Linear scheduling model: The development of a linear scheduling model with microcomputer applications for highway construction project control

This thesis describes a new approach to the problem of scheduling highway construction type projects. The technique can accurately model linear activities and identify the controlling activity path on a linear schedule. Current scheduling practices, are unable to accomplish these two tasks with any accuracy for linear activities, leaving planners and managers suspicious of the information they provide. Basic linear scheduling is not a new technique, and many attempts have been made to apply it to various types of work in the past. The technique has never been widely used however, because of the lack of an analytical approach to activity relationships and development of an analytical approach to determining controlling activities. The Linear Scheduling Model (LSM) developed in this thesis, completes the linear scheduling technique by adding to linear scheduling, all of the analytical capabilities, including computer applications, present in CPM scheduling today. The Linear Scheduling Model has tremendous potential and will likely have a significant impact on the way linear construction is scheduled in the future.