1. Abstract

Monitoring construction projects once considered a necessary commodity in the Realty & Infrastructure construction sector is now viewed as a strategic asset for organizations that want to remain competitive by quickly adapting to change and accelerating business performance. However, a recent investigation indicated a lack of systematic evaluation and monitoring in construction projects. This paper aims to identify techniques that can be used in the construction industry to monitor and evaluate physical progress. The paper focuses on topics such as construction monitoring, planning strategies, conducting construction monitoring, client obligations, and engaging stakeholders.

2. What is Construction Monitoring?

Monitoring is collecting project information regularly to measure the progress of your project or activity and help track the performance over time and make informed decisions about the effectiveness of projects and the efficient use of resources. Construction monitoring is a service that provides the client with the independent verification (to the extent of the consultant’s engagement) that the works have been completed under specified requirements and are done accurately and positively of checking the progress of a construction project, accuracy, quality, and testing the deliverables. Most construction projects are unique, but unlike manufactured products, which are often thoroughly tested and evaluated during construction and before being brought into the service, the completed project is rarely tested against all the design requirements. Construction work is also complex in detail, and skilled professional involvement is necessary for the successful execution of such projects.

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• To effectively monitor any construction project, one should be involved from the start as the project is designed and offer inputs and highlight oversights from the beginning of the construction until completion.
• To reiterate, construction monitoring is an accurate and positive way of checking the quality, accuracy, and progress of a construction project which provides a clearer view of your project’s progress and allows one to address problems before and as they arise.

3. Objectives of Construction Monitoring

This section is intended to draw attention to the range of purposes that the monitoring of construction work may serve. All parties involved in monitoring processes need to have an understanding of the overall objectives of the undertaking. Monitoring is not normally an end in itself but is undertaken to support some other construction or asset management requirements. In many cases, monitoring systems may be used to serve multiple objectives, and the objective of any monitoring activity should be defined clearly during planning and design to avoid later confusion or misinterpretations of the data. Some of the most common objectives for monitoring construction works are described below:

• Construction Process Control: To provide data for making an informed decision as an integral part of construction activities.
• Quality Assurance: To provide evidence to confirm the quality of materials and workmanship.
• Design Verification: To provide data to validate assumptions or predictions made during design and verify that the design is appropriate.
• Risk Management: To provide data that may be used to trigger preplanned contingency actions to control risks associated with the effect of the work.
• Reassurance: Monitoring is undertaken to confirm the absence of any adverse influence regardless of the predicted effect.

4. Planning for Construction Monitoring

The Project Company plan will retain a Manager within its organizational structure. One of the key responsibilities of the manager will be to ensure that the monitoring program is properly implemented. Collecting requirements is the first step in the process by which we define and document the requirements needed to meet all project objectives. The foundation of this process is the project charter and stakeholder register. From there, the team can identify requirements, collectively discuss details associated with meeting each requirement, conduct interviews and follow up-on discussions to clarify the requirements, and document them in sufficient detail to measure them once the project begins the execution phase. This documentation also serves as input to the next step in the process which is to define the scope. The stage of planning and development includes the identification of the location and pre-design of the building or facility. The planning and development stage includes preparing checklists, site rules, and a monitoring plan. Additionally, we need to approve the design drawings, approve submittals, hot/cold weather plans, safety plans, and schedule of contractors. These will allow the project manager to move on to the next stage of the construction project. Once all these initial steps are complete, the construction project manager meets the contractor and vendor to start the project.

Given the vastness and scope of the project, a minimum of four professional engineers and one manager for monitoring the construction project are needed. Nevertheless, some construction projects are vast and cannot be accommodated with a specific site office for monitoring. Hence, there should be a required document in a vehicle to access. The subsequent projects need to have two or more monitoring teams for quality work.

Factors influencing the level of construction monitoring for a project are:

• The size of the project
• The importance of the project
• The complexity of the construction works
• The experience and demonstrated skill in the quality management of the constructor.

5. Conducting Construction Monitoring

The primary responsibility of contract closure as per the set requirements of the plans is that of the contractor. The involvement of the consultants is important during the construction phase to ensure that the design is applied correctly, and the work is completed on time, in accordance with the drawing standards and specifications.

Tips on Construction Monitoring:

