Night time construction has adopted as a preferred method of scheduling to alleviate the problems caused by road works during the day. Over the past few years, night-time construction has been increased; it will inevitably continue to grow. Continued increase in the volume of roadwork done at night has resulted from a combination of road deterioration and traffic congestion. Although nighttime road construction is seen as the solution to alleviate the problems associated with day-time repairs and congestion, it has its own challenges and problems. Cost, productivity, quality, noise and human factors are some of the few factors that night-time road construction brings. This study is aimed at understanding the factors that influence the productivity of night-time construction and proposing strategies to improve productivity in the South African context. It is commonly known that quality and productivity differs from one roadwork site to another during night-time road construction. Some roadwork sites can perform well while others are worse off. However, through literature, the factors categorised as human, management and external may influence the productivity regardless of the operation. The current study investigates the influence of these factors on the productivity of work done at night through structured questionnaire. The results of the study show that there is minimal if no effect on the productivity of work done at night. Human factors that influence the performance of the labour have no impact on productivity, whereas management and external factors have minimal impact on the productivity of night-time road construction projects.

The status of a foreman in modern day production is dependent upon a number of' factors, many of which are beyond his control. It has been said that the foreman stands "victim, not monarch” in this situation which has been created largely by economic conditions in our economy. But, these conditions have not affected all industries in the same manner. It is the purpose of this paper to investigate the status determining conditions in the highway construction industry. To evaluate these status determining conditions, the highway construction industry is first studied through existing library sources. To substantiate these findings, empirical research was then done in two highway construction firms, one large and one small. The following criteria were used to evaluate the foreman's status: influence on top management in decision making, economic contributions to the firm, authority over production, staff interference, foreman control within his division, channels of information, visibility of position to top management, upward mobility, security of position ease of replacement, operative skill level supervised, importance of position in the firm, and remuneration. From the information gathered, it appears that foremen in the highway construction industry have a higher status rating than do most foremen in other types or industries. / M.S.

This MSc (Eng) Investigational Project Report entails the evaluation of the Sekhukhuneland Development Programme (SDP). The SDP is a joint initiative of the Donaldson Trust and the Research Centre for Employment Creation in Construction (WORK). Its objective is: to increase the use of labour-intensive methods in the rehabilitation and maintenance of rural roads and other infrastructure in order to contribute to employment generation, skills development, provision of infrastructure and poverty alleviation. In order to achieve this objective an “Association not for gain” called LITE (Labour Intensive Training and Engineering) was formed; the Donaldson Trust provided the finance, and the expertise was provided by The Research Centre (WORK) but with additional support by Employment Intensive Engineering Consultants (EIEC). As the contracting organisation evolved from nothing into the training and engineering company LITE, the number of employees rose from none to fourteen. The University of the Witwatersrand provided a number of students to the project site at Mohlaletse in Sekhukhuneland where they provided voluntary assistance as part of their studies. Many of these students were from the University of Twente in the Netherlands, and it was largely due to their commitment that the project enjoyed such healthy growth. Considering the meagre resources this growth was a remarkable achievement, and it was made possible, not only through the efforts of the students, but also through the acceptance and support of the community. This support included providing accommodation for both students and site management. With a minimum of resources local community members were trained and employed by the SDP over a prolonged period of three years. The SDP evolved into a new programme, the Mohlaletse Youth Service Programme (MYSP), funded by the Umsobomvu Youth Fund. Of the R1.700.000 donated to the SDP, R1.690.000 was used during the evaluated period. Of this sum approximately 50% was spent directly within the Mohlaletse and Monametse community. The SDP consisted out of three main phases. The organisation evolved during the first two phases from no organisation into LITE Section 21, an organisation that could deal with training and engineering based on a strong labour-intensive focus. During the Pilot Phase the programme focused on establishing contact with the community and proving that labouriii intensive construction method could work. The next phase was the Training Phase where the necessary team leaders were trained to perform a variety of construction techniques. These techniques range from drainage structure to roads and buildings. The last phase is the Construction Phase during which the construction went ahead as planned using fully trained team leaders from the local community. The total setting of the SDP was as follows: SDP Phases SDP Periods Organisation SDP Projects - Pilot Phase: Period 1999H None Period Projects Period 2000A Point-of-Fact (Pty) Ltd Period Projects - Training Phase: Period 2001A Period Projects Mohlaletse Money-Cant-Buy Section 21 Period Projects Monametse Period 2001H Period Projects Mohlaletse LITE - Section 21 Period Projects Monametse Period Project Compound - Construction Phase: Period 2002H Period Projects Mohlaletse Period Projects Monametse Period Project LITE-House and LITE-School The main reason for the success has been the substantial involvement of the local Mohlaletse community and the acceptance of the Site Management within the Community. Within the constraints of the programme definition and objectives, the SDP has been a success to its sponsors and beneficiaries. Major problems were encountered within the fields of Labour-Intensive Construction Methods and the Project Management Areas of Knowledge. These should be taken into consideration when a new Constructing-Training Programme is started in future.

