Cost Estimate Modeling of Transportation Management Plans for Highway Projects

JAE-HO PYEON, PhD

Jae-Ho Pyeon, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at San José State University. Dr. Pyeon received both his master’s and doctor’s degrees in Civil and Coastal Engineering from the University of Florida. Currently, Dr. Pyeon is a University Representative of Transportation Research Board and a member of the Construction Research Council, Construction Institute, American Society of Civil Engineers. Dr. Pyeon conducts research in the area of transportation construction engineering and management, and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in construction project management, construction information technology, construction scheduling and estimating, and heavy transportation construction equipment.

Dr. Pyeon has published 22 peer-reviewed journal or conference papers in the last five years. His research interests include seeking efficient ways to improve the highway construction planning and process, assessing uncertainty in construction, and developing decision support systems to assist project planners and managers. Specific research areas are transportation construction project delivery systems, work zone road user cost, transportation management plans, project risk management, and innovative contracting methods such as Incentives/Disincentives, No Excuse Bonus, and A+B.

Dr. Pyeon has successfully performed several federal- and/or state-funded transportation construction research projects, including “Improving Transportation Construction Project Performance - Development of a Model to Support the Decision-Making Process for Incentive/Disincentive Construction Projects;” “Evaluation of Alternative Contracting Techniques on FDOT Construction Projects;” “Improving the Time Performance of Highway Construction Contracts;” “Development of Improved Procedures for Managing Pavement Markings During Highway Construction Projects;” and “Development of Procedures for Utilizing Pit Proctors in the Construction Process for Pavement Base Materials.” He also serves as an external reviewer of FHWA’s Work Zone Road User Cost research project and as an active reviewer of several major journals in the area of construction engineering and management.

EUL-BUM LEE, PhD, PE

Eul-Bum Lee, PhD, PE, and PMP, has more than 20 years of experience in heavy construction, mainly in the varied disciplines of transportation projects, including design and engineering, project management and control, and academic research. Currently working as an associate researcher and co-principal investigator in the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California Berkeley, Dr. Lee has focused on researching and implementing innovative methods for rehabilitating transportation infrastructure.

Dr. Lee earned ME and PhD degrees in the Engineering Project Management Program of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley. He earned his B.S. degree in Civil Engineering at Seoul National University. Before beginning his doctoral work, Dr. Lee spent 12 years with Hyundai Engineering and Construction, Inc., as a manager of international mega-projects in Asia, Europe, and North America. One of his greatest successes with the company was when he served as the Project Coordinator among the engineer, contractor, and owner for a long-span concrete precast box girder bridge project (the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge Project in Bangladesh), which was funded with $1.3 billion from the World Bridge Fund, as a turn-key (design-build) project.

Dr. Lee’s research led to the creation of Construction Analysis for Pavement Rehabilitation Strategies (CA4PRS) software, a scheduling and traffic analysis tool developed to help decision-makers at transportation agencies select the most economical strategies for highway projects. The Technology Implementation Group (TIG) of Association of American State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) has selected CA4PRS for nationwide promotion to its state members, and AASHTO is considering assigning the software as a product of AASHTOWare for marketing nationwide. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) formally endorsed CA4PRS as a Priority, Market-Ready Technologies and Innovations product in 2008 for nationwide deployment. In addition, the FHWA is in the process of arranging free group licenses for all states to deploy the software nationally in the United States. CA4PRS won a 2007 Global Road Achievement Award granted by the International Road Federation. Recognized nationally for his contributions to the research and implementation of new industry practices, Dr. Lee has received a number of awards, including the California Department of Transportation’s 2005 Excellence in Transportation Awards (Innovation and Public Outreach).

Dr. Lee is actively involved in the academic and professional communities in construction/ project management and transportation engineering. Currently, he is serving as a committee member, expert group member, or journal reviewer for the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the AASHTO, FHWA, and the Transportation Research Board (TRB). His research work has been published in a variety of professional civil engineering society and transportation journals with about 23 peer reviewed journal papers and 25 conference proceedings.

RALPH D. ELLIS, PhD, PE

Ralph D. Ellis, PhD, PE, is an expert in the area of ground transportation construction research. In particular, Dr. Ellis has significant knowledge and insights with regard to estimating Maintenance of Traffic quantities and costs from his previous research project sponsored by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).

Dr. Ellis has researched the subject of nighttime transportation construction for the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP). The research results have contributed significantly to FDOT’s management of nightwork and have produced nationally recognized Guidelines for Illumination of Nighttime Highway Construction.

Dr. Ellis is a registered professional engineer with over 15 years experience as a construction projects manager dealing directly with all aspects of construction. This hands-on, real world experience has contributed to his full understanding of both the technical and organizational management issues involved in nighttime construction operations.

In his current position as associate professor in the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida, he has achieved a reputation for research excellence, having successfully performed over 50 sponsored research studies as principal investigator, including three NCHRP projects: “NCHRP 5-13 Illumination Guidelines for Nighttime Highway Work” developed comprehensive guidelines for illumination of nighttime highway construction. “NCHRP 20-24 Avoiding Delays in the Construction Phase of Highway Projects” offered specific strategies for delay avoidance. More recently, as project co-principal investigator, Dr. Ellis contributed significantly to the success of “SHRP 2 R15 Strategies for Integrating Utility & Transportation Agency Priorities in Highway Renewal Project.”

Dr. Ellis has worked closely with the FDOT in improving their construction management. The results of his research study for the FDOT, Developing Procedures for Night Operations of Transportation Construction Projects, contributed to FDOT’s improved handling of night work issues. Dr. Ellis’ strong engineering background, research experience and teaching experience will ensure that the objectives of this research project are achieved with a product that is of the highest quality.

TAEHO PARK, PhD

Taeho Park, PhD, is a Professor in the Organization and Management Department at San José State University and a Research Associate at The Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) at San José State University. Dr. Park earned his PhD in Industrial Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Dr. Park serves as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Supply Chain and Operations Management (formerly California Journal of Operations Management). His research interests include supply chain management and its applications, logistics network design and improvement, enterprise risk and sustainability management, Total Quality Management applications including quality function deployment, technology management, and system design/modeling and production control problems.

Dr. Park has published 25 peer-reviewed journal papers in the California Journal of Operations Management, International Journal of Operations and Quantitative Management, European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of Operations Management, International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology, International Journal of Production Research, Journal of Korea Trade, and others. He has published 44 conference proceedings at the “Western Decision Science Institute Conference,” “Decision Science Institute” annual conference, “CSU-POM Conference,” “IFORS Annual Conference,” “Pan-Pacific Business Association Conference,” “World Conference on Production and Operations Management,” and others. He has also published three book chapters.

Dr. Park has recently performed two federallyl funded transportation construction research projects: “Improving Transportation Construction Project Performance - Development of a Model to Support the Decision-Making Process for Incentive/Disincentive Construction Projects” and “Cost Estimate Modeling of Transportation Management Plan for Highway Projects.” He has served as a project proposal reviewer in the MTI Research Associates Policy Oversight Committee since 2009.