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The study investigated the influence of cultural factors on Health and Safety (H&S) practices in the construction industry of a developing economy using a quantitative approach. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey from industry professionals. The findings reveal varying perceptions of safety culture, communication, and practices, with mean scores ranging from 2.692 to 3.607. Safety training frequency showed high variability (mean = 2.692, CV = 43.13%, Skewness = 0.42, Z-score = −0.69, range = 1.531 to 3.853), while subcontractors’ safety compliance exhibited the least variability (mean = 3.589, CV = 26.50%, Skewness = −0.38, Z-score = 0.58, range = 2.638 to 4.540). Practices (mean = 3.327, CV = 25.69%, Skewness = −0.38), behaviors (mean = 3.234, CV = 27.40%, Skewness = −0.25), and norms (mean = 3.028, CV = 31.91%, Skewness = 0.10) also showed significant variations. Additionally, the key challenges with highest values include budget constraints (mean = 3.607, CV = 31.80%) and company rules (mean = 3.523, CV = 30.28%). Furthermore, Kruskal–Wallis’s test indicates statistically significant differences across variables, with medium to large effect sizes (η2). By addressing important cultural factors and challenges, the findings provide actionable insights to enhance worker safety, reduce accidents, and promote a safer working environment, thereby contributing to sustainable development and resilience in Pakistan’s construction sector.

The construction industry plays a crucial role in the development of emerging economies; however, project constraints can pose significant challenges to achieving social sustainability. Therefore, this study investigates the nexus between project constraints and social sustainability factors within Pakistan’s construction industry. The study adopted a quantitative approach and analyzed the collected data through descriptive and inferential tests. Data were collected from 100 civil engineers registered with the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) through structured questionnaires. Analysis methods included the mean, standard deviation, Relative Importance Index (RII), and multiple regression tests. Cost (mean = 3.98) and time (mean = 3.90) emerged as the most significant project constraints, while poor safety on sites had the lowest means (3.49). In social sustainability factors, improving quality of life (mean = 3.73) ranked highest, with diversity in the workforce scoring lower (mean = 3.35). RII revealed cost (RII = 0.796) and time (RII = 0.780) as top constraints, while safety ranked lowest (RII = 0.698). Multiple regression showed that cost (slope = 0.390, p = 0.027) and unskilled workforce productivity (slope = 0.312, p = 0.073) significantly affect client social sustainability. Consultants prioritized poor productivity (slope = 0.623, p = 0.003), and contractors showed positive trends in cost and planning. The study highlights challenges like workforce skill gaps and safety enforcement, stressing the need for interventions to enhance social sustainability outcomes in Pakistan’s construction sector.

Moisture damage in hot mix asphalt pavements is a periodic but persistent problem nowadays, even though laboratory testing is performed to identify different moisture-susceptible mixtures. In this study, a Hamburg Wheel Tracking device (HWTD) was used for rutting tests which were conducted on control and a high percentage of recycled asphalt pavement (RAP), i.e., 30%, 50% and 100% of virgin mixtures, under air dry and water-immersed conditions. Similarly, the extracted bitumen from RAP was tested for binder physical properties. Results showed that the asphalt mixtures containing RAP have less rut depth as compared to the control mix both in air dry and immersion conditions and hence showed better anti-rutting properties and moisture stability. Stripping performance of control and RAP containing mixtures was also checked, concluding that the RAP mixture was greatly dependent on the interaction between the binder (virgin plus aged) and aggregates.

Building information modeling (BIM) application in construction projects is considered beneficial for effective decision making throughout the project lifecycle, as it maximizes benefits without compromising practicality. The Malaysian construction industry is also keen on the adoption of BIM culture. However, various identified and unidentified barriers are hindering its practical implementation. In light of this, this study identified and analyzed critical obstacles to using BIM in Malaysian small construction projects. Through the use of semi-structured interviews and a pilot study using the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) method, the critical BIM barriers (CBBs) have been identified. Based on the findings of the EFA, CBBs were classified into five categories, i.e., technical adoption barrier, behavioral barrier, implementation barrier, management barrier, and digital education barrier. Following the questionnaire survey, feedback of 235 professionals was collected with vested interests in the Malaysian construction business, and the CBBs model was created using analysis of moment structures (AMOS). The findings revealed that although Malaysian experts with little experience in practice were fairly educated about BIM, technical adoption barriers, behavioral barriers, management barriers, and implementation hurdles were critical for adopting BIM. The study’s findings will help policymakers eliminate CBBs and use BIM in Malaysia’s modest construction projects to save costs, save time, boost productivity, and improve quality and sustainability.

