Accounting for Transport Times in Planning Off-Site Shipment of Construction Materials

Abstract

Off-site transportation of construction materials is planned commonly by considering the transportation costs as the dominant decision variable. Despite the significant impact of delays in the delivery of materials on the progress of projects, there is a lack of a systematic approach to estimating the off-site transport time of materials by considering the material characteristics and logistics options. This paper uses the results of a case study to highlight the importance of accounting for off-site material transport time in the planning of an industrial megaproject where small delays in activities requiring diverse materials could significantly delay the progress of the project, leading to considerable financial loss in some cases. In addition, a framework is proposed for estimating the duration of off-site transportation in industrial megaprojects by categorizing construction materials based on their supply chain structure and accounting for the effects of the transport mode, size, and weight of consignments. The results of the case study indicate that adjusting the logistics variables based on the results of a statistical analysis on transportation monitoring data collected in the earlier stages of a project may lead to a reduced delay in off-site transportation in subsequent stages.