Railroad Bridge Construction Projects have frequently exceeded their cost and schedule resulting in major financial losses to the owners and to the contractors, severe interruption of the rail operation schedules and consequently significant inconvenience to the rail commuters. Currently, there are very few methods available to predict the completed construction cost. This research proposes cost estimating model that incorporates the “major uncertainty constraints” (MUC) which drive both the cost and schedule of Railroad bridge Construction. This approach is an advanced unique model that is proposed for calculation of adequate contingency in a portfolio of construction projects. It is used to update historical contingency values based on new railroad project data that becomes available as soon as construction projects are completed. A comprehensive literature search reveals that many researchers have developed models to predict cost overruns by considering only change orders as the main driver of construction cost overrun without considering the MUC impact. Owners and managers, who are in charge of estimating budget and construction duration in both public and private sectors, have limitations in predicting such tasks accurately. Data on completed projects are obtained from one of the nation largest Transit agency for 70 Railroad bridge construction projects. It examines the challenging environment of Railroad Bridge Construction Industry and describes the development of a predictive model of cost deviation in such high-risk projects. Based on an in-depth evaluation and analysis of completed railroad bridge construction projects, historical data was obtained on reasons behind cost overrun and underrun from 25 Railroad bridge projects which experienced cost overrun and underrun as study cases out of 70 completed general Railroad construction projects. This study contributes to a uniquely better understanding of the reasons for cost deviation in Railroad bridge construction projects and provides a decision support tool to quantify the extend of that deviation. Its results are expected to support the bridge owners and contractors who are in charge of estimating budget and construction duration in Railroad Bridge Construction sectors in accurately predicting the construction cost based on adequately calculated cost contingency at the business planning or early stage of a project.
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Bridges--Design and construction
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Railroad bridges--Design and construction
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_6361
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
electronic resource
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
1 online resource (xii, 128 p. : ill.)
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Note (type = statement of responsibility)
by Medhat George Attara
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore19991600001
Location
PhysicalLocation (authority = marcorg); (displayLabel = Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
AssociatedObject
Type
License
Name
Author Agreement License
Detail
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.