Site planning is a design tool that uses a study of the development site’s restrictions to generate an optimal development outcome. In an overall site planning document that should accompany a development application, the potential and restrictions inherent to a site, as well as the response to a program/design brief, are analysed and documented.
As a result, good site planning begins with a thorough examination of the site in relation to its immediate and regional surroundings. The “whole of site” approach considers more than just building orientation and placement on the site; it also considers the location of accompanying structures and infrastructure, such as access and circulation.
The magnitude and nature of the proposed development, as well as the constraints on the site, will clearly influence the complexity of the site planning process. Minor development may just necessitate a site plan and a basic accompanying statement, whereas larger-scale or site-constrained development may necessitate more thorough plans and technical studies to be presented with the development application.
Site planning, which is linked to architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, and city planning, is the art of putting structures on the land and designing the spaces between them. The organising stage of the landscape design process is referred to as site planning in architecture and landscape architecture. Land use zoning, access, circulation, privacy, security, shelter, land drainage, paintballing, and other issues are all part of it. This is accomplished through arranging the elements of landform, plants, water, buildings, and paving, as well as constructing zoos. Roads, houses, and even gardens don’t grow on their own. Someone’s planning has shaped them.
NEED FOR CONSTRUCTION SITE PLANNING
Performing a thorough site investigation aids in the following:- guiding the concept of development- Improving development results by enhancing the sustainability and design quality of projects.One of the first stages in addressing the controls laid out should be to conduct a thorough site study. Adherence to effective site planning concepts leads to superior development outcomes, such as:
— Cost-effectiveness and economic viability.
Social Sustainability – Meeting the requirements of the local community will improve quality of life, increase local vitality, and strengthen community identity.
– Environmental Sustainability – Ensuring that the idea has a minimal or even positive impact on the environment; and- Improved Planning and Urban Design Results – Creating a development that blends in with the desired building form and landscape character of the surrounding area.
In the management and implementation of construction projects, construction planning is a critical and difficult undertaking. It entails selecting a technology, defining work tasks, estimating the resources and durations required for specific tasks, and identifying any interactions between the various work tasks. A good construction plan is the foundation for creating a budget and a work schedule. Even if the plan is not written or otherwise formally recorded, developing the construction plan is a key step in construction management. In addition to these technical aspects of construction planning, organisational considerations about project participant relationships and even which organisations to participate in a project may be required. For instance
If you describe a series of events to most individuals, they will predict the outcome. They can piece those occurrences together in their heads and claim that something will happen as a result. Few people, on the other hand, would be able to deduce from their own inner consciousness the processes that lead to that result if you told them one. When I say “reasoning backward,” I’m referring to this power. A planner, like a detective, starts with a result (in this case, a facility design) and must synthesis the procedures required to get there. The production of required activities, as well as the study of these activities’ effects, are all important components of construction planning.
However, unlike a detective who is tasked with uncovering a particular chain of events, building planners are also faced with the normative challenge of selecting the optimal plan from a plethora of options. Furthermore, a detective must imagine the ultimate facility as stated in the plans and specifications, whereas a planner must imagine the end facility as described in the plans and requirements. As shown in Fig. 9-1, it is common to place a primary emphasis on either cost control or schedule control when developing a construction plan. Some projects are broken down into expense categories, each with its own set of charges. Construction planning is cost or expense driven in these circumstances. Within the spending categories, there is a distinction between expenses incurred directly in the performance of an activity and costs incurred indirectly in the completion of the project.
Borrowing costs for project funding and overhead items, for example, are frequently classified as indirect costs. For other projects, the planning process emphasises the importance of scheduling work activities over time. In this situation, the planner ensures that activities are prioritised appropriately and that the most efficient use of available resources is achieved. Traditional scheduling processes stress task prioritisation (resulting in critical path scheduling procedures) or resource efficiency over time (resulting in job shop scheduling procedures). Finally, most complicated projects include consideration of both cost and schedule throughout time, necessitating consideration of both dimensions in planning, monitoring, and record keeping. Integration of schedule and budget information is a critical challenge in these situations.
Alternative Construction Planning Focuses We’ll look at the functional needs for construction planning in this chapter, such as technology selection, task breakdown, and budgeting. Construction planning is not a one-time exercise that occurs only once a construction contract has been awarded. It should be a necessary part of the facility design process. Re-planning is also required if difficulties develop during construction.
Choices of acceptable technology and methods for construction are typically ill-structured but crucial factors in the project’s success, just as they are in the development of appropriate facility design options. The cost and time of jobs in building construction, for example, are directly affected by whether concrete is pumped or transported in buckets. The relative costs, reliabilities, and availability of equipment for these two modes of transportation should be considered while choosing between them. Unfortunately, the precise consequences of various procedures are dependent on a variety of factors about which little information is available during the planning phase, such as worker experience and competence or the specific subsurface condition at a site.
It may be essential to formulate a number of construction plans based on alternate methods or assumptions when deciding between alternative methods and technologies. Once the entire plan is accessible, the cost, time, and reliability implications of the various options may be evaluated. This analysis of several options is frequently made clear in bidding competitions, where various alternative designs may be provided or value engineering for alternative building methods may be allowed. In this situation, potential constructors may want to prepare plans for each alternative design that uses the suggested construction method, as well as plans for alternative construction methods that are proposed during the value engineering process.
Simulating the construction process, either in the planner’s mind or using a formal computer-based simulation technique, is a useful strategy in generating a construction plan. Comparisons between other plans or flaws with the existing plan can be detected by monitoring the result. For example, deciding to employ a specific piece of equipment for an operation instantly raises the question of whether the equipment has enough access space. Three-dimensional geometric models in a computer-aided design (CAD) system can help simulate space needs for processes and detect any potential conflicts. Similarly, resource availability issues detected during the construction process simulation could be efficiently avoided by supplying more resources as needed.
An example of a road rehabilitation is shown in Figure 9-1. The necessity of effective construction planning and the impact of technology choice can be illustrated using an example from a roadway rehabilitation project in Pittsburgh, PA. The decking of overhead bridges, as well as the pavement on the highway itself, were to be replaced as part of this project. The original construction strategy was to work outward from either end of the overpass bridges, while replacing the highway surface beneath the bridges. As a result, equipment and concrete trucks had a difficult time getting to the overpass bridges. The highway work, on the other hand, could be staged so that each overpass bridge could be accessed from below at specific times. Concrete from the highway below is pumped up to the overpass bridge deck.
Laser Leveling (Example -2)The employment of laser levelling equipment to improve the efficiency of excavation and grading is an example of technology choice. Laser surveying equipment is built on a site in these systems so that the relative height of mobile equipment can be precisely determined. This height measurement is done by flashing a revolving laser light across the work site on a level plane and observing exactly where the light shines on receivers on movable equipment like graders. The height at which the laser shines anyplace on the building site gives a precise indication of the height of a receptor on a piece of movable equipment since laser light does not spread. The receptor height, in turn, can be used to
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