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With the increasing demand for high-quality economical and sustainable historic building repair and maintenance (R&M) allied with the perennial problem of skills shortages (project management (PM) and on-site practice) investment in new technologies becomes paramount for modernising training and practice. Yet, the historic R&M industry, in particular small- and medium-sized enterprises have yet to benefit from digital technologies (such as laser scanning, virtual reality and cloud computing) which have the potential to enhance performance and productivity. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A qualitative participatory action research approach was adopted. One demonstration project (Project A) exhibiting critical disrepair, showcasing the piloting of a five phased digitised “process-wheel” intended to provide a common framework for facilitating collaboration of project stakeholders thereby aiding successful project delivery is reported. Five semi-structured interviews were conducted with industry employers to facilitate the process-wheel concept development.

Implementing only Phase 1 of the digitised “process-wheel” (e-Condition surveying incorporating laser scanning) resulted in an estimated 25-30 per cent cost and time savings, when compared to conventional methods. The accrued benefits are twofold: provide a structured standardised data capturing approach that is shared in a common project repository amongst relevant stakeholders; inform the application of digital technologies to attain efficiencies across various phases of the process-wheel.

This paper has provided original and valuable information on the benefits of modernising R&M practice, highlighting the importance of continued investment in innovative processes and new technologies for historic building R&M to enhance existing practice and in form current training provision. Future work will focus on further piloting and validation of the process-wheel in its entirety on selected demonstration projects with a view of supporting the industry to digitise its workflows and going fully digital to realise optimum process efficiencies.

Construction projects, and particularly highway infrastructures, are known to be major contributors to the socio-economic growth of developing countries. However, these types of projects are infamous for being highly risky due to the interplay of numerous risk factors. This study aims to explore the key risk factors impacting on the performance of highway infrastructure projects in Nigeria from the contextual viewpoint of key industry stakeholders.

Qualitative data was collected using semi-structured interviews. Specifically, 17 in-depth expert interviews were conducted with experienced stakeholders in the highway sector of the Nigerian construction industry. The collected data was transcribed and analysed using an established coding framework (grounded on case study approach, principles of thematic analysis and saliency analysis).

Overall, 17 key risks were identified from the data analysis process, and 6 risks were recognised as the most significant, based on the combination of prevalence of occurrence and significance of the coded information. The six top risks were: change in government, corruption, cost of construction materials, inflation, project funding issues and construction project delay. However, the first two of these risks (change in government and corruption) are politically related, which is specific and unique to the setting of Nigeria and thus might be seen as discouraging indicators that could have an impact on attracting foreign investors/contractors to Nigeria.

The study addressed the gap related with identifying context-specific risk factors impeding the performance of highway projects in Nigeria from the viewpoints of industry experts. It is expected that the findings will provide a better insight into the various risk factors and thus aid relevant policymakers to provide context-specific mitigating strategies.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of graphene, basalt flakes and their synergy on the corrosion resistance of zinc-rich coatings. As the important heavy-duty anticorrosion coatings, zinc-rich coatings provided cathodic protection for the substrate. However, to ensure cathodic protection, a large number of zinc powder made the penetration resistance known as the weakness of zinc-rich coatings. Therefore, graphene and basalt flakes were introduced into zinc-rich coatings to coordinate its cathodic protection and shielding performance.

Three kinds of coatings were prepared; they were graphene modified zinc-rich coatings, basalt flakes modified zinc-rich coatings and graphene-basalt flakes modified zinc-rich coatings. The anticorrosion behavior of painted steel was studied by using the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) technique in chloride solutions. The equivalent circuit methods were used for EIS analysis to obtain the electrode process structure of the coated steel system. Simultaneously, the corrosion resistance of the three coatings was evaluated by water resistance test, salt water resistance test and salt spray test.

The study found that the addition of a small amount of graphene and basalt flakes significantly improved the anticorrosion performance of coatings by enhancing their shielding ability against corrosive media and increasing the resistance of the electrochemical reaction. The modified coatings exhibited higher water resistance, salt water resistance and salt spray resistance. The graphene-basalt flakes modified zinc-rich coatings demonstrated the best anticorrosion effect. The presence of basalt scales and graphene oxide in the coatings significantly reduced the water content and slowed down the water penetration rate in the coatings, thus prolonging the coating life and improving anticorrosion effects. The modification of zinc-rich coatings with graphene and basalt flakes improved the utilization rate of zinc powder and the shielding property of coatings against corrosive media, thus strengthening the protective effect on steel structures and prolonging the service life of anticorrosion coatings.

The significance of developing graphene-basalt flakes modified zinc-rich coatings lies in their potential to offer superior performance in corrosive environments, leading to prolonged service life of metallic structures, reduced maintenance costs and a safer working environment. Furthermore, such coatings can be used in various industrial applications, including bridges, pipelines and offshore structures, among others.

This paper presents results of an empirical investigation involving private construction clients in Malaysia, which seeks to establish appropriate tender evaluation criteria and weightings for a risk-oriented tender evaluation system.

At the initial stage of this study, a list of significant risks is identified and gathered through literature review. These risks are then mapped onto tender evaluation criteria. Following this, the identified risks and their mappings are validated through a questionnaire survey to determine appropriate criteria for tender evaluation. Weightings for the selected evaluation criteria are established through an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) group decision-making (GDM) method.

