Two-stage scheduling model for resource leveling of linear projects

In recent times, linear project resource leveling based on the linear scheduling method (LSM) has attracted considerable interest owing to the unique advantages of applying the LSM to linear projects. In the research reported in this paper, the linear project resource leveling problem was described as a constraint satisfaction problem based on analyses conducted in previous studies and a two-stage scheduling model for resource leveling of linear projects based on the LSM was proposed. The optimization process was reasonably set so as to fully utilize the rate float of the activity to obtain a more optimal schedule. The constraint programming (CP) technique was used for solving this problem. Based on the proposed scheduling model and algorithm, a two-stage scheduling system for resource leveling of linear projects was developed for automatically establishing a linear schedule for resource leveling. The effectiveness of the proposed model and algorithm was verified for a highway construction project reported previously.