EXcellence in Professional Engineering
Review and Training Solutions
Terminologies Part 2
CONSTRUCTION METHODS AND MANAGEMENT
I. Introduction
For major projects, steps in the project development
process include the following:
I. Recognizing the need for the project.
II. Determining the technical and financial feasibility
of the project.
III. Preparing detailed plans, specifications, and cost
estimates for the project.
IV. Obtaining approval from regulatory agencies.
This involves ascertaining compliance with zoning
regulations, building codes, and environmental and
other regulations.
The principal methods by which facilities are
constructed include the following:
I. Construction employing an owner construction
force.
II. Owner management of construction.
III. Construction by a general contractor.
IV. Construction using a design/build (turnkey)
contract.
V. Construction utilizing a construction
management contract.
Building codes, which are concerned primarily with
public safety, provide minimum design and
construction standards for structural and fire safety.
As the name implies, such codes apply only to the
construction of buildings.
Zoning regulations, which control land use, limit the
size, type, and density of structures that may be
erected at a particular location.
Environmental regulations protect the public and
environment by controlling such factors as water
usage, vehicular traffic, precipitation runoff, waste
disposal, and preservation of beaches and wetlands.
Safety regulations are designed to protect both
construction workers and the public.
Some ways in which productivity can be increased and
costs minimized during construction include the
following:
I. Good work planning.
II. Carefully selecting and training workers and
managers.
III. Efficiently scheduling labor, materials, and
equipment.
IV. Properly organizing work.
V. Using laborsaving techniques, such as
prefabrication and preassembly.
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VI. Minimizing rework through timely quality
control.
VII. Preventing accidents through good safety
procedures.
Poor construction management practices, on the other
hand, often result in one or more of the following:
I. Project delays that increase labor and equipment
cost and the cost of borrowed funds.
II. High material costs caused by poor purchasing
procedures, inefficient handling, and/or loss.
III. Increased subcontractor cost and poor
contractor-subcontractor relations.
IV. High insurance costs resulting from material and
equipment loss or damage or a poor safety record.
V. Low profit margin or a loss on construction
volume.
Quality management includes such activities as
specification development, process control, product
acceptance, laboratory and technician certification,
training, and communication.
Quality control (QC), which is a part of the quality
management process, is primarily concerned with the
process control function.
The following construction operations have been
found to account for the majority of serious
construction injuries:
I. Concrete construction, especially construction of
formwork, placing concrete into formwork, and
failure of formwork during construction.
II. The erection of prefabricated trusses, precast
concrete elements, and structural steel.
III. The construction and operation of temporary
facilities including scaffolding, construction plants,
lifts, and storage facilities.
IV. Working from elevated positions resulting in
falls.
V. Construction equipment operations.
II. Earthmoving Materials and Operations
Earthmoving is the process of moving soil or rock from
one location to another and processing it so that it
meets construction requirements of location,
elevation, density, moisture content, and so on.
Bank - Material in its natural state before disturbance.
Loose- Material that has been excavated or loaded.
Compacted- Material after compaction.
A soil’s angle of repose is the angle that the sides of a
spoil bank or pile naturally form with the horizontal
when the excavated soil is dumped onto the pile.
NOV 2022
Engr. J.A. Margallo
 EXcellence in Professional Engineering
Review and Training Solutions
If the pile of material is long in relation to its width, it
is referred to as a spoil bank.
If the material is dumped from a fixed position, a spoil
pile is created which has a conical shape.
III. Excavating and Lifting
An excavator is defined as a power-driven digging
machine. The major types of excavators used in
earthmoving operations include hydraulic excavators
and the members of the cable-operated crane-shovel
family.
[MAY 2022] Plate line capacity is the bucket volume
contained within the bucket when following the
outline of the bucket sides.
Struck capacity is the bucket capacity when the load is
struck off flush with the bucket sides.
Water line capacity assumes a level of material flush
with the lowest edge of the bucket (i.e., the material
level corresponds to the water level that would result
if the bucket were filled with water).
Heaped volume is the maximum volume that can be
placed in the bucket without spillage based on a
specified angle of repose for the material in the bucket.
A better estimate of the volume of material in one
bucket load will be obtained if the nominal bucket
volume is multiplied by a bucket fill factor or bucket
efficiency factor.
The original and most common form of hydraulically
powered excavator is the hydraulic excavator
equipped with a hoe front end.
When the material to be excavated is located below
ground level, the shovel must dig a ramp down into the
material until a digging face of suitable height is
created. This process is known as ramping down.
The dragline is a very versatile machine that has the
longest reach for digging and dumping of any member
of the crane-shovel family.
