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Abdenour, J I (2021) A cost estimation model for improving the budget estimates of industrial plant construction projects, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , The George Washington University.

Adoko, M T (2016) Developing a cost overrun predictive model for complex systems development projects, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , The George Washington University.

Alves, L F (2006) Stochastic approach to risk assessment of project finance structures under public private partnerships, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , The George Washington University.

Boyer, E J (2012) Building capacity for cross-sector collaboration: How transportation agencies develop skills and systems to manage public-private partnerships, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , The George Washington University.

Cho, S (2000) Sequential estimation and decision-making in project management: A Bayesian way and heuristic approaches, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , The George Washington University.

Farmer, C M (2018) Constructing program management offices for major defense acquisition programs: Factors to consider, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , The George Washington University.

Griffin, M G (2008) The lived experience of first line managers during planned organizational change: A phenomenological study of one firm in the residential construction industry, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , The George Washington University.

Innocent, M J F, Jr. (2018) Predicting military construction project time outcomes using data analytics, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , The George Washington University.

Kim, E (2000) A study on the effective implementation of earned value management methodology, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , The George Washington University.

Lounsbury, C R (1983) From craft to industry: The building process in North Carolina in the nineteenth century, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , The George Washington University.

Ngamthampunpol, D (2008) An assessment of safety management in the Thai construction industry, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , The George Washington University.

Park, J (2015) Essays on the delivery of public infrastructure projects: Empirical analyses on transportation projects in Florida, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , The George Washington University.

  • Type: Thesis
  • Keywords: coordination; flexibility; traffic; delivery method; geotechnical engineering; partnering; project control; project cost; project delivery; project planning; public infrastructure; value engineering; bridge; collaboration; infrastructure project; owner
  • ISBN/ISSN:
  • URL: https://www.proquest.com/docview/1672139692
  • Abstract:
    A common goal of two essays in this dissertation is seeking to answer the question how to enhance performance of public-sector infrastructure projects. The first essay focuses on project control after the outset of a project. Based on production theories, construction process is interpreted in terms of managerial principles, and the following two questions are sought to be answered: 1) whether or not the nature of a change is significantly associated with cost performance; and 2) whether or not the adverse effect of a change on cost performance is amplified as the timing of its occurrence gets delayed. Analyses using data on roads, bridges, and traffic operations projects in Florida suggest that cost increase is attributable to the incompleteness in planning. In particular, a negative effect of owner-directed changes, e.g., plan modifications and changes resulting from engineering decisions, on cost performance, implies a potential advantage of extra effort in upfront engineering. In contrast, changes required to adopt efficiency-enhancing practices, e.g., partnering and value engineering, have a positive effect on cost performance. This suggests potential benefits that Design/Build delivery method may bring about through flexibility in coordination among project parties. Meanwhile, I observe only changes induced by natural environmental conditions to be time-sensitive, again emphasizing the importance of geotechnical engineering in project planning. Inspired by some disagreements in previous studies as well as by the results from the first essay, the second essay attempts to tackle public perception regarding putative advantages of Design-Build (DB), over the traditional project delivery method, Design-Bid-Build (DBB). In doing so, I seek to answer the following three questions: 1) for what type of project a public owner is likely to employ one method or the other; 2) to whom a public owner tends to award each type of project; and 3) to what degree owner's decisions yield varying consequences under the two methods in terms of project cost and schedule. Economic theories suggest that DB fits better with a large and environmentally uncertain project, thereby, requiring a better-qualified contractor (Bajari, McMillan, & Tadelis, 2009). However, the analyses of transportation projects in Florida over the last decade show that large and environmentally uncertain projects were not always delivered by DB especially for those assumed to have high impacts on road users or surroundings. Also, DB contractors having demonstrated histories of successful collaborations with the owner did not necessarily grab high chances of winning projects in the future. Regardless, the use of DB seems advantageous to schedule control while cost advantages of one over the other not being supported in this essay. These findings together call for further studies on how to enhance various benefits inherent in each delivery method.

Schulte, W D, Jr. (1999) The effect of international corporate strategies and information and communication technologies on competitive advantage and firm performance: An exploratory study of the international engineering, procurement and construction (IEPC) industry, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , The George Washington University.

Shamma, E M (1988) A dynamic model for the growth of construction firms, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , The George Washington University.

Taku, A M (2021) Predicting modular efficiency in oil and gas capital projects using multi-criteria decision analysis, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , The George Washington University.

Zhou, G (2021) Machine learning-based cost predictive model for better operating expenditure estimations of U.S. light rail transit projects, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , The George Washington University.