Significance of construction technology knowledge for quantity surveyors in expressway construction projects

Abstract

The degree of social responsibility of professionals towards public projects are naturally high. Recently, in Sri Lankan context, expressway construction is becoming one of the major public project types. Due to that, the responsibility of professionals towards a successful expressway construction seems very high. Among professionals, Quantity Surveyor (QS) is a significant team member in any kind of construction project in terms of managing cost and time aspects. Being highly technical and complex, expressway QSs essentially need a significant level of construction technology knowledge to perform the duties and responsibilities. Therefore, the research was focused on investigating the significance of expressway construction technology knowledge for QS practitioners. The scope of the research was narrowed down to Sri Lankan expressway projects. A comprehensive literature review was carried out to identify the duties and responsibilities of QSs in expressway project stages. The research methodology was mixed approached comprising a questionnaire survey and s expert interviews round. Quantitative data analysis was carried out using RII method and qualitative data subjected to content analysis. The research concludes feasibility stage as the most technical knowledge sensitive stage of an expressway construction project with respect to the QS’s role. Further, QSs with less experience make projects vulnerable for more cost and time issues due to lack of technical knowledge and such scenarios may add black marks to the role of the QS in big picture, therefore it is essential for the QSs to keep updated with the changing construction technologies.