When the crane shovel is equipped with a crane boom
and clamshell bucket, it becomes an excavator known
as a clamshell. The clamshell is capable of excavating
to great depths but lacks the positive digging action
and precise lateral control of the shovel and backhoe.
IV. Loading and Hauling
Fixed time represents those components of cycle time
other than travel time.
Variable time represents the travel time required for a
unit to haul material to the unloading site and return.
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Rolling resistance is primarily due to tire flexing and
penetration of the travel surface.
Grade resistance represents that component of vehicle
weight which acts parallel to an inclined surface.
Rimpull is the pull available at the rim of the driving
wheels under rated conditions.
Drawbar pull is the power available at the hitch of a
crawler tractor operating under standard conditions.
A tractor equipped with a front-mounted earthmoving
blade is known as a dozer or bulldozer. A dozer moves
earth by lowering the blade and cutting until a full
blade load of material is obtained.
Trucks used for hauling on public highways are limited
by transportation regulations in their maximum
width, gross weight, and axle load.
Wagons are earthmoving trailers pulled by tractors or
truck-tractors.
V. Compacting and Finishing
Compaction is the process of increasing the density of
a soil by mechanically forcing the soil particles closer
together, thereby expelling air from the void spaces in
the soil.
Consolidation, which is an increase in soil density of a
cohesive soil resulting from the expulsion of water
from the soil’s void spaces.
The moisture content at which maximum dry density
is achieved under a specific compaction effort is
referred to as the optimum moisture content of the soil.
Compactor production is based on the following data:
I. Number of paces required
II. Width compacted per pass
III. Compactor speed
IV. Compacted lift thickness
V. Job Efficiency
The process of giving natural soils enough abrasive
resistance and shear strength to accommodate traffic
or design loads is called ground modification or soil
stabilization
Dynamic compaction, or deep compaction, involves
dropping a heavy weight from a crane onto the ground
surface to achieve soil densification.
Vibratory compaction, also called vibroflotation and
vibrocompaction, is the process of densifying
cohesionless soils by inserting a vibratory probe into
the soil.
NOV 2022
Engr. J.A. Margallo
 EXcellence in Professional Engineering
Review and Training Solutions
REFRESHER | TERMS

Surcharging, or placing additional weight on the soil performing load tests or by restriking the pile several
surface, has long been used to densify cohesive soils. days after pile driving.
Grading is the process of bringing earthwork to the A pier is simply a column, usually of reinforced
desired shape and elevation (or grade). concrete, constructed below the ground surface. It
performs much the same function as a pile. That is, it
Finish grading, or simply finishing, involves smoothing
transfers the load of a structure down to a stronger
slopes, shaping ditches, and bringing the earthwork to
rock or soil layer.
the elevation required by the plans and specification.
A caisson is a structure used to provide all-around
In highway construction, the process of cutting down
lateral support to an excavation.
high spots and filling in low spots of each roadway
layer is called balancing. If the water pressure exactly equals soil weight, the
soil will behave like a liquid and we have a condition
Trimming is the process of bringing each roadway
called liquefaction (or quicksand).
layer to its final grade.
If the water pressure is strong enough to move
The motor grader is one of the most versatile items of
subsurface soil up through the bottom of the cut, this
earthmoving equipment. It can be used for light
condition is called boiling or piping.
stripping, grading, finishing, trimming, bank sloping,
ditching, backfilling, and scarifying. Workers in an excavation be protected from caveins
by one of the following methods:
Grade excavators or trimmers are machines that are
I. Sloping or benching of the sides of the excavation.
capable of finishing roadway and airfield subgrades
II. Supporting the sides of the excavation by shoring.
and bases faster and more accurately than can motor
III. Placing a shield between workers and the sides
graders.
of the excavation.
VI. Foundations
A spread footing is the simplest and probably the most
common type of building foundation. It usually
consists of a square or rectangular reinforced concrete
pad that serves to distribute building loads over an
area large enough so that the resulting pressure on the
supporting soil does not exceed the soil’s allowable
bearing strength.
Individual footings include isolated (or single)
footings, which support a single column, and wall
footings, which support a wall.
Combined footings support a wall and one or more
columns, or several columns.
Mat or raft foundations consist of a heavily reinforced
concrete slab extending under the entire structure, in
order to spread the structure’s load over a large area.
[NOV 2019] A pile is nothing more than a column
driven into the soil to support a structure by
transferring building loads to a deeper and stronger
layer of soil or rock.
Pile capacity usually increases after a period of time
following driving. This increase in capacity is referred
to as soil setup or soil freeze.
In some cases, pile capacity decreases with time. This
decrease in capacity is referred to as soil relaxation.
Soil setup or soil relaxation can be measured by

NOV 2022
Engr. J.A. Margallo