Construction & Quality Civil Works

Introduction
Many building and construction techniques that we use today have not changed much since
Egyptian or Indus valley times. The construction process still uses the raw materials of varying
sorts that are now available around the world with ease of transportation and shipping. However
the advanced technologies that we use today require extensive amount of labor to manufacture
erect and deliver the finished product (building). With the introduction of globalization and
privatization in Indian economy, the growth of technology in India has grown very rapidly in the
field of mechanization and information technology in construction industry. Building
construction which is considered to be the highest stake holder in terms of financial turnover,
market growth and field requirement, is advancing rapidly with advances in chemical
technology, application of physics and mechanical engineering without compromising on the
environmental aspects. Some of the latest advances technology related to building construction
are discussed here. However the technology that is discussed here is rapidly changing and may
become obsolete within of days completion of this programme.
Pre-engineered Buildings (PEB)
Pre-engineered building is designed by a PEB supplier or PEB manufacturer, to be fabricated
using best suited inventory of raw materials available from all sources and manufacturing
methods that can efficiently satisfy a wide range of structural and aesthetic design requirements.
Within some geographic industry sectors these buildings are also called Pre-Engineered Metal
Buildings (PEMB) or, as is becoming increasingly common due to the reduced amount of preengineering involved in custom computer-aided designs, simply Engineered Metal Buildings
(EMB).
Typically, primary frames are 2D type frames (i.e. may be analyzed using two-dimensional
techniques). Advances in computer-aided design technology, materials and manufacturing
capabilities have assisted a growth in alternate forms of pre-engineered building such as
the tension fabric building and more sophisticated analysis (e.g. three-dimensional) as is required
by some building codes.
Cold formed Z- and C-shaped members may be used as secondary structural elements to fasten
and support the external cladding. Roll-formed profiled steel sheet, wood, tensioned fabric,
precast concrete, masonry block, glass curtain wall or other materials may be used for the
external cladding of the building.
In order to accurately design a pre-engineered
between bearing points, bay spacing, roof slope,
uplift, deflection criteria, internal crane system
fabricated members. Historically, pre-engineered

building, engineers consider the clear span

live loads, dead loads, collateral loads, wind
and maximum practical size and weight of
building manufacturers have developed pre-

calculated tables for different structural elements in order to allow designers to select the most
efficient I beams size for their projects. However, the table selection procedures are becoming
rare with the evolution in computer-aided custom designs.
While pre-engineered buildings can be adapted to suit a wide variety of structural applications,
the greatest economy will be realized when utilizing standard details. An efficiently designed
pre-engineered building can be lighter than the conventional steel buildings by up to 30%.
Lighter weight equates to less steel and a potential price savings in structural framework. Details
of typical PEB are presented below. The main advantage of this technology is faster rate of
construction that improved construction efficiency with lesser ambiguity in construction process.

Typical section of Pre Engineered Building

Structural sections for PEB

Prefabricated Structures
Prefabricated building is a type of building that consists of several factory-built components or
units that are assembled on-site to complete the unit. IS 15916 : 2010 lays down the requirements
and methods along with the specifications for prefabricated structures. The prefabrication is
achieved by modular coordination from planning to erect. Based on the specification, the
planning grid required is 15m and 3 m respectively for industrial building and residential
building in horizontal direction and 3 m and 2m in the vertical direction for industrial and
residential buildings respectively. For dimensional details please refer to Cl. 6 in IS code.
Depending on the load-bearing structure, precast systems described in the can be divided into the
following categories:

Large-panel systems
Frame systems
Slab-column systems with walls
Mixed systems

Large-panel systems
The designation large-panel system refers to multistory structures composed of large wall and
floor concrete panels connected in the vertical and horizontal directions so that the wall panels
enclose appropriate spaces for the rooms within a building. These panels form a box-like
structure (see Figure 3). Both vertical and horizontal panels resist gravity load. Wall panels are
usually one story high. Horizontal floor and roof panels span either as one-way or two-way slabs.
When properly joined together, these horizontal elements act as diaphragms that transfer the
lateral loads to the walls.
Depending on the wall layout, there are three basic configurations of large-panel buildings:

