Abstract:
Project scheduling is an essential tool to support construction operations completing the project under limited time and cost. The linear infrastructure project such as elevated highway construction involves a large scale of working area and complexity of management. Recently, schedules are planned manually based on planners’ experience and intuition which may consume time and lead to human-errors. Moreover, the presentations of schedule by using the existing methods dose not cover the overview of projects in various aspects. The objective of this research is to establish an application of Line of Balance (LOB) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) for optimal resource and schedule, which is called BIM-LOB-SS (BIM-based Line of Balance Scheduling System). The development of the system begins with the creation of an optimization model for the construction of several types of repetitive structures located in different locations (Multi-identical types of units). For the verification, three example projects with known solutions are employed. The model can compute the optimal solution correctly with a short time. The utilization of the BIM model is presented in order to reduce massive input by using the BIM information and to improve visualization of the project operation with 4D construction simulation. Finally, the proposed scheduling system is demonstrated with the example information from a section of elevated highway construction in Thailand. As a result, this research proposes a new management tool that can support the decision making of the manager in project operations.
