Selection of Parameters and Parametric Design of Smart Bus Stops to Improve the Socio-temporal Landscape in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India

Transportation is an important activity under Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. Bus stops are a crucial included element, which requires an architectural design for user satisfaction using functional and ethical design parameters. A study has been conducted at Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India to find the scope for development in the present bus stop infrastructures for better user satisfaction. Major bus routes in the town involving intra-city routes and intercity routes have been selected. Thirty-seven bus stops are selected for survey and analysis. User requirements in the bus stops have been evaluated and used as parameters for an improved design. A total of eighteen parameters are evaluated through survey and the feedback has been recorded in Google Form for analysis. Central tendencies of data have been computed. Further, dimensional reduction technique has been used to identify the principal components responsible for synergy of parameters. PCA of first three Principal component parameters has been considered for re-modelling the bus stops of Bhubaneswar. It has been observed that seven parameters jointly can achieve 54.4% user’s satisfaction compared to 44% as observed from the descriptive statistical analysis. Minitab-18 has been used for all statistical analysis. The correlation coefficient values have been used to determine the requirements of bus stop users in Bhubaneswar at different bus stops. PCA plots are further analysed for parameter recommendation in upgrading the bus stop facilities to make it sustainable and environment-friendly. The design of the bus stop has been made using Rhinoceros software and Grasshopper plugin.

Price Adjustment Practice of Road Projects in Nepal

The construction industry always faces problems on price fluctuation and adjustment of the price to compensate the cost fluctuation becomes necessary. There is dilemma on which formula of price adjustment to use in construction contracts. Price adjustment affects all the stakeholders i.e. Client, Consultant and Contractor. This research revealed about the trend of the cost of components of construction i.e. Labor, Material, Fuel, equipment etc. Compare the different formulas of price adjustment and understand the view of client, Consultant and Contractor regarding price adjustment. Questionnaire was distributed to the Client, Contractor and consultant’s representative who are a part of the above projects. For the questions based on Likert scale, afive point Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5 is adopted and Relative Importance Index wascalculated and for other questions the result is presented in the form of pie chart and bar chart. From our study, it can be concluded that most of the Clients, Contractors and Consultants are affected by price adjustment. PPMO formula should be used for price adjustments in construction contracts.After the initial completion date of contract has crossed and extension of time has been done, the price adjustment factor should be calculated based on the indices before and upto the initial completion date only and Price adjustment should be provided after the initial completion date of contract also. The research findings also suggest that 25% of bidders bid for the value range of 0-5% below the Engineers’ Estimate while only 13.85% of bidders in case of E-bidding bid for the same range. The researcher believes that the findings of this study are useful for reviewing the existing provision of public procurement system. This also supports the conviction that more constructive roles has to be played in public procurement of infrastructure projects by local governments in Newly Constituted Federal Structure of Nepal.

Practice of Concrete Production in Gaindakot Municipality, Nepal

Concrete is one of the most used construction materials. Quality of concrete depends upon its ingredients and workmanship. The paper aims to assess the practice of concrete production and knowledge among practitioners regarding concreting at Gaidakot municipality which relies on manual concrete production. Only 30 under-construction houses in 10 wards of the Municipality were selected purposively for observation of concrete practice as field-based empirical research. A structured questionnaire was surveyed as scheduled with 30 practitioners (10 mixer operator, 10 ingredients pourer and 10 vibrator operator) and intensive observation by the researcher were recorded to analyze the practice for concrete production. It was found none of the respondents was aware of concreting code of NBC. They had not attended any training to practice NBC of Nepal. Similarly, the majority of practitioners learned about the method of concreting through experience or coworkers by observing at sites during work. However, 77% of them responded that the process of concreting was good. Similarly, there were a lot of problems in workmanship. Quality in ingredients was not taken in due consideration and dosage of ingredients varies from batch to batch and placement was done in segment wise for slab and beam. Compaction as well as curing was inadequate. Lack of formal education, inadequate guidance and training, proper skill and knowledge about NBC of Nepal among the workers involved directly in concrete production was making concrete production inconsistent and uncontrolled. The study will be significant for quality resident building construction by ensuring the effective implementation of building code, which is the minimum standard, the skill-oriented training and continuous supervision from the concerned local municipality.