Cross-wall system. The main walls that resist gravity and lateral loads are placed in the
short direction of the building.
Longitudinal-wall system. The walls resisting gravity and lateral loads are placed in the
longitudinal direction; usually, there is only one longitudinal wall, except for the system
with two longitudinal walls developed in Kazakhstan
Two-way system. The walls are placed in both directions

Thickness of wall panels ranges from 120 mm for interior walls to 300 mm for exterior walls
Floor panel thickness is 60 mm Wall panel length is equal to the room length, typically on the
order of 2.7 m to 3.6 m. In some cases, there are no exterior wall panels and the faade walls are
made of lightweight concrete. Panel connections represent the key structural components in these
systems. Based on their location within a building, these connections can be classified into
vertical and horizontal joints. Vertical joints connect the vertical faces of adjoining wall panels

and primarily resist vertical seismic shear forces. Horizontal joints connect the horizontal faces
of the adjoining wall and floor panels and resist both gravity and seismic loads. Depending on
the construction method, these joints can be classified as wet and dry.
Wet joints are constructed with cast-in-place concrete poured between the precast panels. To
ensure structural continuity, protruding reinforcing bars from the panels (dowels) are welded,
looped, or otherwise connected in the joint region before the concrete is placed. Dry joints are
constructed by bolting or welding together steel plates or other steel inserts cast into the ends of
the precast panels for this purpose. Wet joints more closely approximate cast-in-place
construction, whereas the force transfer in structures with dry joints is accomplished at discrete
points. Panel connections represent the key structural components in these systems. Based on
their location within a building, these connections can be classified into vertical and horizontal
joints. Vertical joints connect the vertical faces of adjoining wall panels and primarily resist
vertical seismic shear forces.
Horizontal joints connect the horizontal faces of the adjoining wall and floor panels and resist
both gravity and seismic loads. Depending on the construction method, these joints can be
classified as wet and dry. Wet joints are constructed with cast-in-place concrete poured between
the precast panels. To ensure structural continuity, protruding reinforcing bars from the panels
(dowels) are welded, looped, or otherwise connected in the joint region before the concrete is
placed. Dry joints are constructed by bolting or welding together steel plates or other steel inserts
cast into the ends of the precast panels for this purpose. Wet joints more closely approximate
cast-in-place construction, whereas the force transfer in structures with dry joints is
accomplished at discrete points.
Frame Systems
Precast frames can be constructed using either linear elements or spatial beam-column
subassemblies. Precast beam-column subassemblies have the advantage that the connecting faces
between the subassemblies can be placed away from the critical frame regions; however, linear
elements are generally preferred because of the difficulties associated with forming, handling,
and erecting spatial elements. The use of linear elements generally means placing the connecting
faces at the beam-column junctions. The beams can be seated on corbels at the columns, for ease
of construction and to aid the shear transfer from the beam to the column. The beam-column
joints accomplished in this way are hinged. However, rigid beam-column connections are used in
some cases, when the continuity of longitudinal reinforcement through the beam-column joint
needs to be ensured.
Precast reinforced concrete frame with cruciform and linear beam elements (Seria 106) is an
example of a frame system with precast beam-column sub assemblages. The system was
developed in Kyrgyzstan in 1975. The load-bearing structure consists of a precast reinforced
concrete space frame and precast floor slabs. The space frame is constructed using two main

modular elements: a cruciform element and a linear beam element. The cruciform element
consists of the transverse frame joint with half of the adjacent beam and column lengths. The
longitudinal frames are constructed by installing the precast beam elements in between the
transverse frame joints. The precast elements are joined by welding the projected reinforcement
bars (dowels) and casting the concrete in place. Joints between the cruciform elements are
located at the mid-span of beams and columns, whereas the longitudinal precast beam-column
connections are located close to the columns. Hollow-core precast slabs are commonly used for
floor and roof structures in this type of construction.
Slab-Column Systems with Shear Walls
These systems rely on shear walls to sustain lateral load effects, whereas the slab-column
structure resists mainly gravity loads. There are two main systems in this category:

