Value Engineering in Egyptian Bridge Construction

Abstract

During the past two decades, various construction systems have been applied in building several highway bridges and elevated roads in Egypt. This paper deals with the use of value engineering principles to evaluate the selection of construction systems for major bridge projects in Egypt. The construction systems used in Egypt and their applicability under different site conditions were reviewed. The study includes eight construction systems and 14 bridge projects. The weighted evaluation technique was used to evaluate the construction system used for each project in comparison with other applicable alternatives. The most important criteria considered in this evaluation include construction cost, resource availability, ease of construction durability, construction progress rate, service life, design efficiency, and maintenance. The evaluation led to basic conclusions concerning whether the system used in each case was the best choice. A call is made for conducting value engineering studies in the early stages of major bridge projects.