In practice, different lists of criteria, covering tender's technical capability and financial performance, are often used by different client organisations. However, there is a paucity of research behind the selection of these criteria and the weighting being attributed to different criteria.

This study provides an important and a valuable insight into the actual criteria used during tender evaluation practice based on an analysis of documentary evidence. Both current practice and existing tender evaluation studies failed to address the risk element adequately. There is a lack of an explicit link between evaluation criteria and project risks. This study fills this knowledge gap by identifying tender evaluation criteria through reviewing criteria used in practice and examining their links to risk factors.

Integrating sustainability into the value management (VM) process can provide a strategic platform for promoting and incorporating sustainable design and development during the lifespans of construction projects. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) for integrating sustainability into the VM process in Hong Kong.

Following an extensive literature review, 45 attributes were identified and grouped into strength, weakness, opportunity and threat elements. A questionnaire survey based on these groupings was supported by semi-structured interviews with public sector clients, value managers and VM facilitators. They shared their experience and views on how to integrate sustainability into the VM exercises.

The triangulated results of the survey and interviews are presented in this paper. The ranking of the SWOT analysis results indicate that VM does provide opportunities for multidisciplinary professionals and stakeholders to focus on issues relating to society and the environment, which is considered a main strength. The major weakness of integration is the lack of well-trained staff and low levels of VM participant expertise in relation to the sustainable construction issue.

Current practices generally neglect integration of sustainability into the VM process due to cost and time constraints. There are ample strengths and opportunities recommended by this study for integrating sustainability into the VM process which are beneficial for the clients and contractors for achieving value for money and meeting sustainability targets.

There are immense opportunities for integrating sustainability into the VM process, including encouragement of the reduction, reuse and recycling of construction and demolition waste. However, threats presented by integration include the additional time and costs required for achieving sustainability targets.

Findings and recommendations provided in this paper should be helpful to decision makers including clients and VM facilitators for the successful integration of the sustainability concept into the VM process.

This paper examines the business process of reactive maintenance projects and proposes an improvement through information technology. Among the major problems that have been revealed from the process analysis are getting the right problem for the right contractor, double handling of data entry and transferring information. These are due to lack of knowledge sharing and poor communication between different parties. Based on these problems, several requirements are laid out and they are used as a basis to develop a prototype system named MoPMIT (More Productive Minor Construction through IT). The main aim of the system is to explore the use of Web‐based technology to improve the managing of reactive maintenance projects. The system architecture and functional requirement of the MoPMIT system are well explained in this paper.

This paper presents an argument for automating data representations within the construction sector. It questions whether full automation and integration is feasible and achievable considering the complexity of the industry and supply chain problems. The paper starts by reviewing the research in the area of information automation, modelling and integration. A research prototype, GALLICON, is used as an example to demonstrate the levels of integration and automation that may be achieved with the current generation of technology.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a methodology for the existence and global exponential stability of the unique equilibrium point of a class of impulsive Cohen‐Grossberg neural networks.

The authors perform M‐matrix theory and homeomorphism mapping principle to investigate a class of impulsive Cohen‐Grossberg networks with time‐varying delays and distributed delays. The approach builds on new sufficient criterion without strict conditions imposed on self‐regulation functions.

The authors' approach results in new sufficient criteria easy to verify but without the usual assumption that the activation functions are bounded and the time‐varying delays are differentiable. An example shows the effectiveness and superiority of the obtained results over some previously known results.

The novelty of the proposed approach lies in removing the usual assumption that the activation functions are bounded and the time‐varying delays are differentiable, and the use of M‐matrix theory and homeomorphism mapping principle for the existence and global exponential stability of the unique equilibrium point of a class of impulsive Cohen‐Grossberg neural networks.

In this paper, we model histories of coresidence between two cohorts of urban Chinese couples, married during the Cultural Revolution and early market reform periods. Most research on coresidence pictures families cross‐sectionally, but nuclear households are a natural part of extended coresidence systems that prefer stem family arrangements. We study histories of coresidence to determine what predicts ever having coresided with the husband’s parents, comparing the predictive power of modernization theory to the impact of demographic change, the availability of household members, and the resources and needs of each generation. While married children’s needs for childcare do not propel them into coresidence, they strongly predict the likelihood of staying coresident.

The aim of the paper is to explore the relationship between the quality and value of higher education facilities through comparing the views of different user groups and professionals involved in the procurement and design of such facilities.

The paper adopts a mixed methods approach incorporating a number of interviews and a questionnaire survey, underpinned by the recommendations and input of an expert panel.

The results reveal the potential of facilities management and maintenance to create value for higher education institutions (HEIs) and students, perhaps even greater than the construction of new high‐profile facilities, by facilitating student recruitment and improving the student learning experience.

The sample includes data from a single HEI. Although this was deemed necessary so as to reduce the impact of externalities, the adopted approach has to be applied to a wider sample of HEIs in order to claim more generalisable findings.

The paper provides a better understanding of the relationship between the quality and value of higher education facilities. This can potentially support HEIs to achieve improved value for money from their facilities and free up resources to be reinvested in other aspects of student experience.

Considering the subjective nature of value the paper incorporates views from a number of different interest groups. These views are correlated with different facility quality standards to provide a holistic approach to assessing the value of higher education facilities.