Lift-slab system with walls

Prestressed slab-column system

This type of precast construction is known as Seria KUB. The load-bearing structure consists
of precast reinforced concrete columns and slabs. Precast columns are usually two stories high.
All precast structural elements are assembled by means of special joints. Reinforced concrete
slabs are poured on the ground in forms, one on top of the other. Precast concrete floor slabs are
lifted from the ground up to the final height by lifting cranes. The slab panels are lifted to the top
of the column and then moved downwards to the final position. Temporary supports are used to
keep the slabs in the position until the connection with the columns has been achieved. In the
connections, the steel bars (dowels) that project from the edges of the slabs are welded to the
dowels of the adjacent components and transverse reinforcement bars are installed in place. The
connections are then filled with concrete that is poured at the site.
Most buildings of this type have some kind of lateral load-resisting elements, mainly consisting
of cast-in-place or precast shear walls, etc. In case lateral load-resisting elements (shear walls,
etc.) are not present, the lateral load path depends on the ability of the slab-column connections
to transfer bending moments. When the connections have been poorly constructed, this is not
possible, and the lateral load path may be incomplete. However, properly constructed slabcolumn joints are capable of transferring moments.
Another type of precast system is a slab-column system that uses horizontal prestressing in two
orthogonal directions to achieve continuity. The precast concrete column elements are 1 to 3
stories high. The reinforced concrete floor slabs fit the clear span between columns. After
erecting the slabs and columns of a story, the columns and floor slabs are prestressed by means
of prestressing tendons that pass through ducts in the columns at the floor level and along the
gaps left between adjacent slabs. After prestressing, the gaps between the slabs are filled with in
situ concrete and the tendons then become bonded with the spans. Seismic loads are resisted

mainly by the shear walls (precast or cast-in-place) positioned between the columns at
appropriate locations.
Rapid Wall
Rapid wall panels based on construction manual prepared by IIT Madras to suit Indian situation.
FACT & RCF, two fertilizer giants under public sector are together setting up Rapid wall and
plaster products manufacturing plant at Ambalamugal using Rapid wall technologies of Australia
called FACT RCF Building products Ltd. (FRBL). FACT has about 7 million tons of
industrial by product gypsum. By setting up Rapid wall & Plaster products plant, they intend to
produce 1.4 million sqm or 15 million sq ft panel per year and about 50000 tons of superior
quality wall plaster and wall putty.
Rapid wall panel is worlds largest load bearing lightweight panels. The panels are
manufactured with size 12 m lengths, 3m height and 124 mm thickness. Each panel has 48
modular cavities of 230 mm x 94 mm x 3m dimension. The weight of one panel is 1440 kg or 40
kg/sqm. The density is 1.14g/cm3, being only 10-12% of the weight of comparable concrete
/brick masonry. The physical and material properties of panels are as follows.
o Weight- light weight 40 Kg/ sqm
o Axial load capacity 160 kN/m{ 16 tons/ m}
o Compressive strength 73.2 Kg/cm2
o Unit Shear strength 50.90 kN/m
o Flexural strength 21.25 kg/cm2
o Tensile Strength 35 KN/ m
o Ductility 4
o Fire resistance 4 hr rating withstood 700-10000 C
o Thermal Resistance R 0.36 K/W
o Thermal conductivity 0.617
o Elastic Modulus 3000-6000Mpa
o Sound transmission{STC} 40
o Water absorption < 5%
The vertical and lateral load capability of Rapid wall Panel can be increased many fold by infill
of concrete after placing reinforcement rods vertically. As per structural requirement, cavities of
wall panel can be filled in various combinations (See Fig.1.)

Wall to wall L, T, + angle joints and horizontal wall joints are made by cutting of inner or outer
flanges or web appropriately and infill of concrete with vertical reinforcement with stirrups for
anchorage. Various construction joints are illustrated in Fig.2.

Fig.1: RCC infill to increase load capability

Fig.2 various construction joints

Rapid wall Panel can also be used for intermediary floor slab / roof slab in combination with
embedded RCC micro-beams and RCC screed concrete (Fig.3).

