Research Papers-Department of Quantity Surveying
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Publication Open Access Challenging Arbitral Awards in the Construction Industry(SLIIT, 2022-02-11) Jayasinghe, R; Dahanayake, R; Edirisinghe, VOne of the most common alternative dispute resolution methods used in the Sri Lankan construction industry is arbitration. However, challenging arbitration awards based on legal grounds at the courts has been a current trend by the disagreeing party. If this situation occurs continuously, the purpose of having arbitration as an alternative dispute resolution method can be abandoned. Therefore, the study aims to identify the causes where arbitration is challenged in multi-story building construction projects in Sri Lanka through a case study. The methodological choice was qualitative and used semistructured interviews from six arbitrators and 2 case studies that referred to courts to challenge arbitration awards as research strategies. The study found the poor attitude of parties, lack of technical knowledge, reliability, and capability of the arbitrator to act according to the arbitrary acts imposed by the government as the main causes. Further. The study recommends arbitrators consider the reasons to act well enough and reject the cases if the arbitration is likely to be challenged in courts, train arbitrators to be reliable and on technical knowledge, and improve parties' attitudes by educating on the arbitration procedure and its benefits.Publication Open Access REGIONAL RELEVANCY OF THE CIDA PRICE INDICES UNDER THE RESTRICTIONS URGED BY THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC(SLIIT, 2022-02-11) Nissanka, H. D. N. M; Wijesinghe, TCIDA price fluctuation formula and price indices provide considerable relief to the estimators in mitigating the risk due to the fluctuation of the price of construction inputs during project execution. But there is a huge outcry that the CIDA indices does not appropriately reflect the actual fluctuation of market prices especially during the period of pandemic. The aim of this research was to identify the appropriateness of CIDA indices in ascertaining the price fluctuation of construction material prices across the regions especially under the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The study was limited to analysis the regional behavior of material prices based on the significant materials. Market price of construction materials was collected from suppliers, constructors, and construction professionals who are currently involved in construction projects. The market prices were collected from nine provinces of the country for eight different types of significant materials during the period of pandemic. Collected data were first observed for its behavior within and across the provinces to check the appropriateness to be represented by country wide common indices. This was done through the analysis of variance and through the checking of null hypothesis i.e., “always there is no difference in means between the provincial prices of a given material”. Thereafter the fluctuation of provincial prices of given inputs were compared to the variation of respective CIDA indices with the corresponding time to check the parallelism and correlation. In this research, it has been concluded that, there is a requirement for establishing regional monthly indices for construction inputs.Publication Open Access Relationship between procurement systems and payment methods in assuring financial safety in Sri Lankan building projects(SLIIT, 2022-02-11) Niriella, A; Gamage, IThe Construction industry is a place where the parties to a project frequently face various risks throughout the project life cycle. Financial risks are one of the aforementioned risks that have a significant impact on parties, and more studies should be conducted to investigate the possibility of minimizing these financial risks and assuring the financial safety of projects. Thus, this research aims at identifying the relationship between procurement systems and payment methods towards assuring the financial safety of construction projects. Researchers selected government funded building projects to limit the scope because such projects frequently deal with financial risks. Frequent financial risks in a Government Funded Building Projects (GFBP) were identified as material shortages, fluctuation of inflation rate, legislation changes. The study used a mixed method approach, and data was gathered through semi structured interviews and questionnaires. Data was analyzed using manual content analysis and basic statistics. Common procurement systems and payment methods available in a GFBP were identified through interviews. Accordingly traditional, design and build, management oriented and collaborative procurement systems were identified and lumpsum, measure and pay, Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) and cost reimbursement were identified as payment methods. Furthermore, findings revealed that there are six common combinations between procurement systems and payment methods in GFBP. The identified combinations were further tested for their ability to minimize financial risks of GFBP and it was revealed that the combination consisting of Lumpsum with Design and Build was the best combination to assure financial safety in GFBP. Other combinations are traditional with measure and pay, design and build with lumpsum, design and build with GMP, management oriented with lumpsum, management oriented with measure and pay. Ultimately, a framework has been developed by harmonizing all the research findings in which parties can select the most viable combination to assure the financial safety of their project.Publication Open Access Conflicts Handling Styles Used by Professionals at Pre-Contract Stage of Building Construction Projects in Sri Lanka(SLIIT, 2022-02-11) De Silva, p; Sandanayake, Y. GConflicts between design team professionals is a common experience in building construction projects in Sri Lanka. Depending on the way they are been handled, these conflicts bring either positive or negative impacts to the project. Thus, this paper investigates the conflict-handling styles that the professionals use to handle different types of conflicts among themselves at pre-contract stage of construction projects in Sri Lanka. The study on different types of conflicts and handling styles were derived through quantitative approach by a questionnaire survey designed incorporating Rahim’s Organisational Conflict InventoryII (ROCI-II) with the participation of 42 number of professionals engaged during the pre-contract stage of building construction projects in Sri Lanka. The scope of the study was limited to the building construction projects and only to the conflicts among professionals at the same level. The collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The research findings revealed that there are four types of conflicts: task, relationship, process and status conflicts, occur in different frequencies among the professionals. The task conflicts occur very often, and process conflicts occur often whilst relationship and status conflicts occur rarely among professionals during the pre-contract stage. This study revealed that professionals use different conflict handling styles to handle these four types of conflicts among themselves during the pre-contract stage of building construction projects in Sri Lanka. Further, majority of professionals use integrating style often to handle conflicts among themselves, and they use avoiding style very rarely to handle the conflicts among themselves except for relationship conflicts. However, to handle relationship conflicts, professionals use dominating style as the last option. The study would assist the industry practitioners to identify their personnel conflict handling style and the outcome of using each style with their supervisors when handling conflicts during the precontract stage.Publication Open Access REGULARITIES AND PATTERNS OF CONSTRUCTION COSTS UPON POLITICAL EVENTS(SLIIT, 2022-02-11) Perera, B. K. C; Jayasena, H. SThough the market prices change before and after political events were often speculated, if such changes could be systematically accounted for in construction cost forecasting was unknown. This study aimed to bridge this knowledge gap by identifying the regularities and patterns of the construction costs upon political events. A decade of period was selected in which the scope of the study started in 2010. Time series analysis was used along with regression analysis, assuming a linear relationship between construction costs and time. After a comprehensive literature review, CIDA construction cost indices were chosen as the most appropriate cost representation for the local context, and these were taken as the dependent variables. All indices were plotted in diagrams and long-term trends were observed, then indices were carried for further analysis of cycles. Major political events were collected through a document survey and the findings were plotted on the time series analysis output. It was noticed that in 2013 indices were changed mostly, where three provincial elections were held, and some more pattern changes had occurred close to the local government elections which took place in 2011 and 2018. The study concluded that there is neither pattern nor regularity in construction costs upon political events where it cannot be systematically incorporated into construction cost forecasting. However, the findings did not deny the impact of political events on construction costs, and novel areas were found where further explorations are required.Publication Open Access Mitigation Practices for Frequent Accidents in High Rise Building Construction(SLIIT, 2022-02-11) Delpachitra, Y; Allis, CHigh-rise building construction accidents are observed within the construction industry in Sri Lanka. These accidents represent a significant loss for the construction industry in terms of lives, cost, time, and the reputation of the construction company. To overcome those losses, this research aimed to develop the framework as guidance to mitigate frequently happening accidents in high-rise building construction in Sri Lanka. It was achieved by three main objectives, identify the frequent accidents in high-rise building construction, investigate the causes of frequent accidents happen and analyze the strategies to minimize them. The first two objectives were completed by literature review, and the third objective was completed by data collection while developing the second objective. The data collection was done through semi-structured interviews with 12 professionals who work as health and safety officers, project managers, engineers, and quantity surveyors in high-rise building construction. Only those who work in the Colombo area were considered here as a limitation. Under the first objective, scaffolding accidents, struck by falling objects, plant, and machinery accidents, falling from a height, and fire accidents were identified as frequent accidents in high rise building construction, and causes were listed below the human factors, material, and equipment factors, environmental Factors, safety technology factors, and management failures as the second objective. Essentially risk assessment, developing the site conditions, conducting training programs establishing safety system with the procedure control system, and establishing penalty procedure were the discoveries of the third objective, and those are categorized separately in the pre-construction stage and post-construction stage. According to all these findings, the framework was developed to identified relevant mitigation practices for the causes of high-rise building construction accidents, and this research recommended for government to introduce new regulations for safety while strictly following up the safety system of the high-rise building construction sites to reduce the accidents.Publication Open Access Fire Safety Performance of High-rise buildings in Sri Lanka(SLIIT, 2022-02-11) Perera, H. D. N. L; Allis, CFire safety is the most critical aspect of high-rise building safety. As human life is essential than other aspects, analysis of a reliable building fire safety performance is more critical than ever. Whenever an actual fire incident occurs, the active firefighting systems in the building would be activated first. As a result, it is necessary to identify the operation of active firefighting systems as well as proper service and maintenance of the systems. The research problem was identified as, people tend to fulfill the minimum fire safety requirements imposed by regulations. Therefore, the condition of fire safety performance in most highrise buildings are very poor. The aim of this research is to identify suggestions to improve the fire safety performance in high-rise buildings in Sri Lanka. Consequently, three objectives have been established to fulfill the research aim. In the first objective, building design features, human behaviors, equipment failures, and underperformance of fire regulations are highlighted as contributing factors to building fire events. The second objective evaluates fire safety precautions implemented in high-rise buildings, such as alarm activation, communication and evacuation procedures, service and maintenance periods of live fire systems, and fire evacuation drills. In the third objective, suggestions to improve the fire safety performance in high-rise buildings are recognized as, maintaining proper coordination between the fire brigade and building fire maintenance department at all times. Since the