The construction sector exerts an exceptional impact on economic development all over the world. Adequate buildings and infrastructures made by the construction sector ensure that a country reaches certain targets like social development, industrialization, freight transportation, sustainable development, and urbanization. This study aims to determine the construction sector’s connectivity with other sectors through complex linkages that contribute immensely to the economy and gross domestic product (GDP). The data were collected from the Department of Statistics Malaysia and the World Bank from the year 1970 to 2019, and the Pearson correlation test, the cointegration test, and the Granger causality test were conducted. The vector error correction model (VECM) was created for short-term and long-term equilibrium analysis and impulse response function (IRF) was performed to study construction industry behavior. Afterwards, the forecasting was done for the year 2020 to 2050 of the Malaysian economy and GDP for the required sectors. It was revealed that some sectors, such as agriculture and services, have forward linkages while other sectors, such as manufacturing and mining, are independent of construction sector causality, which signifies the behavior of the contributing sectors when a recession occurs, hence generating significant revenue. The Malaysian economy is moving towards sustainable production with more emphasis on the construction sector. The outcome can be used as a benchmark by other countries to achieve sustainable development. The significance of this study is its usefulness for experts all over the world in terms of allocating resources to make the construction sector a sustainable sector after receiving a shock. A sustainable conceptual framework has been suggested for global application that shows the factors involved in the growth of the construction industry to ensure its sustainable development with time.

The Malaysian Government implemented a countrywide lockdown due to COVID-19, which also affected the educational institutes. Under these circumstances, the e-learning educational strategy was initiated for the resuming of educational activities. A need for the study was devised and performed to assess the students’ perspective on this transition from face-to-face learning to e-learning for the effective implementation of the system. Students’ feedback data was evaluated for the January 2020 semester, which was collected before the pandemic and the September 2020 semester, which was collected during the pandemic by the end of the semester. Both data were analysed by adopting parametric Student’s t-test and non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test. Overall, it is concluded that students were comfortable with the e-learning educational system. However, the effectiveness of the e-learning system is dependent on the course type and requirements. This study will help the instructors to evaluate and improve their teaching strategy for the e-learning educational system by the preview of students for the deficiencies, in comparison to face-to-face learning, as the current lockdown situation is uncertain due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The growing concept of Industry 5.0 (IR 5.0) has enhanced the study horizon of the technology-centered Industry 4.0 (IR 4.0) to an intelligent and balanced socioeconomic change powered mutually by people and technologies. The role of humans in the technological revolution is largely focused on IR 5.0, which is already a future trend. IR 4.0’s cyber–physical systems revolution has evolved into IR 5.0, or in other words, from machine-to-machine integration to human-to-machine integration, which is radically altering how people live, work, and interact with one another. Therefore, the current study aims to comprehensively review transformation through industrial revolutions and provide a way forward in the construction industry with the incorporation of IR 5.0. This study has used a narrative-based research methodology in which multiple databases such as Scopus, Web of Sciences, Google Scholar, and Science Direct have been utilized for extracting articles related to the subject area of the current study. Moreover, through narrative-based methodology, which is a generic-based review technique, the information gathered from multiple sources has been summarized and synthesized. The findings of the review indicate that resilience, human-centricity, economic efficiency, and sustainable development are the key characteristics of IR 5.0. Moreover, the adoption of IR 5.0 in the construction industry also faces some major challenges such as a shortage of IR 5.0-related technical skills, investment-hesitancy among investors, security, and cultural concerns for human-to-machine integration, and an unavailability of data for effective decision-making for governments and stakeholders. The study results also highlight that with selective technology adoption, project teams embracing IR 5.0 for improved collaboration and coordination, more environmentally friendly technology adoption through human-to-machine collaboration, and stakeholders leveraging the power of human knowledge and innovative proficiency through machines, reforms can be brought into the construction industry through the incorporation of IR 5.0. It is also important to keep in mind that adopting IR 4.0 is still difficult in some areas and it may seem like achieving IR 5.0 will require years of effort and significant cultural change; however, it needs to be considered right away. The effects of disruptive technologies on Industry 4.0 are covered in several studies; however, IR 5.0 is a novel idea that is still in its early stages, thus its consequences have not been well examined in the construction industry. Therefore, the current study has expanded the body of knowledge on this important subject in detail and has comprehensively explained the transformation by providing a way forward for the adoption of IR 5.0 in the construction industry.

