Construction Simulation Model Tackling Increased Constraints on a Complex Earthmoving Project

Construction Simulation Model Tackling Increased Constraints on a Complex Earthmoving Project

Overview

Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) is the largest construction company in the Middle East and ranks #18 internationally. CCC has offices and projects in over 40 countries, and a workforce of more than 130,000 employees. Its portfolio includes oil and gas plants, refineries and petrochemical facilities, pipelines, power and desalination plants, light industries, water and sewage treatment plants, airports and seaports, heavy civil works, dams, reservoirs and distribution systems, road networks and skyscrapers.

CCT International (CCT) is the primary technology provider for CCC since 1998. CCT also develops and markets solutions for the construction industry with clients all over the world. CCT products include 3D BIM/project control environments, document and content management solutions, mobile construction management systems, asset management and fleet management systems, QA/QC systems, and construction process simulation and optimization tools. CCT has offices in Beirut, Dubai, Cairo, Athens, and Cyprus with a headcount of around 65+ engineers, software developers, and industry experts.

Problem

Just after contract signature of a site preparation project (earthmoving scope of approximately four million cubic meters), the client and local authorities placed new, more restrictive constraints on the operation. These constraints included:

The newly placed constraints essentially meant that the project schedule will be severely impacted and with it the total cost to complete. The number and complexity of the constraints made it quite difficult to evaluate manually the impact of the constraints on time to complete and equipment requirements. As a result of the newly added complexity the simulation team was asked to help in quantifying the impact of the new constraints and substantiating a claim by CCC for an extension of time.

Construction Simulation Model

Truck Route Model Outputs Showing Route Visualization and
Average Speeds

Solution

CCC already had a well-established construction simulation model made in AnyLogiс software. This model was used for basic construction optimization: to forecast equipment and time requirements for earthworks operations. Using the earthworks simulator requires multiple parameter inputs, including the assumed average speed the trucks will travel on their haul routes and back. With a new truck route imposed on the project, it was very difficult to manually estimate the average speed the trucks would run at.

As such, a more complex construction simulation model was built in AnyLogic software to mimic the trucks traversing the route segments, both while loaded and empty. Using optimization techniques in AnyLogic was helpful for risk-free experimentation and for effective construction management on this project.

In the construction simulation model, each route segment was modeled with a stochastic distribution for the total time to traverse the segment. Then the trucks were made to run 10,000 times each way in the simulator to arrive at an average speed for each route and loaded/empty combination.

Why use simulation in construction? AnyLogic was specifically selected for construction modeling because this software allowed CCT to:

The average speeds deduced from the truck route simulator were then fed into the earthworks construction simulation model along with the remainder of the new constraints. These included:

Outcome

The results of the two-step process of using the truck route simulator to summarize the route and then feeding it into the earthworks simulator enabled CCT to quantify very quickly the impact of the new more restrictive constraints and to build mitigation scenarios to aid in the claim for extension of time. Both of the construction simulation models were created in AnyLogic software, giving them the flexibility to consider all the new constraints.

AnyLogic optimization techniques have proven to be good assistants for construction management. Based on the construction simulation model results, the client agreed to extend the total duration of the earthworks operation by an additional 50% on top of the original schedule duration, and to allow two work shifts per day. This essentially saved the project an estimated additional cost equivalent to 18% of the original total contract value.

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