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Construction Impacts: A Weakness in Construction education

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Conference

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

San Antonio, Texas

Publication Date

June 10, 2012

Start Date

June 10, 2012

End Date

June 13, 2012

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Current Issues in Construction Education

Tagged Division

Construction

Page Count

8

Page Numbers

25.342.1 - 25.342.8

DOI

10.18260/1-2--21100

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/21100

Download Count

379

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Paper Authors

biography

M. Ilyas Bhatti Wentworth Institute of Technology

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M. Ilyas Bhatti is Associate Professor of construction management at Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston, since 2009. Bhatti was Assistant Professor of construction management, Roger Williams University, Bristol, R.I., 2006-2009; President of the Bhatti Group, Inc., Boston, 1998-2006; Commonwealth of Massachusetts Associate Project Director for Boston's Central Artery Tunnel (Big Dig) Project, 1995-1998; and Commissioner MDC (a large regional state agency), responsible for a vast infrastructure of roads, bridges, parks, flood control facilities, and police. Prior to that, Bhatti served in other senior-level positions in state government as Director of Water Supply and Watershed Management. He served under four governors. He has B.S. and M.S. degrees in civil engineering. Also, he has received numerous civic and academic awards, including an honorary doctorate in engineering technology after delivering the commencement address at Wentworth in 1993. He is also a registered Professional Engineer.

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Abstract

Construction Impacts – A weakness in the construction educationByM. Ilyas Bhatti, P.E.Current education curricula across the US generally lack an in-depth emphasis on impacts caused byconstruction projects, and hence graduates are unprepared to deal with real life issues confronting themwhen working on such projects. The paper will examine two public projects – one very large, andanother a small project that imposed huge costs in mitigating these impacts.On the Central Artery/Tunnel Project (Big Dig), almost one third of the total cost of $15B was expendedon the mitigation program. The paper examines the nature of those costs and how constructionmanagers could have reduced the costs by dealing more effectively with political, social, cultural andtechnical demands. Similar experience on a much smaller project demonstrates a great need for ourconstruction educational curriculum to incorporate this aspect of construction into our estimating,scheduling and decision making process.The paper would layout an educational approach at various levels of a 4-year degree program toincorporate that.

Bhatti, M. I. (2012, June), Construction Impacts: A Weakness in Construction education Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--21100

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