Statistical analysis of construction productivity for highway pavement operations

Highway pavement operations were generally known as a collection of repetitive and equipment-intensive activities with lower variability in its daily productivity. However, previous research showed that the pavement operation was still vulnerable to the external factors that influenced productivity. The purpose of this study was to statistically analyze the factors that affected pavement operation in order to verify the cause-and-effect of those factors. The researchers selected four highway construction projects to collect productivity data from and evaluated the effect of various interference factors on productivity. Correlation analyses were performed to verify the effect of inclement weather conditions and prerequisite work on the pavement crews' performance. It was verified that any type of interference lowered productivity and the effects became severe if multiple interference factors occurred on a single workday. Industry practitioners needed to make an informed decision to avoid interference by recognizing the causes and effects of the interference factors and to reduce risks associated with the factors that negatively affected productivity.