Claims and disputes are common in construction projects and the costs associated with these adversarial relationships can reach up to $4–$12 billion per year. While previous studies have indicated that project delivery methods (PDMs) might impact the frequency and severity of claims and disputes in highway projects, none provided any empirical evidence to support this perception, especially as related to the claim types in different project delivery methods. To address this issue and explore the different variables that might affect claims and disputes among many other project performances metrics, this empirical study was initiated. Data were collected by distributing a questionnaire to DOTs across the transportation sector. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results showed that while PDMs, procurement, and contractual methods have no significant impact on the claim and dispute performance, PDMs can impact other factors (e.g., contractor’s performance and trust). These significant findings provide opportunities for further research in other areas such as trust and partnering, which were proven to strategically act as indirect mitigation practices on claim and dispute occurrence in construction projects. The study can also be used by practitioners to further understand the real reasons behind claims and disputes, avoid their triggers, and build a good model of trust for claim and dispute avoidance.

Despite significant efforts to ensure workers’ safety, the construction industry continues to observe high levels of injuries and fatalities. Many research efforts have identified hazard recognition as one of the main factors for a safer work environment, and safety training as its major improvement vehicle. In consideration of this issue, this foundational research is focused on understanding how effective the current training methods are. The training content, confined space safety, was specifically chosen as a more obscure topic than other common safety areas e.g. ladder safety. Participants among two different populations of students and industry professionals were tested to measure their ability to retain prompt safety information through four different training-delivery methods. The results were statistically analyzed to determine if there is a difference in participants’ knowledge retention based on which training-delivery method they received. Other variables were considered and analyzed such as education, construction experience, and safety training. Among the observed results, the study found no significance difference based on the training delivery methods. However, other factors were found significant to the participant’s safety knowledge retention such as long term learning and industry experience. Future studies were identified to build on the current research, and to include different languages.

The emergence of integrated project delivery and collaborative contracts has been the staple of the construction industry in the last decade, with the main goal of fostering a collaborative environment and adding value to the whole project lifecycle. Collaborative contracts generally contain laddered dispute resolution methods and incentive provisions. These process-oriented methods are intended to promote an inexpensive and nonadversarial approach to dispute resolution, while the incentives are meant to add to the project value. However, these process-oriented dispute resolution methods and incentive provisions have been deemed to be vulnerable aspects in which interpersonal relations play an influential role and where they can have unpredictable effects in contrast to their initial purpose. This paper presents the results of an exploratory study comparing perceptions about dispute resolution methods and incentive clauses stipulated by four collaborative standard contract forms. Experienced construction professionals were interviewed for this study, followed by a thematic content analysis of the interview transcripts to identify shared issues in favor and against various aspects of the collaborative contract standards. Interviewees consisted of participants in the design, construction, and legal processes of project delivery. The analysis results were checked by additional consultation with the interviewees and by submitting the results of the critique to additional external reviewers. An important finding of the study was the perceived key role of interpersonal relations for the successful implementation of dispute resolution methods and incentive provisions. Mostly, people factors were perceived as more important than formally stipulated conditions.

The Higher Education Institutions’ (HEI) asset portfolio include a diverse range of buildings with different characteristics, economic life, rehabilitation and maintenance costs, and mission criticality. All such information is to be integrated in support of a rational and highly informed decision-making process within a resource-constrained environment in the context of facilities management (FM). This process needs to build upon accurate, reliable, and timely information about various building systems, components, and component elements of the individual buildings—which comes from a variety of sources. Delivering information in a segregated manner, traditional FM tools fall short in providing requirements effectively. Building information models (BIM), capable of capturing and integrating such large information databases, has recently been recognized as a compelling tool for project life-cycle analysis. This study is the first phase of a series of research on a BIM-intensive information management framework to support FM decision-making in HEIs. Four main aspects of building FM are investigated as inputs to the framework; institutions’ asset portfolio, FM practice, FM information requirements, and employed information technology (IT) tools. Information requirements are classified into four main categories: attributes of the physical facility, operation and maintenance (O&M) data, institutional factors, and decision alternatives. This information can be captured, stored, retrieved or exchanged in multiple software packages by integrating BIMs and building operation information exchange systems within the FM framework.

Purpose: Despite economic growth in the construction sector of the USA, profit margins are persistently low. An examination of collection practices of over 400 construction firms revealed a high number of firms with a collection period ratio above 30 days. This study aims to examines the variance between collection period ratio (days in accounts receivables, DAR) and days in accounts payables (DAP) and its correlation with profitability ratios [e.g. gross profit margin (GPM) and net profit margin (NPM)]. Design/methodology/approach: Descriptive statistics were used to observe trends over three years of financial reporting (2013 through 2016), while correlation statistics were used to understand relationship or association between the different financial ratios and the collection period variance (CPV). Respondent firms were stratified by the North American Industry Classification System, company type and revenue size. Findings: Conventional theory holds that increasing financial expenses because of collections negatively impacts profitability. Therefore, the hypothesis of the study suggested a statistical correlation between the CPV and profitability measures. Results of the study, however, supported the null hypothesis. Reasons for the lack of correlation are considered as well as necessary follow-up studies before rejecting the hypothesis. Originality/value: No such study was found specific to the construction industry, and as such, this study contributes to better understanding the implications of extensive collection periods. Further, this study contradicts assumptions about the behavior of the construction industry and the causal relationship between extensive collection periods and profitability.