• For first-time review drawings, list the comments and suggestions about design drawings and share them with the client.
• After talking with the various contractors and securing the commitments of each, draw a timeline and break the timeline into different construction phases, and assign each phase a block of time to achieve those as per your contractors’ terms.
• Jotting down the list of involved contractors, materials, and labor costs of each phase.
• Starting the construction with site preparation. Plan it sequentially and logically.
• Scheduling tree and underbrush removals and; looking at the remaining landscapes, once the trees and underbrush have been (re)moved; determining what areas need backfilling and which ones need soil removed and relocated.
• Conducting site walkthroughs at the start and end of the workday; considering the design drawing in ongoing works, submittals with the installed equipment, and comparing activities with their considered time.
• Writing notes, comments, and suggestions of daily monitoring on a paper and citing them in the daily monitoring reports and monthly reports (if they are not considered) for correction.
• Considering the safety of workers during site observation
• Conducting weekly toolbox (safety) meetings to instruct workers about what they must do to be safe at work.
• Assuring and maintaining a positive work atmosphere and minimizing any day-to-day inconvenience during interaction with the external work
• Taking and transferring photographs to central offices throughout the workday and updating them on the work progress, field conditions, safe work practices, and quality checks. Additionally, submitting daily field reports to the central offices by the end and the day after the business day.
• Having frequent access to the contract documents, approved work plans, utility mark-outs, submittals, and schedules, and utilizing them while observing the work; when stipulated, citing them in verifying compliance or providing field direction.
• Conducting tests according to standards when an activity is done.
• Inspecting before submitting the project and, along with conducting a pre-final inspection and submitting it for correction, conducting a final inspection to ensure that the pre-final inspection is followed correctly and making notes on what standards were not followed properly during the pre-final inspection.
• Conducting final confirmation to ensure all the activities are done based on the design drawing, approved submittals, schedules, standards, and specifications.

6. Client Obligations and Engaging Stakeholders

The involvement of the consultants is important during the construction phase to ensure that;

• The design is being correctly interpreted,
• The construction techniques are appropriate and do not reduce the effectiveness of the design
• The work is generally completed in accordance with the plans and specifications

The risk of non-compliance can be reduced by increasing the involvement of the consultant. Because the cost of monitoring increases with increasing levels of service, the client should consider all factors before deciding upon the most appropriate level of construction monitoring for the project. The objectives of a monitoring system must be clearly understood early in the life of a project. The main actions, are necessary to discharge the obligations of the client.

These responsibilities are driven by factors such as:

• Clients’ requirements
• Legal compliance
• The need to establish roles, responsibilities, and a competent team
• Meeting insurance requirements
• Addressing the requirements of third parties who may be impacted by the proposed works.

For a monitoring system to be of full value, there must be early appreciation and recognition of the nature and extent of these requirements. Most of what is covered by this section relates to the decisions that must be addressed early in the project life, probably in the inception phase. These decisions form the basis for establishing the requirements for the system specification, which must be communicated to the monitoring system designer. In many cases, the client may elect competent professional procurement services. The client must ensure that the way it is done fully satisfies the requirements of the Construction, Design, and Management) (CDM) Regulations. It is important to recognize the full range of stakeholders with interest in the project as it may be much wider than just the parties contractually associated with the work. In addition to the client, contractors, designers, supervisors, and project managers, it may also be necessary to engage other parties, including third-party asset owners such as building owners, utility companies, and transport infrastructure owners. In some cases, project insurers and planning authorities may also need to be engaged to agree on the monitoring coverage and other requirements. Identifying the parties with interest in a monitoring system at an early stage is important. Different stakeholders may have specific interests and requirements for data collection and reporting. However, stakeholders’ confidence in the project can be improved if these parties are engaged at an early stage. It is important to recognize that affected external parties may require time to procure advice and expertise to allow them to review proposals and participate in the monitoring process, especially where they may need to provide site-specific contingency measures. These stakeholders may need time to implement appropriate resources, develop and train their staff and undertake enabling works as required.

7. Our Experience and Lessons Learned

The followings are some of the major lessons learned and best practices identified during the monitoring of a two-year construction project:

• Initial Assessment of a project is critical. If the work has just begun, an assessment should be done according to the definite set o criteria. If it is a half-finished project, not only the subsequent rule be implemented, but also the work progress (design, plan, specifications, and work scope) are evaluated. This means that the engineering rules have not been forgotten. In other words, no necessary activities are missed to be problematic in the future.
• While we are in an incomplete project, one of the important points that should be considered is the baseline assessment, commenting/suggesting everything that is needed in the project.
• Every comment/suggestion made during the daily monitoring should be submitted to the client as soon as possible for timely corrective action.
• After a submittal is approved and the material related to the submittal is delivered to the project site, the monitoring engineer should carefully check to ensure that the subsequent documents are good and will not cause a problem in the future.
• The only reference that the monitoring team can recommend for the betterment and right or wrong move of a project is the client.
• Any problems that you notice during the monitoring work should be followed up on as soon as possible without delay.
• As the tasks of the monitoring or supervisory team are specified in the framework, which is to follow the design, plan, and specifications of the project. In addition to this, clients should support the monitoring team’s technical and academic recommendations for better completion of the project.
• The monitoring team is not to get too friendly with any of the contract members or the contractors.
• Safety monitoring is an essential part of the Monitoring team, but most contractors ignore work safety conditions. In this case, the monitoring team should remind them to prioritize the person’s safety.
• By obtaining quality assurance from materials used in construction affairs, the project’s utilization can be increased.
• The biggest challenge ahead of a contractor is time. In some projects, we see procrastination. This is precisely due to the lack of strong and high management or factors such as budget, security issues, lack of access to building materials, or other issues that will delay a project.
• In order to be able to carry out the monitoring work of a project carefully, we must be physically present in the construction field, to monitor all the affairs meticulously.

Reference

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Monitoring. Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, ASCE (2003).

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Written By Haleem Nazari, Monitoring Project Manager at AACS Consulting.