Faculty of Engineering

Civil Engineering Department

CPM 308 Construction Project Management

Exercise 01

1. Select the right answer:

I. The elements of construction project planning are:
a. Time b. Resources c. Cost d. All
II. Which of the following is not a typical activity category?
a. Production b. Procurement c. Administrative d. None of the above

2. In developing the WBS for a project, level of details depends on: …..,……,…….

3. List four main differences between AOA and AON networks.

4. A small single-story commercial building is to be constructed on the site of an existing old

structure. The exterior and interior walls are of concrete blocks. The roof is erected from
steel members covered with rigid insulation and build-up roofing. The ceiling is of suspended
tile. The floor is a concrete slab on grade with an asphalt tile finish. Interior finish on all
walls is paint. The project has been broken down into 18 steps with construction time
estimate has been made for each step. These steps are not given in any particular order.
Specify the predecessors of each activity.
-Underground services (water and sewage services), 1 day.
-Exterior walls, 6 days. -Foundations, 3 days. -Demolition, 2 days.
-Roof steel, 2 days. -Interior walls, 3 days. -Roof finishing, 2 days.
-Floor slab, 3 days. -Floor finishing, 2 days. -Rough plumbing, 3 days.
-Finish plumbing, 4 days. -Rough electrical, 3 days. -Finish electrical, 3 days.
-Rough carpentry, 2 days. -Finish carpentry, 4 days. -Ceiling, 3 days.
-Windows, 1day. -Painting, 1day.

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5. Draw a PDM network for a project with the following activities. Show all steps including
removing redundant relations; and sequence steps.
- Activity B depends on A;
- Activity G follows E, F & D;
- Activity E depends on B and A;
- Activity F can start when D & B are completed;
- Activity C is followed by F and follows A;
- Activity D is dependent upon A and B.

6. Consider the following set of activities:

Code Description

A Layout foundation
B Excavation
C Obtain concrete materials
D Place concrete
E Obtain steel reinforcement
F1 Cut and bend reinforcement (part 1)
F2 Cut and bend reinforcement (part 2)
G1 Place reinforcement (part 1)
G2 Place reinforcement (part 2)
H Obtain formwork
I Erect formwork
J Remove formwork
K Clean up

A gang of steelfixers is used to cut and bend reinforcement and another gang is used for
placing reinforcement. The first part of reinforcement can be placed during formwork
erection while the second part should wait for completion of formwork erection. Tabulate the
predecessors of each activity and draw AON network.

7. For the network below, prepare a table showing a list of immediate predecessors and
immediate successors for each of the activities. Use the i-j node notation for activities.

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5 6

1 3 4 7

8. The construction of RC wall involves placing 660 m3 concrete, 50 t of steel, and 790 m2 of
formwork. Calculate the duration of the activity using a balanced mix of the resources if:
- A 6 man concrete gang can place 16 m3 of concrete / day.
- One steelfixer and one assistant can fix 0.5 t of steel / day.
- One carpenter and one assistant can fix and strike 16 m2 / day.

9. Estimate the labor cost for the formwork of a continuous wall footing that has a quantity of
500 SF. The activity is constructed by crew that has a daily output of 485 SF/day, and
consists of: 3 carpenters at rate LE 21.60/hr & 1 building labor at rate LE 17.15/hr.

10. A construction project has the following activities along with their relationships. Develop an
Activity on Arrow (AOA) network.
I. A is the first activity.
II. B, C and D follow A and can be done concurrently.
III. E and G cannot begin until C is completed, and can be done concurrently.
IV. F is the immediate successor to activities B and E.
V. H and K run in parallel, and both succeed G.
VI. L succeeds F and H.
VII. J and I are immediate successor activities to D.
VIII. M and N are immediate successor to K and I. However, both M and N can
be performed concurrently.
IX. Q is the last activity and follows O & P. O is the immediate successor to
N and L. Activity P is the immediate successor to M and J.

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Faculty of Engineering
Civil Engineering Department
CPM 308 Construction Project Management

Exercise 02

1. The free float is defined as:

a. The amount of time an activity can be delayed without affecting the following activity.
b. The amount of time an activity can be delayed without affecting total project duration.

2. Total float equals:

a. Late finish minus early finish c. Late start minus early start
b. Late finish minus (early start + duration) d. All of the above

3. State True (T) or False (F):

a. The critical activities can be determined easily when using the bar chart.
b. The network must have definite points of beginning and end.
c. The network must be continuous from start to end.
d. There are no dummy activities in the arrow networks,
e. A forward pass is used to determine late start and late finish times.
f. The time for completing a project is equal to the sum of the individual activity times.

4. For the Following project data, answer the following questions:

Activity Duration (days) Predecessor

A 2 --
B 6 A
C 3 A
D 1 B
E 6 B
F 3 C, D
G 2 E, F

a) Draw an AOA network.

b) Draw an AON network and perform forward and backward pass calculations?
c) Tabulate activities ES, EF, LS, LF, TF, and FF.
d) What is the effect of delaying activity D by 3 days?

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5. Perform PDM calculations for the project below and determine activity times. Durations are
shown on the activities
I
(2)

B D G
(4) (1) (1)

A J L
(1) (7) (2)

C E H
(1) (2) (1)

F K
(2) (4)

6. For the following list of activities, draw the AON, determine activities ES, EF, LS, LF, FF,
and TF and mark the critical path.

