UA Engineering Awarded Research Grant by Construction Industry Institute

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The University of Alabama College of Engineering was awarded a research grant by the Construction Industry Institute. The $153,400 project will research preconstruction planning for renovation projects. This is the first Construction Industry Institute research project awarded directly to The University of Alabama College of Engineering.

“This research project will result in a great benefit to designers and contractors involved in the construction industry in Alabama,” said Dr. Edd Gibson, professor of civil, construction, and environmental engineering and the principal researcher of the project. “It will help in identifying key business processes and technologies vital to updating our aging infrastructure,” he said.

In recent years, a high percentage of the annual construction-related capital spent by many organizations is on renovation work rather than on new construction, with estimates by the U.S. Department of Commerce in the hundreds of billions of dollars, annually, for nonresidential renovation projects.

These projects involve building modifications to accommodate changes to facility operations. For example, manufacturing process changes within an industrial plant are made to meet new product demand or comply with regulatory requirements.

The UA project will address best practice techniques and review how preconstruction planning can be better performed for renovation. It will also examine new and existing technologies and business processes that need to be in place to enhance preconstruction planning of renovation projects.

The Construction Industry Institute is comprised of more than 90 leading owner, engineering-contractor, and supplier firms from both the public and private arenas. Many Alabama businesses, including 3M, NASA, Southern Company, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and BE&K, have been active in CII for many years.

In 1837, The University of Alabama became the first university in the state to offer engineering classes and was one of the first five in the nation to do so. Today, the College of Engineering has about 1,900 students and more than 95 faculty. It has been fully accredited since accreditation standards were implemented in the 1930s.