Hurricane Preparedness in a Construction Site: a Framework to Assess the Construction Companies’ Current Practices

• Main Author: CHAVEZ, MICHELLE S
• Format: Others
• Published: FIU Digital Commons 2016
• Subjects: Hurricane Preparedness; Construction Site; Balanced Scorecard; Construction Engineering and Management
• Online Access: http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/3047; http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3945&context=etd

Civil infrastructure construction sites including incomplete structures and unsecured resources are among the most vulnerable environments to hurricane conditions. Hurricane driven damages cause disruption of construction sites and considerable schedule delays, and thus negatively impact the efficiency of the construction projects. This research aims to study current best practices on securing construction sites from hurricane conditions and evaluate the performance of the preparedness plan. To do that, first, an interview-survey is conducted with key project personnel from multiple construction companies. Then, the insight from the interviews serves to do a Micro and Macro Environmental Analysis. For further analysis, a Balanced Scorecard is used to suggest metrics to measure and improve the performance of the Hurricane Preparedness Plan. The findings from this research improves the organizational processes and enhances the assessment of disaster preparedness, which ultimately generates new and highly specific knowledge on disaster mitigation and preparedness guidelines for construction sites.