Scribd
Upload
9 views1 page

Construction Cost-Duration Optimization

This document discusses the relationship between cost and duration for construction projects. It states that there is an inverse relationship between direct costs and project duration, as reducing duration typically increases costs. Indirect costs increase with longer durations. A cost-duration curve can be constructed for individual tasks based on available resources, showing either a linear or nonlinear relationship. For repetitive tasks like highway construction, the duration and cost for a unit of work can be represented, with the actual duration of a task being calculated based on the unit time, total work quantity, and a job condition factor.

Uploaded by

Abdul Rahman
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
9 views1 page

Construction Cost-Duration Optimization

This document discusses the relationship between cost and duration for construction projects. It states that there is an inverse relationship between direct costs and project duration, as reducing duration typically increases costs. Indirect costs increase with longer durations. A cost-duration curve can be constructed for individual tasks based on available resources, showing either a linear or nonlinear relationship. For repetitive tasks like highway construction, the duration and cost for a unit of work can be represented, with the actual duration of a task being calculated based on the unit time, total work quantity, and a job condition factor.

Uploaded by

Abdul Rahman
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

INTRODUCTION 73

Figure 5.2 Linear direct cost-duration curve for unit quantity of task i
contractor in the form of damages if the project is not completed on time. The duration of a project is
obtained by sequencing individual tasks whose durations are estimated from a knowledge of the resources
allocated to each task and the job conditions. Thus, cost and duration are intricately related. Both of these
parameters are of great importance to the contractor who strives to minimize the cost while at the same time
satisfying the contractual requirements, the most important of which is the completion deadline. Assuming
the sequencing constraints are not changed, the direct cost, in general, has an inverse relationship with the
duration of a construction project. The indirect cost increases with an increase in the duration of the project.
The total cost is the sum of these two and can increase or decrease with duration. The goal is to obtain the
global optimum solution for the scheduling problem.
There is also an inverse relationship between direct cost and the duration of an individual task. A
scheduler estimates the time required to complete a task from the resources allocated to it. This time is
based on assumed labor and equipment productivity rates ignoring the effects of varying job conditions.
Depending on the options and the availability of resources the scheduler has for each task, a cost-duration
curve can be constructed. This curve can be continuous or discrete. For efficient mathematical formulation
the discrete relationship is approximated by a continuous linear (Figure 5.2) or nonlinear (Figure 5.3) curve.
In this way a continuous variable optimization technique can be used to solve the construction time-cost
trade-off problem.
In projects with repetitive tasks such as highway construction, it is convenient to represent cost and
duration of a task in unit quantities of work. If di is the time required to complete a unit quantity of work of
task i and Wij is the total quantity of work required in segment j of task i, then the actual duration, Dij, can
be expressed as:
(5.1)
where ij is the job condition factor reflecting the effects of variable conditions such as weather, soil
conditions, terrain, site congestion, learning effects, etc.

You might also like