Piling Construction Management and Decision Support Using Geographical Information System

This paper investigates the automation of activity-level construction management and decision making. Using piling construction as the target, a specialized piling construction management and decision support system incorporating job site map and daily site production information is developed. Detailed system requirements, an improved automated data process, and a visualization user interface are developed through a thorough investigation on current piling practices in Taiwan. A comprehensive case study on the piling work of World's tallest skyscraper project, Taipei Financial Center (Taipei 101) is conducted. Actual Taipei 101 jobsite map and data is imported to the developed system. The system is then used to run a real decision problem happened during the piling construction from October of 1998 to June of 1999. Decisions is developed by using the system and be compared to the original ones. The purpose is to prove that the integrated visualization technology can be practically useful in the site-level construction management. Research results and principles of this study are also expected to be valuable for developing activity-level management and decision support systems of other trades with similar modular characteristics, such as slurry wall construction, precast construction, steel construction, and curtain wall construction.