Fig.3 GFRG embedded with RCC micro beams and RCC screed concrete

For Rapid wall buildings/ Housing a conventional foundation like spread footing, RCC column
footing, raft or pile foundation is used as per the soil condition and load factors. All around the
building RCC plinth beam is provided at basement plinth level. For erection of panel as wall, 12
mm dia vertical reinforcement of 0.75m long of which 0.45m protrudes up and remaining portion
with 0.15m angle is placed into the RCC plinth beams before casting. Starts up rods are at 1m
centre to centre.

RAPIDWALL FOR RAPID CONSTRUCTION

Rapid wall enables fast track method of construction. Conventional building construction
involves various cumbersome and time consuming processes, like i) masonry wall construction
ii) cement plastering requiring curing, iii) casting of RCC slabs requiring centering and
scaffolding and curing iv) removal of centering and scaffolding and v) plastering of ceilings and
so on. It also contributes to pollution and environmental degradation due to debris left on the site.
In contrast, Rapid wall construction is much faster and easier. There will be no debris left at site.
Construction time is minimized to 15-20%. Instead of brick by brick construction, Rapid wall
enables wall by wall construction. Rapid wall also does not require cement plastering as both
surfaces are smooth and even and ready for application of special primer and finishing coat of
paint.
RAPID CONSTRUCTION METHOD
As per the building plan, each wall panel will be cut at the factory with millimeter precision
using an automated cutting saw. Door/window/ventilator, openings for AC unit etc will also be
cut and panels for every floor is marked relating to building drawing. Panels are vertically loaded
at the factory on stillages for transport to the construction sites on trucks. Each stillage holds 5 or
8 pre-cut panels. The stillages are placed at the construction site close to the foundation for
erection using vehicle mounted crane or other type of crane with required boom length for

construction of low, medium and high rise buildings. Special lifting jaws suitable to lift the pane
are used by inserting into the cavities and pierced into webs, so that lifting/handling of panels
will be safe. Panels are erected over the RCC plinth beam and concrete is infilled from top.
Protruded starts up rods go inside cavities as can be seen from. All the panels are erected as per
the building plan by following the notation. Each panel is erected level and plumb and will be
supported by lateral props to keep the panel in level, plumb and secure in position. Once wall
panels erected, door and window frames are fixed in position using conventional clamps with
concrete infill of cavities on either side. Embedded RCC lintels are to be provided wherever
required by cutting open external flange. Reinforcement for lintels and RCC sunshades can be
provided with required shuttering and support.

After inserting vertical reinforcement rods as per the structural design and clamps for wall
corners are in place to keep the wall panels in perfect position, concrete of 12 mm size aggregate
will be poured from top into the cavities using a small hose to go down at least 1.5 to 2 m into
the cavities for directly pumping the concrete from ready mix concrete truck. For small building
construction, concrete can be poured manually using a funnel. Filling the panels with concrete is
to be done in three layers of 1m height with an interval of 1 hr between each layer. There is no
need to use vibrator because gravitational pressure acts to self compact the concrete inside the
water tight cavities.

An embedded RCC tie beam to floor slab is to be provided at each floor slab level, as an
essential requirement of national building code against earth quakes. For this, web portion to
required beam depth at top is to be cut and removed for placing horizontal reinforcement with
stirrups and concreted.

Rapid wall for floor/roof slab will also be cut to required size and marked with notation. First the
wall joints and other cavities and horizontal RCC tie beams are in- filled with concrete ; then
wooden plank of 0.3 to 0.45 m wide is provided to room span between the walls with support
wherever embedded micro beams are there; finally roof panels will be lifted by crane using
strong sling tied at mid-diagonal point, so that panel will float perfectly horizontal

Each roof panel is placed over the wall in such a way that there will be at least a gap of 40 mm.
This is to enable vertical rods to be placed continuously from floor to floor and provide
monolithic RCC frame within Rapid wall. Wherever embedded micro-beams are there, top
flanges of roof panel are cut leaving at least 25mm projection.
Reinforcement for micro-beams is placed and weld mesh as reinforcement is placed. Concrete is
poured for micro-beams and RCC slab. These results in the embedded RCC micro beams and 50
mm thickness screed concrete become a series of T beams.

