Unit – 6
Civil Engineering Projects
Environmental Impact Assessment (or simply, EIA) is recognized as a tool for achieving sustainable development. The main objective of EIA is to ensure that potential environmental impacts are foreseen at the appropriate stage of project design and addressed before any concrete decision is undertaken on the project.
The Environmental Impact Assessment involves a systematic process for identifying, predicting and evaluating potential impacts associated with a development project. The EIA process must proffer mitigation measures to avoid, reduce or minimize the negative impacts on the environment, public health and property and may highlight the foreseeable positive impacts.
The EIA is not a one-off process which terminates in the production of a report on the effects of the project and associated mitigation measures. It also deals with monitoring the construction and operational phases, and this continues till the project is decommissioned. The post-closure care is also an integral part of the EIA process.
The purpose of the Environmental Impact Assessment study is to establish existing baseline conditions in the project area and to proactively assess the potential impacts and associated impacts of the proposed project on the project area.
The main objectives of the EIA are to:
Screening
Determines whether the environmental and social impacts of a proposed development project would be significant enough to develop an EIA
Scoping
Establish the boundaries of the EIA, set the basis of the analyses that will be conducted at each stage, describe the project alternatives and consult the affected public.
Impact Assessment & Mitigation
Evaluate the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of the planned project and its alternatives, and then identify the mitigation measures to reduce those impacts.
Impact Management
Prepare the plans required for addressing mitigation measures and other project risks, such as technological failures and natural disasters.
The EIA Report
Pull together all the research and work done during the previous steps into a comprehensive, structured document, ensuring that the EIA report contains all the key components.
Review & Licensing
Designated authorities review the EIA report to determine if the planned project will get a license or if it requires amendments.
Monitoring
Ensure that the mitigation measures, priorities listed in the EMP, and contingency plans are properly implemented and effectively address the project’s impacts.
Waste prevention, also known as source reduction, means using less material to get a job done Waste prevention methods help create less waste in the first place—before recycling. If organizations take a good look at their recycling collection data, they are likely to see ways to reduce waste first through waste prevention, thereby decreasing purchasing costs and the amount of material that must be managed for recycling.
Minimize waste
Some building-related waste can be minimized. For example, construction products can be selected on the basis of its being designed and manufactured to be shipped with minimal packaging. Also consider that selection and use of recyclable materials and products offers potential to minimize waste.
Segregate waste efficiently
This can be done by:
Reuse materials
Some materials can be reused. For example, doors and windows in good, resalable condition might substitute for new products, or be donated and or sold for use on another project; a form of beneficial reuse.
Materials and products which cannot efficiently and effectively be eliminated, minimized or reused ultimately are collected, and unless managed, will probably be disposed at the lowest cost. In many areas of the country, disposal fees at solid waste landfills are substantially higher than the cost of separation and recovery, including the disposal cost for residues.
Eliminate waste
Some waste generated in the process of construction can be eliminated. For example, durable modular metal form systems for use in concrete construction may be selected on the basis of being readily demountable and reusable on other projects, thus eliminating wood waste associated with formwork fabricated of plywood and dimensional lumber. Elimination of waste can be beneficial to reduce impacts on human health and the environment.
Demolition and deconstruction
Building demolition results in heavy pollution and waste generation, so deconstruction needs to be the focus instead.
Deconstruction allows for extensive recovery of usable material at every level, right from systems and assemblies to entire structures and foundations. In addition to preserving resources and minimizing landfill waste, it also boosts the economy by creating new employment opportunities.
1. Communicate Clearly
Communication is the most important productivity booster in any job. No one will get the job done well if they have no idea what’s going on.
It’s important you clearly communicate your goals to your crew before you start a new project and continue keeping them updated throughout the project.
Send out frequent emails and memos if there are any changes that might affect your workers. Be considerate and never leave your employees in the dark about what’s happening in a project.
2. Set Realistic Goals
Rome wasn’t built in a day and your new building won’t be either.
Construction takes time so it’s important you set realistic goals. Make sure the entire crew understands the goal for each day, each week, each month, and even each year.