interpretivism philosophy used in this inductive qualitative research, the data was collected through conducting ten interviews with professionals who are primarily engaged with achieving reliable fire safety performance in high-rise buildings. In conclusion, recommendations such as, establish a coordination center to maintain proper coordination with fire brigade, air force and building maintenance staff and introduce a trained air force squad with helicopters and firefighting equipments can be implemented in Sri Lankan high-rise buildingsPublication Open Access Critical Supply Chain Problems In Contractor - Subcontractor Interface Of Sri Lankan Building Construction Projects(SLIIT, 2022-02-11) De Silva, P; Panagodage, T. LAs a developing country, construction industry provides considerable contribution to the Socioeconomic growth of Sri Lanka. However, successful completion of a construction project is yet a challenging task. It requires coordination, collaboration and management of different stakeholders with different objectives. While achieving the objectives of a construction project, a proper management of supply chain is vital as improper management of the supply chain impacts negatively on the construction project delivery process. Prior studies have identified several interfaces which impact on the successful project delivery. The mechanism related to contractor-subcontractor interface highly impacts the ultimate project outcome as it is directly linked with the delivery of the project. This study set out to identify the critical supply chain problems in contractor-subcontractor interface in Sri Lankan building construction projects. The study was derived through a mix method approach. Semi structured interviews were carried out among the industry expertise to identify the supply chain related problems. Thereafter, to identify the critical problems of supply chain, a questionnaire survey was carried out among the industry practitioners in the building construction projects. The data was analyzed using Relative Important Index in order to rank and identify the severity of each identified problem in the contractor – subcontractor interface. The study indicates that, using verbal information, lack of reference to the main contract and nonresponsible responses as the critical problems in the Information flow. In terms of the Material flow: deliveries are not according to the plan, poor labour management and noncompliance with material and components are ranked as the critical problems. Delay in payments, back-to-back payments and payment interest charging as the critical problems under the Capital flow. These findings may assist the industry practitioners to identify the criticality and monitor supply chain problems in contractor- subcontractor interface and to minimize them in building construction projects.Publication Open Access Effective Waste Management Strategies of Bentonite in Sri Lanka(SLIIT, 2022-02-11) Guruge, K; Coomasaru, POne of the greatest challenges of Bentonite usage in construction industry is, managing the wastage created in sites thus, it has to be given attention. Therefore, the study would be conducted focusing on the domestic piling construction sites and the process followed by them. Although it is a chemical, it is recognized to be safe for both the environment as well as mankind in an ecological and health protection perspective. However, a proper disposal method in order to reduce the further issues as excessive waste in sites is needed. Therefore, this study aims to explore an effective method regarding the waste management strategies for Bentonite in Sri Lanka. The objectives of the study are, identifying the wasting methods of Bentonite, identifying causes of disposing Bentonite and determining the most suitable method for Bentonite disposal. Data for the objectives one and two were collected through a literature survey and analyzed by using NVivo which was validated using a questionnaire by majority of 5-10 years experienced professionals aligning to mixed method approach. Data for the third objective was found by aegis of the same questionnaire. Noticeably, it was validated through interviews by the industry experts with more than 30 years of experience. The study found that, site conditions are the most relatable reason for the Bentonite waste. Apart from that ‘weather’ and ‘manual handling errors’ can be additional reasons for the wastage. Moreover, most sites consider either ‘when the slurry forms into a cake’ or ‘silos are full’ as the causes for disposal. Furthermore, it has identified that the majority of sites dispose the waste to disposable lands using bowsers as of the disposal method after reusing 3-4 times. The suggested method appears to be cost effective and efficient in comparison to the others. Furthermore, it can be rather safe and environmentally friendly.Publication Open Access Effect of COVID-19 on the small-scale construction companies: The case of Colombo district, Sri Lanka(2022-06-24) Gunarathna, N; Namarathna, C. PCOVID-19 is a global pandemic that has wreaked havoc on the lives of many individuals and has had a severe impact on the global economy. During this crisis, small and medium-scale businesses suffer the most and are the least prepared among all companies as per the previous studies done in other parts of the world. The majority of the small-scale construction firms in Sri Lanka act as subcontractors and generate job opportunities for a considerable number of people and are able to create a multiplier effect on the whole economy. However, it was observed that they are more vulnerable to the adverse impact of the pandemic. Thus, the principal goal of this research is to explore possible survival strategies to overcome critical financial issues of small-scale construction companies during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka. A mixedmethod approach was adopted to gather the data for the study. A comprehensive literature review was carried out to identify the impact of COVID-19 on both global and local construction industries. The data for this study was gathered using semi-structured interviews and a comprehensive questionnaire survey with small scale construction company owners and construction industry professionals. The findings highlighted the key financial issues faced by the small-scale construction companies due to the pandemic including delays in client payments, supply chain management issues, frequent price escalation of construction materials, and inability to repay loans. The respondents suggested creating partnerships with financially strong companies, reduction of unwanted expenses, modifying supply chain channels and agreements, and ensuring business continuity plans as the strategies to be used to overcome the financial burden that occurred due to the pandemic.