Construction Site Utilization Planning Best Practices

Abstract

Construction site utilization planning has implications for project safety, construction efficiency, scheduling, and budgetary performance of a project. An important aspect not identified in past research efforts are the current practices for site utilization plan development currently used by the construction industry. Therefore, the objectives of this research were to: 1) determine the best practices for site utilization planning; 2) develop a procedure that outlines the site utilization planning process; and 3) show how current Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology can be harnessed for site utilization plan development. The main method for data collection was a survey. A total of 241 responses were received. From the survey, 13 best practices were identified with each focusing on an important aspect of the site planning process. From the best practices, a procedure describing the site utilization process was developed. The procedure incorporates important aspects associated with project constraint identification, plan necessity, data acquisition, plan development, communication, implementation and enforcement, monitoring and evaluating, and documentation. Finally, an elusive three dimensional site utilization plan was created using BIM.