Exploring the Adoption of Construction Technologies in Infrastructure Projects: Bridging Perceptions of Experts with Real Project Data

Abstract

Infrastructure projects have progressively adopted construction technologies, yet previous studies have not fully explored technology utilization by comparing the perceptions of experts with actual project data. This research fills this knowledge gap. The authors (1) developed, distributed, and collected a survey completed by 52 construction practitioners to investigate the use of these technologies and their associated benefits; (2) checked the survey reliability and validity using Cronbach’s alpha test; (3) investigated the perceptions of utilizing construction technologies across industry sectors; (4) explored the perceptions of benefits across industry sectors; (5) analyzed the impact of construction technologies on project objectives and phases in infrastructure projects; (6) quantified the improvement in project management functions for the infrastructure sector; and (7) explored the utilization of construction technologies in 23 infrastructure projects. The study highlighted the infrastructure sector’s leadership in deploying real-time systems (RTS), with the construction phase reaping benefits related to productivity and safety. Improvements in time management (75%), cost management (70.50%), stakeholder management (68.85%), and environmental management (65%) were rated higher in the infrastructure sector than in the buildings sector. Building Information Modeling (BIM) and digital twin (DT) had identical rankings in both survey findings and actual projects. The drinking water and bridges categories extensively utilized BIM, and virtual reality (VR). Laser scanning (LS), robotics and automation (RA), and BIM were more integrative, whereas the Internet of Things (IoT) and DT had lower utilization. Implementing BIM, VR, DT, and LS focused on virtual modeling, whereas leveraging IoT, RA, RTS, and uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) emphasized real-time data collection. The study found strong associations between VR and BIM with 85.71% confidence. This study provides infrastructure practitioners with a thorough understanding of how their related sectors could benefit from technology to enhance project performance.