Particular emphasis is placed on utility-related issues, as data from the NCDOT indicate that approximately 90% of projects involving utility claims experienced one or two such incidents. These claims contributed to an average increase in project costs of approximately 2.4% and schedule delays averaging 70 days. The data dashboards provide key insights into all 14 NCDOT divisions, supporting the gatekeeper in effectively managing the CLEAR program, especially relating to project performance, cost savings, and schedule improvements. The chronological analysis of the CLEAR program trends demonstrates sustained progress, validating the effectiveness of the dashboard framework. Ultimately, these data dashboards will promote organizational innovation in the long run by encouraging end-user participation in the CLEAR program.