Activity Duration (days) Predecessor

A 4 --
B 10 A
C 2 A
D 6 C
E 15 B, D
F 4 B, D
G 3 F
H 2 B, D
I 1 E, G, H
J 3 I
K 2 E
L 1 J
M 2 K, L

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Faculty of Engineering
Civil Engineering Department
CPM 308 Construction Project Management

Exercise 03

1. The construction of a housing project involves the activities given in the following table. The
contract is for the construction of twelve houses in 60 days. The man-hours for each activity
and the crew size/house are also given. Prepare an LOB schedule for the contract. Assume a
minimum buffer time of one day and six 8-hour days per week. What is the overall project
duration and when will the first team of roof leave the site?

2. The following network diagram represents the activities involved in a single house. Each
activity shows the man-hours needed and the number of crew members. Assume 8 working
hours per day and one-day buffer time between activities. If you are to construct these tasks
for 5 houses in 24 days, calculate the number of crews that need to be involved in each
activity. Draw the schedule and define the day numbers in which each crew enters and leaves
the site.

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3. . The construction plan for a house is as follows, with activities durations in days:

a. Calculate a weekly target rate to be used for scheduling a project of 30 repetitive houses,
if all crews are working five 8-hour days per week and the project has to be delivered in
85 days.
b. Given a desired target rate of four units per week, what is the number of crews to be
employed in activity B.?
c. Using the same number of crews obtained in (b), activity B has to be speed-up to a target
rate of 5 units per week. Calculate how much time a crew needs to cut from the duration
of each unit. Work continuity and crew synchronization has to be maintained.

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Faculty of Engineering
Civil Engineering Department
CPM 308 Construction Project Management

Exercise 04

1. Estimates and schedules when initially prepared assume unlimited resources:

a. True b. False

2. Float is a useful tool for project management to use in order to level resources:
a. True b. False

3. Which would not be considered a scheduling resource:

a. People b. Money
c. Equipment d. Laydown space

4. A Precedence network for a project has the logic given in the following table. The resource
rates for each activity are also given. It is required to draw the resource histogram for both
resources I and II.

Resource Rate
Activity Predecessors
Duration Resource I Resource II

A --- 2 3 1
B A 8 4 6
C A 6 8 6
D A 4 6 5
E A 3 4 1
F B 12 2 0
G C, D 4 7 9
H C, D, E 6 9 5
K F, G, H 3 2 0

5. The following project consisting of 10 activities is considered for multi-resource scheduling.

Develop a resource schedule assuming that the availability of resources is limited as below.
Resource A: 7
Resource B: 7
Resource C: 6

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Resources required
Activity (i – j) Description Duration (days)
A B C
1-2 A 3 4 4 2
1-3 B 4 3 4 1
1-5 C 5 1 3 2
2-4 D 2 1 0 0
2-6 E 3 2 1 0
3-4 F 4 2 2 1
4-7 G 3 3 1 2
5-6 H 6 4 4 4
5-7 I 4 3 2 1
6-7 J 3 1 4 5

6. Consider the following project.

Resources required
Activity Predecessor Duration (days)
Plumbers Labors
A - 4 2 3
B - 3 1 -
C - 6 1 3
D B 8 3 4
E B 7 - 1
F C 2 3 5
G A, D 9 1 2
H E 5 2 4
I E 4 - 2
J F, I 4 2 3

Assume eleven plumbers and nine labors are available for the project. Both resources must
work at the same time when assigned to the same activity. Prepare an activity schedule
which satisfies the resources constraints.

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Faculty of Engineering
Civil Engineering Department
CPM 308 Construction Project Management

Exercise 05

1. Cost and schedule data for a small project are given below. Assume an indirect cost of LE
200/day. Develop the time-cost curve for the project and determine the minimum contract
duration.
Cost (LE) Duration (days)
Activity Preceded by
Crash Normal Crash Normal
A - 3900 3600 6 7
B A 6500 5500 3 5
C B 7200 6350 7 9
D B 4900 4700 18 19
E B 2200 2050 9 10
F C 1700 1200 6 8
G F 7200 7200 5 5
H E 10000 9450 10 11
I D, G, H 4700 4500 6 7

2. The following table gives the activities involved in a pipeline contract. The duration and cost
data are also given. The indirect cost for the contract is LE120/day. Calculate the minimum
cost of the work corresponding to contract duration of 102 days.
Normal Crash-ability Cost Slope
Act. Description Predec.
Time Cost (days) (LE)
A Preparation --- 10 200 - -
B Move on to site A 20 200 - -
C Obtain pipes A 40 1800 - -
D Obtain valves A 28 500 8 10
E Locate pipeline B 8 150 - -
F Cut specials C 10 100 4 40
G Excavate trench E 30 3000 20 180
H Prepare valve chambers C, G 20 2800 12 50
I Layout joint pipes C, G 24 1000 10 65
J Fit valves D, F, H 10 200 4 80
K Concrete anchors I 8 520 1 80
L Backfill J, K 6 420 1 60
M Finish valve chambers J, K 6 200 3 40
N Test pipeline J, K 6 150 2 70
O Clean up site L, N 4 300 - -
P Leave site M, O 2 180 - -

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3. Draw the precedence diagram for the following data.

Duration (days) Cost slope

Activity Followed by
Normal Minimum LE / day
A B, E, F 7 5 200
B K 9 5 450
C H, D 8 7 400
D I, N 11 4 100
E G, M 9 6 400
F L 8 7 500
G C 7 5 200
H I, N 6 2 200
I - 12 9 200
J E, F 10 8 600
K G 14 10 350
L M 18 16 700
M C 9 8 550
N - 12 9 200

It is required to compress the schedule to a 65-day. How much more would the project cost?