The following day, erection of wall panels for the upper floor can be arranged. Vertical
reinforcement of floor below is provided with extra length so as to protrude to 0.45 m to serve as
start up rods and lap length for upper floor. Once the wall panels are erected on the upper floor,
vertical reinforcement rods are provided, door/window frames fixed and RCC lintel cast. Then
concrete is filled where required and joints are filled. Then RCC tie beam all around is concreted.
Roof panel for upper floor is repeated same as ground floor. For every upper floor the same
method is repeated.

Fig: Erection of upper floor panel

Once concreting of ground floor roof slab is completed, on the 4th day, wooden planks with
support props in ground floor can be removed. Finishing of internal wall corners and ceiling
corners etc can be done using wall putty or special plaster by experienced POP plasterers.
Simultaneously, electrical work, water supply and sanitary work, floor tiling, mosaic or marble
works, staircase work etc can also be carried out. Every upper floor can be finished in the same
way.
Other recent advances in Building Construction

In addition to these advances in building construction, the constraints of fund availability and
time required for construction are leading to advances in innovative technologies in building
construction. The technologies viz. Composite construction, automation and robotics in
construction, advances in form work technologies will be discussed in the lecture sessions. Even
though these technologies are less used in Indian construction sites, it is slowly penetrating into
the industry due to its efficiency and effectiveness in life cycle cost and reduction in energy
consumption.

Quality and Safety Concerns in Construction

Quality control and safety represent increasingly important concerns for project managers.
Defects or failures in constructed facilities can result in very large costs. Even with minor
defects, re-construction may be required and facility operations impaired. Increased costs and
delays are the result. In the worst case, failures may cause personal injuries or fatalities.
Accidents during the construction process can similarly result in personal injuries and large
costs. Indirect costs of insurance, inspection and regulation are increasing rapidly due to these
increased direct costs. Good project managers try to ensure that the job is done right the first time
and that no major accidents occur on the project.
As with cost control, the most important decisions regarding the quality of a completed facility
are made during the design and planning stages rather than during construction. It is during these
preliminary stages that component configurations, material specifications and functional
performance

are

decided.

Quality control

during

construction

consists

largely of

insuring conformance to this original design and planning decisions.

While conformance to existing design decisions is the primary focus of quality control, there are
exceptions to this rule. First, unforeseen circumstances, incorrect design decisions or changes
desired by an owner in the facility function may require re-evaluation of design decisions during
the course of construction. While these changes may be motivated by the concern for quality,
they represent occasions for re-design with all the attendant objectives and constraints. As a
second case, some designs rely upon informed and appropriate decision making during the
construction process itself. For example, some tunneling methods make decisions about the
amount of shoring required at different locations based upon observation of soil conditions
during the tunneling process. Since such decisions are based on better information concerning

actual site conditions, the facility design may be more cost effective as a result. Any special case
of re-design during construction requires the various considerations .
With the attention to conformance as the measure of quality during the construction process, the
specification of quality requirements in the design and contract documentation becomes
extremely important. Quality requirements should be clear and verifiable, so that all parties in the
project can understand the requirements for conformance. Much of the discussion in this chapter
relates to the development and the implications of different quality requirements for construction
as well as the issues associated with insuring conformance.
Safety during the construction project is also influenced in large part by decisions made during
the planning and design process. Some designs or construction plans are inherently difficult and
dangerous to implement, whereas other, comparable plans may considerably reduce the
possibility of accidents. For example, clear separation of traffic from construction zones during
roadway rehabilitation can greatly reduce the possibility of accidental collisions. Beyond these
design decisions, safety largely depends upon education, vigilance and cooperation during the
construction process. Workers should be constantly alert to the possibilities of accidents and
avoid taken unnecessary risks.

Organizing for Quality

A variety of different organizations are possible for quality and safety control during
construction. One common model is to have a group responsible for quality assurance and
another group primarily responsible for safety within an organization. In large organizations,
departments dedicated to quality assurance and to safety might assign specific individuals to
assume responsibility for these functions on particular projects. For smaller projects, the project
manager or an assistant might assume these and other responsibilities. In either case, insuring
safe and quality construction is a concern of the project manager in overall charge of the project
in addition to the concerns of personnel, cost, time and other management issues.
Inspectors and quality assurance personnel will be involved in a project to represent a variety of
different organizations. Each of the parties directly concerned with the project may have their
own quality and safety inspectors, including the owner, the engineer/architect, and the various
constructor firms. These inspectors may be contractors from specialized quality assurance
organizations. In addition to on-site inspections, samples of materials will commonly be tested

