Infrastructure development using alliances : lessons and observations

This research provides a deeper insight into the performance of Alliances for the construction of road, rail and water projects. The results review 18 public infrastructure projects across Australia that utilized the Alliance form of procurement. The results were based on interviews which addressed the most important management issues impacting on the performance of Alliances. The respondents were selected from a sample of members of the Alliance Leadership Teams (ALT) and the Alliance Management Teams (AMT) that had recently completed a range of infrastructure projects. Results revealed that communication and trust between the ALT and AMT teams was a major issue that impacted on the effectiveness of the Alliance. Further, the research identified several factors that are necessary preconditions for the Alliance to be successful. The study reported on the perceived performance of Alliances to deliver in the key areas that was identified by the client organizations prior to commencement of the project. There are an increasing number of international organizations contemplating construction projects using “Alliancing”. The results of this paper will assist clients in making more informed decisions about the possibility that this form of procurement will be effective in meeting the needs of the project and its stakeholders.

Performance of project alliancing in Australasia: a digest of infrastructure development from 2008 to 2013

Project and program alliances have been an accepted form of project procurement for public infrastructure engineering projects in Australia and New Zealand (Australasia). Alliancing often provides best value and superior value for money when compared to traditional approaches such as Design and Construct, however considerable debate continues about its success and applicability. This paper reports on three studies of completed construction project alliance performance in 2008, 2010 and 2012. Consolidated findings are presented on 61 project alliances, data is analysed and emerging trends discussed. Recent government policy changes in Australia at Federal and State level have led to a decline in the number of project alliances, however, while the volume of alliance activity is declining it still represents billions of dollars of infrastructure construction work being undertaken. Results also revealed that communication and trust between the executive leadership and operational management teams was a major factor contributing to the functioning of the alliance. Furthermore, the research identifies several key factors that were necessary preconditions for successful alliances.

Proposal of a tiered conceptual framework for sustainable design and planning of large-scale development projects in the metropolitan context

The overwhelming threat posed by climate change means that increasingly, emphasis is being placed on the need to integrate sustainability considerations into all areas of policy making, planning and development. Actors in the built environment are progressively considering environmental and social issues alongside functional and economic aspects of development projects. However, to date in Australia and internationally, there have been few practical examples of integrated applications of sustainability principles in the built environment across design, planning, construction, operation and de-construction phases. Notable initiatives have tended to be narrow in scope, focusing on either mitigation or adaptation strategies. Integrated considerations of impacts from component and building scales to city and regional scales and across physical and socio-economic dimensions are urgently needed, particularly for long-life major infrastructure projects. This paper proposes a conceptual framework based on the principal that early intervention is the most cost-effective and efficient means of implementing effective strategies for mitigation and adaptation. A Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) approach is forwarded as an umbrella analytical framework, assembled from analytical methods which are strategically ‘tiered’ to inform different stages of the planning and decision-making process. Techniques such as Ecological footprint, Life cycle costing and Risk analysis may be applied to integrate sustainable design, construction and planning considerations which address both mitigation and adaptation dimensions, results of each analysis ultimately being collated into the overall SEA. This integrated conceptual framework for sustainable, resilient and cost-effective infrastructure development will in practice be applied to assess selected case-studies of major development projects in Australia, focusing on the area of stadium development. Practically applied and timed accordingly, the framework would allow assessments to be targeted towards appropriate decision making levels and enable better decision-making and more efficient resource allocation for major infrastructure development projects.

Sustainable planning and design of large-scale metropolitan development projects

Actors in the built environment are increasingly considering environmental issues alongside functional and economic aspects of development projects. However, to date in Australia and internationally, there have been few practical examples of integrated applications of sustainability principles in the built environment across all lifecycle phases. In response to this gap, this paper proposes a conceptual framework based on the principal that early intervention is the most cost-effective and efficient means of implementing effective strategies for sustainability. A strategic environmental assessment (SEA) approach is forwarded as an umbrella analytical framework, assembled from analytical methods which are strategically 'tiered' to inform stages of the project decision-making process. Practically applied and timed accordingly, the framework can allow assessments to be targeted towards appropriate decision making levels and enable better decision-making and more efficient resource allocation for major infrastructure development projects.

