Questions and Answers of Construction Project Management

Examine the network schedule with its activities, their durations, and initial cost plus extra cost for acceleration in the table. Draw its network diagram, determine the critical path, perform a
Examine the linear schedule with sequential activities A, B, and C as shown in the figure. Assume that B and C can be interrupted at integer work or time units and that any segments of activities
If your credit card’s APR is 24% compounded daily, what is the effective annual interest rate that you are paying?
Explain why sunk costs are not considered in the analysis of investment alternatives.
You want to accumulate $500,000 in a savings account in 20 years. If the bank pays 6% compounded annually, how much should you deposit in the account?
What would be the result of the previous problem, if simple interest were used?Previous problemWhat is the future value eight years from now, of $2,000 invested today at a periodic interest rate of
You must decide between job offers from CPM Construction and Fudd Associates. Both companies concentrate on sustainable commercial construction, have similar fringe benefits and offer comparable
You want to purchase a car with a sticker price of $25,000. The car dealer offers you a $2,000 discount and a 48-month, 8.5% APR compounded monthly, or no discount with a 4.0% APR on a 48-month loan.
Repeat the problem above, considering an inflation of 4.0%. How does inflation affect the results of the previous problem?Previous problemYou want to purchase a car with a sticker price of $25,000.
Develop the table below comparing the monthly payments for a 30-year $200,000 mortgage loan with its APR compounded monthly. APR (%) 0 4 8 12 0 Monthly Payment Difference
The total monthly payment for a home mortgage loan is affected by the property tax and insurance. This amount is around 15% of the principal plus interest payment that you calculated in the previous
Develop the table below by comparing the monthly payments for a $200,000 mortgage loan with an 8.00% APR compounded monthly. Years 100 30 15 10 5 Monthly Payment Difference
Find the minimum amount that a family should earn to afford the loan scenarios above. Use the same assumptions of the previous similar problem. A B Total Payment (1.15 x APR Monthly (%) Payment
CPM Construction plans to buy a truck for $150,000, and sell it for $15,000 at the end of five years. The annual operating cost of the vehicle is $60,000. What is the equivalent annual cost of this
What is the present value of the truck described above?
CPM Construction plans to charge $100,000/year for the truck described above (since the annual operating cost is estimated at $60,000, this means that the annual income will be $40,000). What is the
Given the following cost expenditures for a small warehouse project (to include direct and indirect charges), calculate the peak financial requirement, the average overdraft, and the ROR on invested
The table and graph that follows represent a contractor’s overdraft requirements for a project. Complete the table shown for costs, markup, total worth, retainage, and pay received. Retainage is
Given the following data with the direct costs for each activity as shown, calculate the ROR of the contractor.Assume that (a) the markup is 15%; (b) retainage is 5% on the first 50% of worth, and 0%
Maria Kichner is preparing to bid for a project. She has made her cost estimate together with the schedule of work. Her expected expenses and their time occurrence are as shown in the following
What is the cash position (overdraft) amount for the 1-Aug column in the table? Date Cash Inflow ($ received) Cash Outflow ($ expended) Net cash flow for month Cash Position (Overdraft) 1-Jun - 100
What were the reasons that caused the real estate bubble of the early to mid-2000s to burst, which caused a recession? Do some research to justify your reasoning.
What should be done to avoid a repetition of the real estate buddle of the early to mid-2000s, which caused a recession? Support your analysis with pertinent facts.
What is the present level of the prime rate? How does this rate relate to the current financing and overdraft charges for new building construction in your locality? (How many points above the prime
Referring to the example in Figure 13.2(a), suppose the market rent for a two-bedroom unit is $550 per month and for a three-bedroom unit is $650 per month. If the going cap rate is 10%, rework the
What determines the number of draws a builder can make in completing a facility? What is the existing policy regarding number of draws in your locality?
Suppose that for the multipurpose sports stadium example considered in the text, the bond issue was for 40 years and the annual interest rate is 9% of the bond principal. Using the architect’s
Suppose in the preceding problem that the bonds are financed by a bank that discounts the bond issue to $40 million. What is the new effective interest rate?
What are the major cost components that must be considered when pricing out a piece of equipment? How can a contractor manipulate amortization for a piece of equipment to increase or reduce direct
What is the quoted current price for a new average-sized scraper and a bulldozer?