by specialized laboratories to insure compliance. Inspectors to insure compliance with regulatory

requirements will also be involved. Common examples are inspectors for the local government's
building department, for environmental agencies, and for occupational health and safety
agencies.
The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) routinely conducts site visits of
work places in conjunction with approved state inspection agencies. OSHA inspectors are
required by law to issue citations for all standard violations observed. Safety standards prescribe
a variety of mechanical safeguards and procedures; for example, ladder safety is covered by over
140 regulations. In cases of extreme non-compliance with standards, OSHA inspectors can stop
work on a project. However, only a small fraction of construction sites are visited by OSHA
inspectors and most construction site accidents are not caused by violations of existing standards.
As a result, safety is largely the responsibility of the managers on site rather than that of public
inspectors.
While the multitude of participants involved in the construction process require the services of
inspectors, it cannot be emphasized too strongly that inspectors are only a formal check on
quality control. Quality control should be a primary objective for all the members of a project
team. Managers should take responsibility for maintaining and improving quality control.
Employee participation in quality control should be sought and rewarded, including the
introduction of new ideas. Most important of all, quality improvement can serve as a catalyst for
improved productivity. By suggesting new work methods, by avoiding rework, and by avoiding
long term problems, good quality control can pay for itself. Owners should promote good quality
control and seek out contractors who maintain such standards.
In addition to the various organizational bodies involved in quality control, issues of quality
control arise in virtually all the functional areas of construction activities. For example, insuring
accurate and useful information is an important part of maintaining quality performance. Other
aspects of quality control include document control (including changes during the construction
process), procurement, field inspection and testing, and final checkout of the facility.

Work and Material Specifications

Specifications of work quality are an important feature of facility designs. Specifications of
required quality and components represent part of the necessary documentation to describe a

facility. Typically, this documentation includes any special provisions of the facility design as
well as references to generally accepted specifications to be used during construction.
General specifications of work quality are available in numerous fields and are issued in
publications of organizations such as the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM),
the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), or the Construction Specifications Institute
(CSI). Distinct specifications are formalized for particular types of construction activities, such
as welding standards issued by the American Welding Society, or for particular facility types,
such as the Standard Specifications for Highway Bridges issued by the American Association of
State Highway and Transportation Officials. These general specifications must be modified to
reflect local conditions, policies, available materials, local regulations and other special
circumstances.
Construction specifications normally consist of a series of instructions or prohibitions for
specific operations. For example, the following passage illustrates a typical specification, in this
case for excavation for structures:
Conform to elevations and dimensions shown on plan within a tolerance of plus or minus 0.10
foot, and extending a sufficient distance from footings and foundations to permit placing and
removal of concrete formwork, installation of services, other construction, and for inspection. In
excavating for footings and foundations, take care not to disturb bottom of excavation. Excavate
by hand to final grade just before concrete reinforcement is placed. Trim bottoms to required
lines and grades to leave solid base to receive concrete.
This set of specifications requires judgment in application since some items are not precisely
specified. For example, excavation must extend a "sufficient" distance to permit inspection and
other activities. Obviously, the term "sufficient" in this case may be subject to varying
interpretations. In contrast, a specification that tolerances are within plus or minus a tenth of a
foot is subject to direct measurement. However, specific requirements of the facility or
characteristics of the site may make the standard tolerance of a tenth of a foot inappropriate.
Writing specifications typically requires a trade-off between assuming reasonable behavior on
the part of all the parties concerned in interpreting words such as "sufficient" versus the effort
and possible inaccuracy in pre-specifying all operations.
In recent years, performance specifications have been developed for many construction
operations. Rather than specifying the required construction process, these specifications refer to

the required performance or quality of the finished facility. The exact method by which this
performance is obtained is left to the construction contractor. For example, traditional
specifications for asphalt pavement specified the composition of the asphalt material, the asphalt
temperature during paving, and compacting procedures. In contrast, a performance specification
for asphalt would detail the desired performance of the pavement with respect to impermeability,
strength, etc. How the desired performance level was attained would be up to the paving
contractor. In some cases, the payment for asphalt paving might increase with better quality of
asphalt beyond some minimum level of performance.

