Estimating weather impact on the duration of construction activities

Abstract

Weather conditions can have an adverse impact on the duration and cost of construction activities. Quantifying this impact is, clearly, valuable to contractors for preparing realistic schedules, cost estimates, and reliable bids. Productivity loss due to the impact of weather on construction activities can be either partial or complete; partial loss is generally attributed to reduced labor productivity and complete to work stoppage which interrupts those activities. This paper presents an automated decision support system, named WEATHER, for estimating the combined effect of reduced labour productivity and work stoppage caused by adverse weather conditions on construction sites. The system provides estimates of construction productivity, activity durations, and weather patterns that facilitate the application of risk analysis in planning and scheduling. The system is portable and can be used in all cities across Canada where weather data are available. WEATHER is flexible and can be used in a default mode or in a user-input mode to estimate the duration of construction activities. In the default mode, the system provides default threshold values for key weather parameters. In the user-input mode, the system requires the user to define these thresholds. The system can be used to estimate weather impact before and during construction, for scheduling, and after construction for claim analysis. A numerical example is analyzed to illustrate the use of the system and demonstrate its capabilities.

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