1) The major role of civil engineering in any society is the construction of different infrastructures and buildings that gives services for public use. During the construction of these projects the role of civil engineer varies depend on the stage of construction, we can divided these roles into three categories: those performed before construction (feasibility studies, site investigations, and design), those performed during construction (dealing with clients, consulting engineers, and contractors), and those performed after construction (maintenance and research). The civil engineer have the responsibility of undertaking preliminary studies of possible plans leading to a recommended scheme, perhaps with alternatives and feasibility studies in a challenging social and economic context, and design civil engineering works that are both sustainable and appropriate to that context. He also have the mandate of preparing contract documents for civil engineering projects that can be undertaken by different methods of construction and maintain the civil engineering works in a cost-effective and efficient manner. In day to day business of the society the part of civil engineering also is very big. More than 1/3 of the wealth creation of globe is the sector of construction. Investment in construction work all over the world exceeds 1 trillion dollars per annum. Construction sector is the biggest employer of manpower. The reason why I studied civil engineering is that it has greater number of job opportunity with an attractive monthly salary and also it has the option of highest number of graduate programmes for further study. In Ethiopia, civil engineering profession has great role to play in supporting economic development and an important contribution to make towards the improvement of the living standard of the people. As a country that is moving into a rapid phase of construction growth, the contribution that civil engineering can make to ensuring that this construction sector is suitable and economical for the development of the country. It is therefore of vital important to find professional and practically qualified civil engineer with required numbers. In my opinion the current trained focus on graduating a great number of civil engineers to fulfil
the market demand, but it is not good practices. The
government must also focus the quality of civil engineering profession for the development construction sector.
3. Linear approach is one of philosophy that describes different construction stages with linear sequence starting from briefing stages to commissioning stages. The philosophy placed each stages based on their chronological order of construction of the project. The first stage for this approach is the briefing stage, at this stage the owner specifies project functions and permissible costs so that consulting team can correctly interpret his wish and provide final estimated cost of the project. The second stage will be design stage at is point the design of the project is finished and the client will decided on it. The third stage is tendering stages in which the contractor will be appointed. The next stages will be the construction stage; at this stage execution of the project is done by the contractor. The final stage of this approach is commissioning; the purpose of this stage is to ensure that the project has been completed as specified in the documents and that all the facilities work properly. The linear approach philosophy is end at the commissioning and it passes is one way as shown in fig. below.
The other approach that describes the stages of construction is cyclical approaches, which assume that the construction and maintenance stages of the project in circular pattern. All stages that described in linear approach are included in this philosophy with addition of maintenance stage in continues path.
4) Construction planning is one of crucial stages of civil engineering construction that helps in determining the objective of the project, in estimating of the required resource and in forming different strategic plan of the project. The first thing in construction planning is clearly define the objective of the project with respect to the benefit that the client (owner) or end user gets from the project. The other importance of planning is identification of the required resources of the project this may includes estimating the cost of the project and choosing different methods of construction and equipments that are available in the country. The last but not the list importance of construction planning is strategic planning during this process different tasks of the project with their duration are identified and the identification of any interactions among the different tasks can be done with their budget and material allocation. Generally essential aspects of construction planning include the
generation of required activities, analysis of the implications of these activities, and choice among the various alternative means of performing activities. The ten factors to be considered in planning of constructing a sixteen storey apartment building in Addis Ababa
S/No 1
Factors to be considered
Description The economical feasibility of the project should be considered that
Feasibility
means weather there market demand or not and the capacity of the customers to afford it
2
The site location of the project should be studied weather it is
Site location
appropriate for apartment building or not.
3
Statutory requirement
The planner must examine planning regulations, codes and by-laws of the city with respect to basic requirements of apartment building
4
Method of construction
The standard method of construction should select according to the laws of the city.
5
Availability of resources
Different resources availability should be considered in planning stages.
6
Availability forces
of
labour
The availability of skilled and unskilled labour force should considered with respect to method of construction
7
8
Availability of
The availability of equipments must be considered with respect to
equipments
method of construction used
Financial factor
The planner must consult banks or insurance companies to get fund for his construction plan
9
Services given by city
During the planning of the apartment building the planner must
administrator
considered
different services given by city administrator that
required by the building such as drinking water service, electricity service and the like
10
Sociological factors
The planner must study weather society is interested to live in apartment building or not.
5) In order to achieve successful construction project, the three parameters of cost, time and quality should be considered with respect to attaining the client’s objective. These three factors are highly interconnected and they have their own effect on the success of the project and also neglecting one factor will have a corresponding detrimental effect upon the other two. Their effect can be illustrated in three circle interconnected each other, as shown below.
The client’s main objective is a completion of the project with estimated cost, time and quality of the project this ensure the overall profitability of the project. The overall cost of the project is vital that should optimize in order to attain the interest of the client. Cost of the construction project may affect timely completion and the quality of the project. The other important factor that construction manager should control is completion time of the project; this can be done by scheduling of different task of the project. Delay of a project tasks may create additional cost of the project and the deterioration of the quality. The quality of the project is third factor that should be optimized to find the best result from the project. It depends of the requirements of the client and standards specified by laws of country. The quality has direct effect on the completion time and cost of the project.
6) The main rationalization behind cyclic nature of managerial role in construction project is that every stage on it involves the three actives (planning, executing & controlling) to achieve the project goals in sequence pattern. The first managerial role in stages of construction is planning of the actives that carried out in that stage, this involves stating objective of the stage, surveying resources available and forming strategy to carry out the tasks on that stage. The second managerial role will be executing tasks in each stages of the construction; this involves allocating resources, guiding the execution, coordinating and motivating staffs. The last role of manager is controlling, it is the process of measuring progress toward an objective, evaluating what remains to be done, and taking the necessary corrective action to achieve. Generally these three steps are involved on each step of construction stages in cyclical order therefore we call these steps as a managerial cycle.
If we skipped controlling activity from the project, there will be difficulty in measuring the progress of works toward the goal of the projects and also there will be difficulty in evaluating and correcting of works in the project. Generally the project manager is responsible for ensuring the accomplishment of group and organizational goals and objectives. To effect this, he must have a thorough knowledge of standards and cost control policies and procedures so that a comparison is possible between operating results and pre established standards. The project manager must then take the necessary corrective actions.