Total Quality Control

Quality control in construction typically involves insuring compliance with minimum standards
of material and workmanship in order to insure the performance of the facility according to the
design. These minimum standards are contained in the specifications described in the previous
section. For the purpose of insuring compliance, random samples and statistical methods are
commonly used as the basis for accepting or rejecting work completed and batches of materials.
Rejection of a batch is based on non-conformance or violation of the relevant design
specifications. Procedures for this quality control practice are described in the following sections.
An implicit assumption in these traditional quality control practices is the notion of
an acceptable quality level which is a allowable fraction of defective items. Materials obtained
from suppliers or work performed by an organization is inspected and passed as acceptable if the
estimated defective percentage is within the acceptable quality level. Problems with materials or
goods are corrected after delivery of the product.
In contrast to this traditional approach of quality control is the goal of total quality control. In
this system, no defective items are allowed anywhere in the construction process. While the zero
defects goal can never be permanently obtained, it provides a goal so that an organization is
never satisfied with its quality control program even if defects are reduced by substantial
amounts year after year. This concept and approach to quality control was first developed in
manufacturing firms in Japan and Europe, but has since spread to many construction companies.
The best known formal certification for quality improvement is the International Organization
for Standardization's ISO 9000 standard. ISO 9000 emphasizes good documentation, quality
goals and a series of cycles of planning, implementation and review.

Total quality control is a commitment to quality expressed in all parts of an organization and
typically involves many elements. Design reviews to insure safe and effective construction
procedures are a major element. Other elements include extensive training for personnel, shifting
the responsibility for detecting defects from quality control inspectors to workers, and
continually maintaining equipment. Worker involvement in improved quality control is often
formalized in quality circles in which groups of workers meet regularly to make suggestions for
quality improvement. Material suppliers are also required to insure zero defects in delivered
goods. Initally, all materials from a supplier are inspected and batches of goods with any
defective items are returned. Suppliers with good records can be certified and not subject to
complete inspection subsequently.
The traditional microeconomic view of quality control is that there is an "optimum" proportion
of defective items. Trying to achieve greater quality than this optimum would substantially
increase costs of inspection and reduce worker productivity. However, many companies have
found that commitment to total quality control has substantial economic benefits that had been
unappreciated in traditional approaches. Expenses associated with inventory, rework, scrap and
warranties were reduced. Worker enthusiasm and commitment improved. Customers often
appreciated higher quality work and would pay a premium for good quality. As a result,
improved quality control became a competitive advantage.
Of course, total quality control is difficult to apply, particular in construction. The unique nature
of each facility, the variability in the workforce, the multitude of subcontractors and the cost of
making necessary investments in education and procedures make programs of total quality
control in construction difficult. Nevertheless, a commitment to improved quality even without
endorsing the goal of zero defects can pay real dividends to organizations.

Experience with Quality Circles

Quality circles represent a group of five to fifteen workers who meet on a frequent basis to
identify, discuss and solve productivity and quality problems. A circle leader acts as liason
between the workers in the group and upper levels of management. Appearing below are some
examples of reported quality circle accomplishments in construction
1. On a highway project under construction by Taisei Corporation, it was found that the loss
rate of ready-mixed concrete was too high. A quality circle composed of cement masons

found out that the most important reason for this was due to an inaccurate checking
method. By applying the circle's recommendations, the loss rate was reduced by 11.4%.
2. In a building project by Shimizu Construction Company, may cases of faulty reinforced
concrete work were reported. The iron workers quality circle examined their work
thoroughly and soon the faulty workmanship disappeared. A 10% increase in productivity
was also achieved.

