Integrated visualized time control system for repetitive construction projects

Construction control is an essential management function for successful delivery and achieving of construction projects' goals. Considerable research efforts have been done regarding project control. However, literature suffers from a lack of visualizing the controlling process. With the growth of using visualization techniques in construction, Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Geographic Information System (GIS) have recently attained a widespread contribution in visualization of construction progress. BIM is a process of creating virtual models data that represents building facilities. In this research, BIM represents a platform for nD (n-Dimensional) visualization of construction progress. The advantages of this paper stems from three main contributions for construction projects control: 1) developing of a mathematical model for time control of repetitive construction projects; 2) an automated system to dynamically integrate project progress with BIM technique; and 3) a GIS-based tool to visualize the progress of distributed sites. The developed model provides abundant information to help decision makers take the appropriate corrective actions. An example application is presented to demonstrate the applicability of the developed system. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.