You have just bought a new pusher dozer for your equipment fleet. Its cost is $100,000. It has an estimated service life of four years. Its salvage value is $12,000.a. Calculate the depreciation for
You have just bought a used track-type tractor to add to your production fleet. The initial capitalized value of the tractor is $110,000. The estimated service life remaining on the tractor is 10,000
Verify the 5- and 7-year property class percentage by applying the 200% DB approach to a piece of equipment with a nominal value of $1,000. For the 7-year property class, in what year is the switch
A customer estimates that he is getting 30 cubic yards (loose) of gypsum in his scraper. Determine the percent overload if the load estimate is correct. The maximum load capacity of the scraper is
Stripping overburden in the Illinois coal belt, the Dusty Coal Company uses 270-horsepower, track-type tractors (with direct-drive transmissions) and drawn scrapers. The overburden is a very soft
The ABC Company is planning to start a new operation hauling sand to a ready-mix concrete plant. The equipment superintendent estimates that the company-owned 30-yard wheel tractor scrapers can
Estimate the cycle time and production of a 30-cubic-yard wheel tractor scraper carrying rated capacity, operating on a 4,500-foot level haul. The road flexes under load, has little maintenance, and
How many trips would one rubber-tired Herrywampus have to make to backfill a space with a geometrical volume of 5,400 cubic yard? The maximum capacity of the machine is 30 cubic yard (heaped), or 40
You own a fleet of 30-cubic-yard tractor scrapers and have them hauling between the pit and a road construction job. The haul road is clayey and deflects slightly under the load of the scraper. There
You are excavating a location for the vault shown below. The top of the walls shown are 1 foot below grade. All slopes of the excavation are 1 to 3/4 per OSHA regulations (assuming type A soil) to a
You have four 35-ton, off-highway trucks hauling from a pit to an airfield job. The haul road is maintained by a grader and has a rolling resistance of 80 lb/ton. The road is essentially level and
You are given the following information about a dry-batch paving operation. You are going to use one mixer that has a service rate of 30 services per hour. The dry-batch trucks you use for bringing
The superintendent in a concrete batch plant has measured the following cycle times for a large pouring operation, for which she is using 10 trucks of 9 cubic yards each.a. What would be the
What is meant by the following terms?a. Yellow-dog contractb. Agency shopc. Subcontractor clause
What is a secondary boycott? Name two types of secondary boycotts. Does the legislation forbidding secondary boycotts apply to construction unions? Explain.
What is a jurisdictional dispute? Why does this kind of dispute present no problem in District 50 locals?
What are the basic differences between the AFL as a labor union and the CIO type of union?
What will be the impact on double-breasted operations and the right-to-work provision of the Taft–Hartley legislation if labor is able to revoke existing practices regarding common sites picketing?
Answer the following questions true (T) or false (F):a. ________ Some state laws authorize use of closed shops.b. ________ A union can legally strike a jobsite to enforce the provision of a
Compute the average hourly cost of a carpenter to a contractor. Assume the work is in a subsistence area and the daily subsistence rate is $19.50. The carpenter works the second shift on a two-shift
Identify the local labor unions that operate in your region. List the relevant business agents and the locations of the hiring halls.
List the labor unions that you consider would be involved in a project similar to the gas station project.
Visit a local contractor and a local hiring hall and determine the procedure to be followed in the hiring of labor.
Discuss the effects of the increasing popularity of nonunion contractors.
Ask a union tradesperson the monthly amount of his or her current dues for union membership. Does he or she consider that the benefits offset the membership fees?
Explain the difference between unit-cost estimating methods and resource enumeration methods. When would you use unit cost? When would you use resource enumeration?
What is meant by contractor O & P? Give three components that are considered in the O & P.
What is the difference between labor cost and labor productivity? Use a sketch to illustrate.
The partition wall shown below is to be constructed of 8 × 16 × 6 block. Estimate the cost of the wall to include labor, materials, and contractor O & P using the R. S. Means building cost data
Given the bridge abutment shown here, determine the number of worker hours required to form the structure using data from R. S. Means or other appropriate reference. 30' 50' 1 30' 8'
Find the labor cost, including overhead and profit for the formwork for 48 columns of 24ʺ × 24ʺ × 9ʹ. Use the data shown in Figure 17.7.Figure 17.7 03 11 13 Concrete Forming 13.25 FORMS IN
Revise the cost for the formwork for the columns of problem 17.6 if the carpenters earn $42.00/hr.Problem 17.6Find the labor cost, including overhead and profit for the formwork for 48 columns of
As a construction project manager, what general categories of information would you want to have on a cost control report to properly evaluate what you think is a developing overrun on an operation,
What are the major functions of a project coding system?