This study presents a life cycle impact assessment of OPC concrete, recycled aggregate concrete, geopolymer concrete, and recycled aggregate-based geopolymer concrete by using the mid-point approach of the CML 2001 impact-assessment method. The life cycle impact assessment was carried out using OpenLCA software with nine different impact categories, such as global warming potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, ozone depletion potential, photochemical oxidant formation, human toxicity, marine aquatic ecotoxicity, and freshwater and terrestrial aquatic ecotoxicity potential. Subsequently, a contribution analysis was conducted for all nine impact categories. The analysis showed that using geopolymer concrete in place of OPC concrete can reduce global warming potential by up to 53.7%. Further, the use of geopolymer concrete represents the reduction of acidification potential and photochemical oxidant formation in the impact categories, along with climate change. However, the potential impacts of marine aquatic ecotoxicity, freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity, human toxicity, eutrophication potential, ozone depletion potential, and terrestrial aquatic ecotoxicity potential were increased using geopolymer concrete. The increase in these impacts was due to the presence of alkaline activators such as sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate. The use of recycled aggregates in both OPC concrete and geopolymer concrete reduces all the environmental impacts.

In reinforced concrete structures, the fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) as reinforcing rebars have been widely used. The use of GFRP (glass fiber-reinforced polymer) bars to solve the steel reinforcement corrosion problem in various concrete structures is now well documented in many research studies. Hollow concrete-core columns (HCCs) are used to make a lightweight structure and reduce its cost. However, the use of FRP bars in HCCs has not yet gained an adequate level of confidence due to the lack of laboratory tests and standard design guidelines. Therefore, the present paper numerically and empirically explores the axial compressive behavior of GFRP-reinforced hollow concrete-core columns (HCCs). A total of 60 HCCs were simulated in the current version of Finite Element Analysis (FEA) ABAQUS. The reference finite element model (FEM) was built for a wide range of test variables of HCCs based on 17 specimens experimentally tested by the same group of researchers. All columns of 250 mm outer diameter, 0, 40, 45, 65, 90, 120 mm circular inner-hole diameter, and a height of 1000 mm were built and simulated. The effects of other parameters cover unconfined concrete strength from 21.2 to 44 MPa, the internal confinement (center to center spiral spacing = 50, 100, and 150 mm), and the amount of longitudinal GFRP bars (ρv = 1.78–4.02%). The complex column response was defined by the concrete damaged plastic model (CDPM) and the behavior of the GFRP reinforcement was modeled as a linear-elastic behavior up to failure. The proposed FEM showed an excellent agreement with the tested load-strain responses. Based on the database obtained from the ABAQUS and the laboratory test, different empirical formulas and artificial neural network (ANN) models were further proposed for predicting the softening and hardening behavior of GFRP-RC HCCs.

The existing form of self-compacting concrete (SCC) comprises of a large amount of powdered and fine materials. In this study, a part of the cementitious material was replaced with constant high-volume fly ash, and a portion of fine aggregates was substituted by crumb rubber (CR). Besides that, silica fume (SF) was added, with the hope that by implementing a new type of nanomaterial, the loss in mechanical strength due to previous modifications such as rubberization and replacement will be prevented. Two variables were found to influence the constituent/component in the mix design: SF and CR. The proportion of SF varies from 0% to 10%, while that of CR from 0% to 30% by volume of the total river sand, where 55% of cement was replaced by the fly ash. A total of 13 rubberized SCC samples with CR and SF as controlling variables were made, and their design mix was produced by a Design of Experiment (DOE) under the Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The results reveal a slight increase in the mechanical properties with the addition of SF. The theoretical mathematical models and equation for each different mechanical strength were also developed after incorporating the experimental results into the software.