Quality Control by Statistical Methods

An ideal quality control program might test all materials and work on a particular facility. For
example, non-destructive techniques such as x-ray inspection of welds can be used throughout a
facility. An on-site inspector can witness the appropriateness and adequacy of construction
methods at all times. Even better, individual craftsmen can perform continuing inspection of
materials and their own work. Exhaustive or 100% testing of all materials and work by
inspectors can be exceedingly expensive, however. In many instances, testing requires the
destruction of a material sample, so exhaustive testing is not even possible. As a result, small
samples are used to establish the basis of accepting or rejecting a particular work item or
shipment of materials. Statistical methods are used to interpret the results of test on a small
sample to reach a conclusion concerning the acceptability of an entire lot or batch of materials or
work products.
The use of statistics is essential in interpreting the results of testing on a small sample. Without
adequate interpretation, small sample testing results can be quite misleading. As an example,
suppose that there are ten defective pieces of material in a lot of one hundred. In taking a sample
of five pieces, the inspector might not find any defective pieces or might have all sample pieces
defective. Drawing a direct inference that none or all pieces in the population are defective on
the basis of these samples would be incorrect. Due to this random nature of the sample selection
process, testing results can vary substantially. It is only with statistical methods that issues such
as the chance of different levels of defective items in the full lot can be fully analyzed from a
small sample test.
There are two types of statistical sampling which are commonly used for the purpose of quality
control in batches of work or materials:

1. The acceptance or rejection of a lot is based on the number of defective (bad) or

nondefective (good) items in the sample. This is referred to as sampling by attributes.
2. Instead of using defective and nondefective classifications for an item, a quantitative
quality measure or the value of a measured variable is used as a quality indicator. This
testing procedure is referred to as sampling by variables.
Whatever sampling plan is used in testing, it is always assumed that the samples are
representative of the entire population under consideration. Samples are expected to be chosen
randomly so that each member of the population is equally likely to be chosen. Convenient
sampling plans such as sampling every twentieth piece, choosing a sample every two hours, or
picking the top piece on a delivery truck may be adequate to insure a random sample if pieces are
randomly mixed in a stack or in use. However, some convenient sampling plans can be
inappropriate. For example, checking only easily accessible joints in a building component is
inappropriate since joints that are hard to reach may be more likely to have erection or
fabrication problems.
Another assumption implicit in statistical quality control procedures is that the quality of
materials or work is expected to vary from one piece to another. This is certainly true in the field
of construction. While a designer may assume that all concrete is exactly the same in a building,
the variations in material properties, manufacturing, handling, pouring, and temperature during
setting insure that concrete is actually heterogeneous in quality. Reducing such variations to a
minimum is one aspect of quality construction. Insuring that the materials actually placed
achieve some minimum quality level with respect to average properties or fraction of defectives
is the task of quality control.

Statistical Quality Control with Sampling by Variables

As described in the previous section, sampling by attributes is based on a classification of items
as good or defective. Many work and material attributes possess continuous properties, such as
strength, density or length. With the sampling by attributes procedure, a particular level of a
variable quantity must be defined as acceptable quality. More generally, two items classified
as good might have quite different strengths or other attributes. Intuitively, it seems reasonable
that some "credit" should be provided for exceptionally good items in a sample. Sampling by
variables was developed for application to continuously measurable quantities of this type. The

procedure uses measured values of an attribute in a sample to determine the overall acceptability
of a batch or lot. Sampling by variables has the advantage of using more information from tests
since it is based on actual measured values rather than a simple classification. As a result,
acceptance sampling by variables can be more efficient than sampling by attributes in the sense
that fewer samples are required to obtain a desired level of quality control.

Reference:
Richard Lambek, John Eschemuller (2009) Urban Construction Project Management, McGraw
Hill Construction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-engineered_building referred on 17/10/2014
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefabricated_building referred on 17/10/2014
Mansi Jain (2012) Economic Aspects of Construction Waste Materials in terms of cost savings
A case of Indian construction Industry International Journal of Scientific and Research
Publications
Hakam, Z, H. R. (2000) Retrofit of Hollow Concrete Masonry In filled Steel Frames Using
Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic Laminates Ph.D. thesis, Civil & Architectural Engineering
Department, Drexel University, Philadelphia, June, pp. 517
NCMA TEK 3-12 Load bearing Concrete Block in High Rise Buildings National Concrete
Masonry Association, 1998.
CSIRO Australia, Division of Building, Construction and Engineering, Rapid Building Systems
(ed.) (1999): Fire Resistance of Rapid wall, Adelaide 1999.