List advantages and disadvantages of the Uniform Construction Index (UCI) coding system.
Assume you are the cost engineer on a new $12 million commercial building project. Starting with your company’s standard cost code, explain how you would develop a project cost code for this job.
Develop a cost code system that gives information regarding:a. When project startedb. Project numberc. Physical area on project where cost accruedd. Division in UCIe. Subdivisionf. Resource
The following planned figures for a trenching job are available:At a particular time during the construction, the site manager realizes that the actual excavation will be in the range of 110,000
Categorize the following costs as (a) direct, (b) project indirect, or (c) fixed overhead:Labor Materials Main office rental Tools and minor equipment Field office Performance bond Sales tax Main
The following data are available on Del Fabbro International, Inc. The fixed (home office) overhead for the past year was $365,200. Total volume was $5.4 million. It is assumed that G & A costs will
Calculate the cost and scheduling variances for each of the work packages shown. What is the percentage complete for the entire package? QUANTITIES EST ACT FORECAST EST ACT FORECAST 1,000 600 200 93
Draw a hierarchical diagram of the work packages given, using the WBS code values. Calculate the BCWP and percent complete for all codes and work packages to include A.00 and B.00. Finally, compute
Given the following diagrams of progress on individual work packages of a project answer the following questions:a. For Case 1, is the project ahead or behind schedule?b. For Case 2, is the project
A project with an SPI < 1 is, according to the discussions in this chapter, behind schedule. How would the critical path in its critical path method schedule look? Is there any possibility that the
Name four important items of information that should be on a typical purchase order.
What are four good sources of price information about construction materials?
What is meant by the following expressions?a. CIFb. 2/10 E.O.M.c. 2/10 net 30d. ROGe. Bill of lading
Visit a local architect’s office and ascertain how product data are obtained and used.
Visit a local building contractor and determine how he or she handles control of submittals from subcontractors to architect/engineer. What system does he or she use to ensure the job will not be
Visit a construction site and determine what procedures are used for verifying receipt arrival and ensuring proper storage of materials at the site.
Determine what procedures are used for removing waste materials from a local construction (building) site. Is there any scrap value in these materials? Explain.
Determine the local prices for some bulk materials such as concrete, sand, cement, steel mesh, bricks, and lumber and compare them to the periodically published prices in Engineering News Record.
Select a particular material item (e.g., concrete) and follow its material handling process from the local source through final installation in the building. What special equipment is needed (if any)?
What types of special materials handling equipment can be identified on local building sites? Do they take advantage of certain properties of the material being handled (e.g., the fluidity of
A transit concrete mixer truck gets stuck in traffic and arrives just after the maximum time allowed for fresh concrete. The project superintendent rejects the concrete, but the driver insists that
What factors should motivate a contractor to have a safe operation and a good safety program?
What factors influence the rate assigned to a contractor for Workmen’s Compensation insurance?
What are two major economic benefits of a good construction program?
Explain organizing for safety.
What actions could you as the contractor take to instill a sense of safety among your workers?
Observe several construction sites and ascertain details of their safety program. If possible, attend a tool box safety meeting. Then prepare a list of both good and bad examples of safety practice.
Using OSHA regulations as a guide, determine what are the accepted safety standards for:a. Guard railsb. Exposed reinforcing steelc. Protection of openingsd. Man hoists
Many construction workers resist the use of safety helmets, goggles, and protective mittens and clothing despite the fact that they are designed to protect them. Give several reasons for this
Investigate and report the main safety issues emphasized in a country of your choice other than the United States. You can search the Internet for this exercise.
Why might a post-construction review of a job be helpful to the contractor?
At what point is final payment made to the contractor?
At what point does the contractor typically get paid all (or most of the retainage?
How do warranties protect an owner?
What document lets the owner know that she can occupy the project? Who issues this document?
Where does the contractor find information regarding close-out requirements?

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