01372555

Component

In the last decade, state departments of transportation (DOTs) in the U.S. have experienced an increase in their construction projects, while the level of their in-house inspection staff and resources has either remained the same or declined. In response to this challenge, some states have adopted strategies to deal with the situation, such as outsourcing the inspection of construction activities and using quality control and quality assurance certification programs. Previous studies have found that one strategy that may reduce the inspection workload is prioritizing construction activities for inspection. However, reducing the number of inspections also has its risks, such as functional failures and reduced design life. Thus, available inspection resources should be allocated to the activities with significant risk consequences if inspection of them is reduced. The objective of this paper is to develop a risk-based inspection protocol to facilitate efficient allocation of available inspection resources to minimize the risks associated with reduced inspection. First, the risk consequences associated with reduced inspection are identified for various construction activities linked to transportation projects. These risk consequences include short and long-term functional failures, reduced design life, reduced safety, and increased maintenance cost. Based on data collected from 23 state DOTs, 58 engineers and inspectors from the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT), and 20 inspection consultants in the Midwest, the subjective perceived probabilities associated with the occurrence of each risk consequence are encoded using fuzzy analysis, from which the risk impacts due to reduced inspection are obtained. The construction activities subsequently are prioritized based on the risk impacts associated with reduced inspection into five priority levels: high, medium-high, medium, medium-low, and low. The greater the risk impacts are due to reduced inspection, the higher the priority would be for inspection of that activity. Thus, the proposed protocol could be used for resource allocation based on the risk impacts. The proposed list of prioritized construction activities could assist project and program managers in better allocating their limited inspection resources while reducing the risks due to reduced inspection.

01362476

12-2105

English

23p

2012

Transportation Research Board 91st Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References; Tables

Construction projects; Inspection; Inspectors; Resource allocation; Risk analysis; Strategic planning

Construction; Highways; I50: Construction and Supervision of Construction

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2012 Paper #12-2105

TRIS, TRB

Feb 8 2012 5:07PM