It’s important that people have goals to strive towards each and every day. Setting small goals makes a big project seem easier to accomplish.
3. Reward Regularly
Construction is often hot and tiring work. Your workers are putting in hour after hour of manual labour.
In order to increase productivity, offer incentives in the form of rewards. Whenever your crew meets a goal, treat them to pizza and beer at a local restaurant.
This will make your workers feel appreciated and eager to push forward.
4. Train Your Troops
If you want a work site the runs efficiently, you have to train your workers. Make sure they’re all trained before you begin a project.
Yes, this will often cost extra money but it will be worth it. Training also reduces the number of injuries on a job which will, in turn, increase productivity.
5. Listen Well
To be a good leader, you have to listen well to those you’re employing.
It’s not enough to communicate with people if you’re not open to hearing their responses. Your workers will have a firsthand idea of what does and doesn’t work on site.
They will sometimes come to you and tell you that a goal isn’t realistic, or that they need new tools. Don’t brush these things off. Instead, take them into consideration and try to find a solution for your crew.
6. Plan with Purpose
Before starting a construction project you need to have a detailed plan laid out for how you’re going to accomplish the job.
This includes schedules for workers, materials needed, and countless other logistics.
The more thoroughly you plan your project beforehand, the better it will turn out. You also need to keep this plan updated to reflect on how the project is moving.
7. Hire Good Management
Hiring good management is one of the key ways to increase productivity on site.
If you have managers who are respectful yet firm in their leadership, your team will respond. Managers help keep workers focused and working towards your goals.
Managers also work as middlemen between construction workers and upper management in order to relay problems.
8. Keep Track of Your Materials
You should be regularly checking inventory in order to prevent shortage at end. You need to make sure you have the materials to complete at least one week’s worth of work.
If you don’t, you need to order new materials well in advance to give them enough time to come in.
9. Give Your Workers Time Off
In order to increase productivity, it is important to give you workers adequate time off. If you’ve been working them hard for a few weeks in a row, give them a long weekend to recover.
This will demonstrate that you care about your workers and they will be happier for it. When they return to work they’ll be eager to get back to the project after being well rested.
10. Convey the End Goal
It always helps people stay on task if they’re reminded of what they’re working towards.Put up pictures of the end result around the site to remind the workers why they’re working.
Remind your workers of the end result of all their hard work. Show them what an impact they’re going to make in their community.
Green technology makes building more energy efficient and sustainable. They thus have a lower carbon footprint and a reduced impact on the environment. In new buildings, green building construction plays a role in every phase of development. Every aspect of the structure, including siting, design, construction materials and the systems used to run and maintain operations are chosen to be as sustainable and energy efficient as possible.
The top sustainable construction technologies used today in green construction are:
- It is incorporated into the buildings control system, therefore allowing users to choose the amount of solar radiation to block. With this technology, homes and commercial buildings can save a lot of heating, ventilating and air conditioning costs.
Project management is the practice of applying knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to complete a project according to specific requirements. It comes down to identifying the problem, creating a plan to solve the problem, and then executing on that plan until the problem has been solved.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHODOLOGIES
1. Waterfall project management methodology
The most common way to plan out a project is to sequence the tasks that lead to a final deliverable and work on them in order. This process is also known as the waterfall methodology — the traditional method for managing projects and the one that is simplest to understand. You have to complete one task before the next one begins in a connected sequence of items that add up to the overall deliverable. It’s an ideal method for projects that result in physical objects (buildings, computers), and you can easily replicate project plans for future use.
The power of this methodology is that every step is pre-planned and laid out in the proper sequence. While this may be the simplest method to implement initially, any changes in stakeholders’ needs or priorities will disrupt the series of tasks, making it very difficult to manage. This methodology excels in predictability but lacks in flexibility.
2. Critical path method (CPM)
The critical path method was developed in the 1950s, based on the idea that there are some tasks you can’t start until you finish the previous one. When you string these dependent tasks together from start to finish, you plot out your critical path.
