CE 477 – Construction Engineering Project Management

Archer, D. K., 2005. Construction Management for Owners & Contractors. Catawba Publishing Company, second edition.
Associated General Contractors of America, 2004. Project Delivery Systems for Construction. 2^nd edition, AGC Item No. 2915
Gould, F. E., 2001. Managing the Construction Process: Estimating, Scheduling, and Project Control. 2^nd Edition. Prentice Hall, Publisher, ISBN 0-13-060406-2.
Collier, K., 2001. Construction Contracts. Third Edition, Prentice-Hall, pub., ISBN 0-13-755927-5
Peurifoy, R. L., W. B. Ledbetter, C. J. Schexnayder, 1996. Construction Planning, Equipment, and Methods. Fifth edition, McGraw-Hill, pub., ISBN 0-07-049836-9.
R.S. Means Building Cost Data, available in the NMSU library
Microsoft Project, available for use in the Civil Engineering Computer Lab, Hernandez Hall
Web-based resources

Objectives:

Construction Engineering is an extremely complex profession, requiring sound engineering fundamentals and experience. This course is intended to develop a general familiarity with the construction industry and practice, specific and useful project management skills, and a clear connection between the skills and their application to construction management. Specifically, students successfully completing the course should be able to:

1. Understand various project organizations

2. Estimate durations and requirements of individual construction tasks;

3. Develop construction schedules using Critical Path Method (CPM) Analysis;

4. Perform simple Linear Programming (LP) analyses;

5. Estimate costs of operation and project costs, using present value analysis, for construction activities;

6. Understand basic contract law, liability, and labor issues;

7. Understand the legal and ethical concerns involved in construction engineering.

At least one field trip to a construction site will also be required, as no classroom experience can replace the real thing in this discipline.

Late Policy:

All assignments are due at 8:00 AM on the date indicated. This class is a sprint, and as such, late assignments create problems for the instructor, the grader, and, most of all, the student. It is also a fact of life in the construction industry that late is no better than never. Therefore, late assignments will not be graded or receive credit. However, your lowest homework grade will be dropped.

Attendance:

This class is being offered through Distance Education. Videos of lectures for the class can be downloaded at http://de.nmsu.edu/lectures/ce477_su09/ce477_su09_main.html approximately 24 hours after the lecture occurs. You are responsible for all information presented in readings and lectures.

Assignments:

The following assignments will be completed during the course. Assignments are to be submitted via e-mail to ce477@acage.nmsu.edu. Due dates are on the attached schedule.

Assignment	Points
6 home works, drop lowest 1 @ 8%:	30
3 exams @ 10 %:	30
Profile	10
Term Project	30
Total	100

Grading: Grades will be assigned on the following scale:

Cumulative Points	Grade
90-100	A
80-89	B
65-79	C
< 65	F

Profile of Major Firm, due Wednesday, June 10. Identify an organization involved in the construction industry. They need not be actually doing construction – design, environmental impact studies, or government agencies involved in construction are also acceptable. Obtain the following information about the firm:

1. Name, main office location.

2. History

3. Organization type (private, public, corporate, publicly or privately held, etc.), number of employees, number of engineers.

4. Type of construction-related projects.

5. Gross income and profit (if for-profit) or gross expenditures (if non-profit) for last few years.

6. Top three to five projects in last two years. If you anticipate focusing on a particular project, go into some detail on that project.

7. Unique characteristics of this company.

8. Determine how you will obtain information on the organization. The web is NOT adequate. A contact person is preferable.

This information may be found in the Engineering News Record (ENR), ASCE Civil Engineering Magazine, company web sites, the Wall Street Journal, etc. DO NOT RELY ON THE COMPANY’S WEB SITE AS YOUR SOLE SOURCE OF INFORMATION. Your profile is intended to be objective and impartial, which web sites are not. If you have no idea what organization to look at, contact the instructor ahead of time for suggestions.

Prepare a report of NOT MORE THAN THREE PAGES on the company with the above information and any other significant information about the company. This will be the subject of a more detailed report at the end of the semester.

Term Project, report due Wednesday, July 1. Prepare a report expanding on your company profile. You should provide a detailed description of the company, its history, and a description of at least one major project that it has completed or is executing.

Make every effort to relate the subject matter of the course to the information you present. The report should not be longer than 30 pages, not counting appendices. Format will be discussed in class. This is NOT an advertisement for the company, it is a critical analysis. If your research is entirely based on the company’s web site, it will invariably be shallow, trivial, and not score too well. Grading will be based as follows:

1. Description of company – 25 percent

2. Description of project – 25 percent

3. Relevance, relation to class subject matter – 25 percent

4. Professionalism, presentation, analysis – 25 percent

Produce an Adobe Acrobat (pdf) version of your final report, which is to be submitted by e-mail by class time on the due date.

NOTE: Many companies will not fit the traditional form of a construction firm. That is fine, but do try to relate the company to the construction industry. If you have questions about the suitability of a company for the assignment, discuss it with the instructor well in advance of the due date.

Students with Disabilities: If you have, or think you may have, a disability that interferes with your performance as a student in this class, you are encouraged for academic reasons to discuss this on a confidential basis with your instructor, the Disabled Student Programs Coordinator at 646-1921, and/or the Americans with Disabilities Act Coordinator at 646-7795. If you have a condition that may affect your ability to exit the premises in case of emergency, you are urged, for safety reasons, to contact any of the above persons.

Course Schedule:

Date	Topic	Due
Thu 5/28	Introduction to course; expectations; the construction industry
Mon 6/1	Soil properties, earthwork
Tue 6/2	Concrete batching, quantities
Wed 6/3	Power and Machinery, Cycle time, building tasks
Thu 6/4	Cost of equipment and operation	HW 1 - Soil & Concrete
Mon 6/8	Scheduling, CPM
Tue 6/9	Resource allocation, PERT, cash flow	HW 2 - Power & machinery
Wed 6/10	MS Project, CPM solving	Company Profile
Thu 6/11	Review, Exam 1
Mon 6/15	Linear programming	HW 3 – CPM 1
Tue 6/16	Project organization	Exam 1
Wed 6/17	Lee Peters, Attorney - Liability and legal considerations	HW 4 - House CPM
Thu 6/18	Contracts, specifications, documents
Mon 6/22	Risk management, codes & licenses, records, Exam 2	HW 5 - LP, Queuing
Tue 6/23	Construction site safety
Wed 6/24	Case study	Exam 2
Thu 6/25	Rough estimating
Mon 6/29	Guest speaker (TBA)	HW 6 - Trenching safety
Tue 6/30	Quality assurance/Quality Control
Wed 7/1	Catch-up, Exam 3	Term Project
Thu 7/2	Megatrends, careers in construction and management
Fri 7/3	Class does not meet	Exam 3