Framing ICT policies to facilitate participatory e-government

This paper examines the role of information and communication technology (ICT) policies in shaping the participatory nature of local e-government. It suggests that civic involvement through e-government practices requires a combination of direct and indirect ICT policies (Cohen, van Geenhuizen and Nijkamp, 2005). Direct policies focus on ICT infrastructure development and enhance civic adoption and use of ICTs. ICTs also support policies indirectly through data organisation, information dissemination and the provision of spaces for discourse, deliberation and contributions to decision-making processes. Drawing from policy examples from Australia and the United Kingdom (UK), this paper suggests the need to combine federal guidance with local knowledge, while using policies to support ICTs and using ICTs to support policies. Such a cohesive and integrated policy relationship between federal and local government bodies is needed if local e-government is to advance to facilitate civic engagement.

Ageing, chronic disease and injury: a study in western Victoria (Australia)

Background : An increasing burden of chronic disease and associated health service delivery is expected due to the ageing Australian population. Injuries also affect health and wellbeing and have a long-term impact on health service utilisation. There is a lack of comprehensive data on disease and injury in rural and regional areas of Australia. The aim of the Ageing, Chronic Disease and Injury study is to compile data from various sources to better describe the patterns of chronic disease and injury across western Victoria.

Design : Ecological study.

Methods : Information on demographics, socioeconomic indicators and lifestyle factors are obtained from health surveys and government departments. Data concerning chronic diseases and injuries will be sourced from various registers, health and emergency services, local community health centres and administrative databases and compiled to generate profiles for the study region and for sub-populations within the region.

Expected impact for public health: This information is vital to establish current and projected population needs to inform policy and improve targeted health services delivery, care transition needs and infrastructure development. This study provides a model that can be replicated in other geographical settings.

The economic performance of transportation infrastructure: an empirical study on the recent development of China

It has been widely recognised that infrastructure systems highly affect the economic development of a country or region. In particular, the quality and quantity of transportation infrastructure have a direct bearing on economic growth in developing countries. Therefore, it is challenging to allocate the infrastructure construction budget across a country so that economic growth as a whole will not be hampered by the lack of infrastructure construction in any local area. In this research, the authors focus on simulating the correlations between economic growth, capital investment and transportation infrastructure construction in China historically and comparing the production and investment indicators at the cross-region based on the statistical data reported from government agencies in China. These computed correlations and indicators are crucial for making financial decisions and investment policies on transportation infrastructure construction at a national level.

Scale development of individual and organisation infrastructure for heart health promotion in regional health authorities

Objective : The purpose of this study was to validate measures of individual and organisational infrastructure for health promotion within Alberta's (Canada) 17 Regional Health Authorities (RHAs).

Design : A series of phases were conducted to develop individual and organisational scales to measure health promotion infrastructure. Instruments were designed with focus groups and then pre-tested prior to the validation study.

Setting : In 1993 all hospitals and Public Health Units in the province of Alberta were regionalised into 17 RHAs, with responsibility for public health, community health, and acute and long-term care. While regionalisation may offer more opportunity for community participation, reorganisation of the public health system may have fragmented and diluted resources and skills for heart health promotion in some RHAs. Infrastructure (for example, human and financial resources), amongst other items, is believed to contribute to the capacity to promote health.

Method : All 17 RHAs participated in the study, yielding a total of 144 individuals (that is board members, senior/middle management, and front line staff). These representative employees completed a self- administered questionnaire on individual- and organisational-level infrastructure measures.

Results : Psychometric analyses of survey data provided empirical evidence for the robustness of the measures. Principal component analyses verified the construct validity of the scales, with alpha coefficients ranging from 0.75 to 0.95.

Conclusion : The scales can be used by health professionals and researchers to assess individual- and organisational-level infrastructure, and tailor interventions to increase infrastructure for health promotion in health organisations.

