Characteristics of Equipment Planning for Multi-Crane Building Construction Sites

Abstract

This paper purports to provide answers to the following questions with regard to multi-crane building construction sites: (1) Do such construction sites differ from smaller sites only in magnitude, or are there unique characteristics that stem from the size of the site and the multitude of cranes? (2) Is equipment planning for such projects similar to that of projects serviced by a small number of cranes? (3) How is equipment planning affected by the site's surroundings? (4) Does the visibility of multiple cranes in the near and far surroundings of the project affect the approach to equipment planning? Answers to these questions were sought after through the investigation of several measures, based on case studies of mega building projects in Europe, all located in busy urban surroundings. On-site interviews focused on multiple research variables, of which four are used here: project planning stages, planning parties, plan formats, and the cranes on site. The study found that multi-crane sites are characterized by unique features; equipment planning for such sites differs significantly from that conducted for regular sites; the site-surroundings interface plays an important role in equipment and logistics planning for such sites; and the awareness of reputation plays a role in crane selection. The study's main contribution is in reducing the knowledge gap that exists with regard to the unique determinants of equipment planning for multi-crane projects and to its importance to the success of such projects.

Trends and developments of on-site crane layout planning 1983–2020: bibliometric, scientometric and qualitative analyses

“…Besides, Han et al (2018) developed a decision support model to select all types of cranes considering environmental issues in addition to economic aspects. It is noticeable that most of the literature focused on single crane selection; however, Shapira and Ben-David (2017) enhanced the understanding of multi-crane selection by investigating site geometric conditions and implications of crane works.…”

“…Qualitative techniques provided expert opinions on factors affecting crane selection types and models in different sociocultural settings (Shapira et al , 2007), project types (King and Schexnayder, 2002) and construction stages (Shapira and Schexnayder, 1999). Such techniques also revealed the roles of project parties (Shapira and Ben-David, 2017), efficiency comparison of crane types (Shapira and Glascock, 1996) and real-life selection scenarios through case studies (Tam and Tong, 2003). Seven of the included articles on crane selection used qualitative techniques.…”

“…Consequently, the trade-off between minimizing the high cranes’ cost, satisfying the project schedule and reducing potential collisions between cranes has intrigued research scholars for decades. Past studies focused on multiple dimensions of CLP such as the selection of cranes (Kumar and Cheng, 2015), the number of cranes (Shapira and Ben-David, 2017), crane location (Zhang et al , 1999), allocation of supply points (Moussavi Nadoushani et al , 2017) and combination of these (Olearczyk et al , 2014). Several mathematical models (Al-Hussein et al , 2001) and optimization techniques (Ji and Leite, 2020) have been developed to find an optimal crane layout plan.…”

Active BIM Approach to Optimize Work Facilities and Tower Crane Locations on Construction Sites with Repetitive Operations

“…Positioning a tower crane on a construction site is a serious task, regardless of the characteristics of the crane or construction site [1][2][3][4]. The importance of the positioning of the tower crane is not only related to the overall safety, but also to its efficiency, which corresponds to its justifiability in terms of economics and energy consumption.…”

“…In [3], the author claimed that the total electricity requirement for a construction site utilizing even a common electrical tower crane can increase up to 44%. Furthermore, in [4], the authors provide a concise review of the organizational challenges in construction projects involving multiple tower cranes on a construction site. In [5], the authors presented a scenario simulation approach to ensure a lean and environmentally acceptable supply chain on a construction site where the relevant segments in the supply chain were tower cranes powered by different energy sources.…”