Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of engineering, Port Said University, Port Said, Egypt
2
Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Port Said University, Port Said, Egypt.
3
Professor, Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of engineering, Ain shams University, Cairo, Egypt,
4
Professor of Steel Structures, Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering - Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt
Abstract
Waste is one of the most sophisticated problems which adversely affect the construction sector in Egypt. Substantial amounts of materials have been over consumed in different project stages. Examples of these stages are; design, documentation, procurement, handling, transportation storage, operation and inspection. Improper waste management and lack of concern given for waste minimization leads to excessive wastage of materials. The scope of this study covers the construction companies which possess experience in infrastructure field. Infrastructure projects are huge concerning capital and importance. It also includes big variety of activities which can be considered as a representative to the hole construction industry. This study aims to identify the main factors that cause waste in infrastructure projects in Egypt. It aims also to identify the severity of these factors.
Questionnaire was designed to collect data in order to carry out the objectives of this study. The questionnaire includes 67 main factors causing waste divided into 10 categories representing all project stages. Out of 180 questionnaires distributed, only 51 have been responded. Data has been analyzed using "Statistical Package For Social Science" (SPSS) software. Analysis of data shows that the main causes of material waste are: Delay in taking decision by the project manager, Low technical level of labors, Low level of project manager in managing the work and Poor planning of project layout.
A program was designed using "Visual Basic" to help the project team parties to predict the waste in an infrastructure project. It also help them to make a price bid. The program considers 12 of construction materials where the user define the price and quantity of each material. These construction materials are the most consumed in infrastructure projects. Then, the user answers 99 questions which represent all project characteristics. The program gives the user the probable waste percent for each material and estimated waste quantity. Finally, the program offers some advices in accordance with user answers to minimize waste.
)
View on SCiNiTO