M.Ing. / South African road infrastructure has developed as product of various influences such as growth in traffic demand, economic and social demand, policies and imperatives, access needs and political ideologies and pressures. A country needs to revisit their road classification model on regular bases to ensure these influences are addressed. This support ensures sustainable economic and social growth in a region. Road classification models internationally and nationally use non-quantified terminology to classify road classes. Terminology such as “key towns” or “important towns” is commonly used. These terms creates misleading interpretations by authorities and transportation planners. This study developed a method to define road classification classes based on the economic activity and social interaction between origin and destination towns. The outcome is to eradicate the non-quantified terminology use in road classes.

M.Ing.(Engineering Management) / A lot have been said and written about how South African Small Micro and Medium Size Enterprises (SMMEs) in the Construction sector of the economy have failed in the delivery of their projects and about how they have not measured up in terms of the requirements needed to be competitive in the global place. Services delivery protests by communities where SMMEs have either failed to deliver their projects adequately or have out rightly abandoned projects are common features in our various electronic and print media, and in many cases these days the most reasons given for this behavior is the total collapse or lack thereof of proper financial management of the project. Because of the ease of procedure required to register construction outfits at the Department of Trade and Industry many have flocked to the opportunity and established business enterprises with the intention that at least they will be considered for one tender or the other to carry out some sort of construction work or the other in their various environments. Others registered such companies because they have links and ties to these opportunities in the various government establishments responsible for creating these works in the name of service delivery to their respective communities. Many of the proprietors of these enterprises, when they eventually get the job, have little or no financial knowledge on how to successfully manage a construction project and sometimes always based their financial judgment on the bottom line without considering the various factors that influence the bottom line profit. Virtual calculations of their financial inputs and relative desired outputs are done with little or no consideration for cost implications of the individual building blocks of the project itself. Safe to say, in many instances, the project fail or is abandoned due to mismanaged funds or the exhaustion of such funds required to carry the project to the completion stage. It has been observed in many instances and in interactions with some SMMEs in the construction sector that not many of the appointed Project Managers and/ or Site Managers have Project Management skills, and those who do have, in most cases are unable to apply these skills to their projects. Usually they just result to invoking personal experiences obtained from their various earlier endeavors in financial projections and decisions involving the management of their projects. More often than not, these financial projections and decisions become inaccurate and tend to drive the project into financial losses. This now begs the question, that if there exits simple mathematical techniques and methods of evaluating the various costs during the project life cycle, and weighing those daily weekly and monthly costs against targeted objectives, both in the planning and execution of the projects, wouldn’t it then be easier to make sensible financial decisions if we are able to control and manage project resource costs so much so that the resultant will always be the desired financial objectives? The aim therefore, of this dissertation is to examine a simple but adequately comprehensive method, of managing resources cost as applied to road construction projects and how, by also weighing the influence of other trade-offs such as quality and time within the life cycle, the project is kept in good financial status and is subsequently able to make a profit at the end of the day. An illustration of the application of this cost control method is highlighted in a case study of a road construction project in Limpopo undertaken by an emerging South African construction company. The financial management style and those factors that govern some of the cost decisions made during the course of the project are taking into account. The resultant financial success of the work so far is evidence that the cost control mechanism employed largely contributes to its present successful state. It can therefore be concluded that if properly implemented, this method will assist SMMEs in the promotion of proper cost control practices, and subsequent financial breakthroughs when applied to other similar projects.