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1 Background
Pages 9-18

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From page 9...
... market were population growth, the construction of new buildings, the renovation of existing ones, and the renewal of existing infrastructure. In the global market, the driving forces included population growth and urbanization in China, India, the Middle East, and Africa and their demands for infrastructure (transportation, power, telecommunications, water, wastewater treatment)
From page 10...
... The construction of buildings subsector comprises establishments involved in constructing residential, industrial, commercial, and institutional buildings. The heavy and civil engineering subsector includes establishments involved in infrastructure projects -- for example, water, sewer, oil, and gas pipelines; roads and bridges; and power plants.
From page 11...
... and manual laborers are involved in each of these sectors. In this report, the combined sectors of commercial, industrial, and heavy construction projects are referred to as the capital facilities sector.
From page 12...
... The commercial, industrial, and heavy construction sectors, then, are stratified and differ from each other in terms of the following: • The characteristics of project owners, their sophistication, and their involvement in the construction process; • The complexity of the projects; • The source and magnitude of financial capital; • The labor skills required; • The use of specialty equipment and materials; • The design and engineering processes; and • The knowledge required and other factors. Stakeholders Construction projects involve a diverse set of stakeholders -- owners, users, designers (architects, engineers, interior designers)
From page 13...
... The standards and regulations -- building codes, permitting processes, wage rates -- governing the construction of capital facilities vary by the type of project and the jurisdiction in which a project is located. Because most projects are fully constructed on-site (e.g., foundations dug and footings poured, shell and core erected, equipment and furnishings installed)
From page 14...
... This way of operating also has implications for the quality of the final project because choices made in the earliest stages of project planning about materials, technologies, and other factors determine the durability, energy efficiency, and total costs of a project for its entire life cycle. The importance of effective planning up front to successful projects is well documented (FFC, 2003; CII, 2006)
From page 15...
... The author noted that this measurement indicates that construction projects have required significantly more field work hours per dollar of contract, or more simply, that the construction industry seriously lags other industries in developing and applying laborsaving ideas and in finding ways to substitute equipment for labor (Teicholz, 2004)
From page 16...
... A more recent effort to examine the relationship between material technology and construction productivity found that labor productivity improved at an annual compound rate of 0.47 percent between 1977 and 2004 (Grau et al., 2009)
From page 17...
... Construction Industry established by the NRC have expertise in the U.S. construction industry, construction methods and project delivery, construction research and materials, large-scale engineering, construction economics, global markets and competitiveness, innovative technologies, fabrication processes, information technology, project and supply chain management, and productivity measurement and performance metrics.


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