NivaarExam PrepOfficial exam papers ↗

07-Str-B2: December 2018

Nivaar worked solution (AI-drafted; not reviewed by a licensed engineer)

  1. Question 1 Scheduling — activity-on-arrow network, floats, critical path and AON conversion
  2. Question 2 Contract Administration — comparing lump-sum, unit-price, turn-key and cost-plus delivery
  3. Question 3 Project Control — expense and payment S-curves, financing interest and overdraft limit
  4. Question 4 Engineering Economics — maximum justifiable investment in a new pavement surface
  5. Question 5 Insurance — bid bonds, performance bonds and construction liens
  6. Question 6 Estimating — completing an R.S. Means brick-veneer line and pricing the job

Start with Question 1 →

Paper format: National Exams, December 2018 — 07-Str-B2 Management of Construction. Three hours, closed book, one approved Casio or Sharp calculator permitted. Six questions of equal value (20 marks each); any five constitute a complete paper and only the first five that appear in the answer book are marked. All six are worked below so the paper serves as a complete revision set whichever five a candidate elects.

Reference texts: Hegazy, T., Computer-Based Construction Project Management (Prentice Hall) — activity-on-arrow and activity-on-node networks, forward and backward passes, total and free float, and the contractor cash-flow / overdraft model with mark-up, retention and payment lag; these chapters carry Questions 1 and 3. Hendrickson, C. & Au, T., Project Management for Construction (2nd ed., Carnegie Mellon) — Chapter 5 (cost estimation and unit-cost data), Chapter 8 (construction contracts and the allocation of risk), Chapter 10 (fundamental scheduling procedures) and Chapter 12 (cost control, monitoring and accounting, including project financing). Halpin, D.W. & Senior, B.A., Construction Management (4th ed., Wiley) — delivery systems, crew productivity and quantity take-off, surety bonding and lien law. R.S. Means, Building Construction Cost Data (annual) — the anatomy of a unit-price line (crew, daily output, labour-hours per unit, bare material / labour / equipment / total, and total including overhead and profit) and of the related crew table, behind Question 6. Sullivan, W.G., Wicks, E.M. & Koelling, C.P., Engineering Economy (17th ed., Pearson) — Chapters 4 and 5, the uniform-series present-worth factor and deferred annuities, used in Question 4. Canadian Construction Documents Committee, CCDC 2 Stipulated Price Contract (2020), CCDC 4 Unit Price Contract, CCDC 3 Cost Plus Contract, CCDC 14 Design-Build Stipulated Price Contract, and CCDC 220 Bid Bond, CCDC 221 Performance Bond and CCDC 222 Labour and Material Payment Bond — the Canadian contract and surety machinery behind Questions 2 and 5. Provincial lien statutes — the British Columbia Builders Lien Act (SBC 1997 c.45) and the Ontario Construction Act (RSO 1990 c.C.30, as amended 2018) — supply the Canadian equivalent of the American “mechanics lien” named in Question 5.

Check — how the two printed figures on page 2 were read. Network (Question 1): nine numbered event circles and eleven arrows, every arrow carrying a letter and a duration — A(4) 1→2, B(6) 1→4, C(2) 1→7, D(8) 2→3, E(4) 3→6, F(10) 4→5, G(16) 4→8, H(8) 5→6, I(6) 6→9, J(6) 7→8, K(10) 8→9. There is no dummy arrow on this drawing, so the translation to activity-on-node in part (c) is exact and needs no extra logic. Budget S-curve (Question 3): the six labelled markers fall squarely on months 1 to 6 of the printed axis (ticks 0 to 7). The project therefore runs six months and the budget (cost) at completion is $127,000.