Identifying and focusing on this critical path allows project managers to prioritize and allocate resources to get the most important work done and reschedule any lower priority tasks that may be clogging up your team’s bandwidth. This way, if you need to make changes to the project schedule, you can optimize your team’s work process without delaying the results.
3. Critical chain project management (CCPM)
Critical chain project management takes the critical path method one step further. CCPM is a methodology that focuses on the resources needed to complete the project’s tasks by adding resource availability to the critical path. It also builds buffers of time around these tasks in the project’s schedule, ensuring the project meets its deadlines.
Lean construction is a way of designing production systems in a construction environment with the aim of decreasing time, effort, and a waste of materials. Moreover, lean construction is aimed at maximizing value and minimizing costs involved during construction project maintenance, design, planning, and activation.
The effects of infrastructure development on growth and income distribution
It is a given that increased infrastructure spending will increase the gross domestic product (GDP) in the short run as a natural accounting consequences of piling investments (productive or not) into fixed capital.
The contribution of the infrastructure sector in India GDP
Infrastructure sector growth rate in India GDP came to 3.5% in 1996-97 and the next year, this figure was 4.6%. The growth rate of infrastructure sector in India GDP increased after the Indian government opened the sector to 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) this was done in order to boost the infrastructure sector in India. The result of opening the sector to the private sector has been that infrastructure sector growth rate in India GDP has increased at the rate of 9%. It is estimated that the growth rate of infrastructure sector in India GDP will grow at the rate of 8.5% between 2006 and 2010.
CONTRIBUTION TO JOBS
It is widely accepted that investments in infrastructure can lead to direct and indirect jobs, and usually have spill-over effects into other economic opportunities. For example good transport system and agro logistic services help move freight from farms to locations where value can be added (like intermediate processing, packaging and sorting of agricultural produce) and ultimately to consumers.
However the anticipated benefits of these investments are not always fully realized or sometimes they happen much later.
To maximize their impact, infrastructure project should explicitly analyze and include complementary investments (e.g., industrial parks or processing facilities) and soft interventions (financial services, ICT, laws and regulations etc) needed to unlock the potential of new markets. As part of broader effort to link investment in rural roads to economic opportunities, the roads to jobs study analyzed strategic value chains in the agriculture sector in Rajasthan, India to better understand the challenges faced by farmers in accessing markets and provided recommendations to address constraints.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
A safety and health management system means the part of organisation’s management system which covers:
The system should cover the entire gambit of an employer’s occupational health and safety organisation. The key elements of a successful safety and health management system are
Under the WSH act, the stakeholders and their responsibilities are as follows;
Employer
As an employer, you must protect the safety and health of your employees or workers working under your direction, as well as persons who may be affected by their work.
You must:
Principal
A principal is any person or organisation who engages another person or organisation to supply labour or perform work under a contract for service.
As a principal, you must ensure that the contractor you engage:
However, if you instruct the contractor or the workers on how the work is to be carried out, your duties will include the duties of an employer.
Occupier
In workplaces registered or notified as a factory, the occupier is the person who holds the certificate of registration. In all other workplaces, the occupier is the person who has control of the premises, regardless of whether they are the owner of those premises.
As an occupier, you must ensure that the following are safe:
You must ensure that the above does not pose a risk to anyone within your premises, even if the person is not your employee.
Manufacturer or supplier
As a manufacturer or supplier you must ensure that any machinery and equipment you provide are safe. You must:
You must ensure that the machinery and equipment that you have erected, installed or modified is safe and without safety or health risks when properly used.
Employee
As an employee, you must
Sustainable innovation has been defined as covering the spectrum of levels of innovation from incremental to radical. Whilst there are no absolute or quantifiable definitions and boundaries, four main level of innovation can be defined in the context of environmental improvement:
Top sustainable technologies in green construction
Green technology makes building more energy efficient and sustainable. They thus have a lower carbon footprint and a reduced impact on the environment. In new buildings, green building construction plays a role in every phase of development. Every aspect of the structure, including siting, design, construction materials and the systems used to run and maintain operations are chosen to be as sustainable and energy efficient as possible.
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