The mitigation of the effects of delays in construction projects: A knowledge based system approach

The work presented in this thesis investigates the problems faced by site managers, construction managers or contractors in mitigating the effects of delays in construction projects. The mitigation is a mechanism for recovering the adverse time and cost consequences of delay in the best possible way to remain on the construction programme. This is a part of management decision making by using the factors of time and cost effects on the contract. This thesis offers construction practitioners a decision support system during their managerial decision-making process to overcome delay problems. Fundamental criteria and characteristics used have been identified during the selection of suitable activity(ies) for acceleration. This knowledge and experience were acquired from experienced construction managers by interviewing technique. The use of computers on linking of project management software with knowledge-based expert system technology is also investigated. In particular, any system should allow managers to view alternative actions and their priorities in the form of both a time-cost curve, and a tabular format, and simulate the consequences of a particular action. A prototype knowledge based expert system, called MICD, is proposed to formulate and capture the expertise into the computer and assist construction managers in managing construction delays occurring during the construction process. A hybrid knowledge representation is used for the development of the MICD system. It combines frame-based programming, which represents factual knowledge, and rule-based programming which represents inferential knowledge. The system was implemented using Golden Common Lisp programming environment and Goldworks III, a development tool for knowledge based expert systems. The system is validated on a fully detailed UK-based construction contract, which is an admeasurement bridge project.