Development of benchmarks for determining infrastructure needs for the aged

This project developed benchmarks and benchmarking procedures to indicate the current and future infrastructure requirements of the aged in regional centres. The benchmarks correlate the infrastructure requirements of the aged with demographic trends. The research also modelled aged infrastructure requirements within the broader context of the sustainability of cities.

Towards the development of a construction supply chain transaction cost economic model for strategic infrastructure procurement evaluation

Australia has adopted public-private partnership (PPP) as a major strategy for procuring infrastructure for decades. However, even though considered to be a mature and sophisticated market, several major
failures have occurred resulting in increasing financial burdens on taxpayers. Failures have typically been traced back to economic evaluation and, in particular, value-for-money across the supply chain
in the original proposal. However, the literature review identified that there was no economic model that evaluated holistically the transaction costs of PPPs across the supply chain. In this paper, theories of transaction cost economics and construction supply chain economics are critiqued and analysed in order to develop a strategic infrastructure procurement evaluation model. The model will offer decision makers with an insight into project life cycle economic outcomes needed to successfully deliver PPPs.

The relevance of Asian development bank: existing in the shadow of the Asian infrastructure investment bank

This paper analyses the potential impact of the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) on the Japan-USA-led Asian Development Bank (ADB). Given the financial strengths and the technical know-how of the newly formed AIIB there is a question about thefuture role and indeed relevance of the ADB. The questions canvassed in this article refer to ADB’s ability to change and adapt to the new situation, where it is no longer the dominant multi-lateral development bank (MDB) in the Asia-Pacific region. Against this background the discussion turns to issues concerning the geo-political sphere of influence of the ADB andAIIB and analyses the ADB – AIIB geo-political equilibrium in the Asia-Pacific region. Subsequently this paper discusses factors that may impact on ADB’s future relevance.

Developing an approach to assess the influence of integrating disaster risk reduction practices into infrastructure reconstruction on socio-economic development

Purpose: Disasters provide physical, social, economic, political and environmental development windows of opportunity particularly through housing and infrastructure reconstruction. The reconstruction process should not be neglected due to the opportunistic nature of facilitating innovation in development. In this respect, post-disaster "infrastructure" reconstruction plays a critical role in development discourse and is often essential to sustain recovery after major disasters. However, reconstruction following a natural disaster is a complicated problem involving social, economic, cultural, environmental, psychological, and technological aspects. There are significant development benefits of well-developed "Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Strategies" and, for many reasons, the concept of DRR can be more easily promoted following a disaster. In this respect, a research study was conducted to investigate the effects of integrating DRR strategies into infrastructure reconstruction on enhancing the socio-economic development process from a qualitative stance. The purpose of this paper is to document part of this research study; it proposes an approach that can be used to assess the influence of the application of the DRR concept into infrastructure reconstruction on socio-economic development. Design/methodology/approach: The research methodology included a critical literature review. Findings: This paper suggests that the best way to assess the influence of integrating DRR strategies practices into infrastructure reconstruction on socio-economic development is to assess the level of impact that DRR strategies has on overcoming various factors that form vulnerabilities. Having assessed this, the next step is to assess the influence of overcoming the factors that form vulnerabilities on achieving performance targets of socio-economic development. Originality/value: This paper primarily presents a framework for the concept of socio-economic development and a modelled classification of DRR practices.

Robust parallel job scheduling infrastructure for service-oriented grid computing systems

Recent trends in grid computing development is moving towards a service-oriented architecture. With the momentum gaining for the service-oriented grid computing systems, the issue of deploying support for integrated scheduling and fault-tolerant approaches becomes paramount importance. To this end, we propose a scalable framework that loosely couples the dynamic job scheduling approach with the hybrid replications approach to schedule jobs efficiently while at the same time providing fault-tolerance. The novelty of the proposed framework is that it uses passive replication approach under high system load and active replication approach under low system loads. The switch between these two replication methods is also done dynamically and transparently.