Construction Industry – The Sectors

The construction industry produces a wide range of products, and the enterprises working in the construction domain are equally diverse. The construction industry can be divided into three sectors of construction namely building, infrastructure, and industrial. They can be further classified as residential, non-residential, and engineering projects. The construction activity can be carried out as a private or public endeavor.

The following three fundamental sectors of the construction industry deliver economic and social infrastructure to all parts of the economy.

1. Building Construction

Building construction is the process of adding structures to areas of land. Typical construction activities are undertaken by the owner of the property and in some cases, land may be compulsorily purchased from the owner for public use. Building construction is usually further divided into residential and non-residential. The vast majority of building construction jobs is small renovations, such as the addition of a room, or renovation of a bathroom. Often, the owner of the property acts as a laborer, paymaster, and design team for the entire project. However, all building construction projects include some elements in common – design, financial, estimating, and legal considerations.

Commercial building construction is procured privately or publicly utilizing various delivery methodologies, including cost estimating, hard bid, negotiated price, traditional, management contracting, construction management-at-risk, design & build, and design-build bridging.

2. Infrastructure Construction

Infrastructure, also called heavy civil or heavy engineering, includes large public works, dams, bridges, highways, railways, water or wastewater, and utility distribution. Civil engineering covers the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, tunnels, airports, water and sewerage systems, pipelines, and railways.

3. Industrial Construction

Industrial construction, though a relatively small part of the entire construction industry, is a very important component. Industrial construction includes offshore construction (mainly of energy installations), mining and quarrying, refineries, chemical processing, power generation, mills, and manufacturing plants.

Owners of these projects are usually large, for-profit, industrial corporations. These corporations can be found in such industries as Infrastructure, Power Transmission & Distribution, metallurgical and material handling, medicine, petroleum, chemical, power generation, manufacturing, etc. Processes in these industries require highly specialized expertise in planning, cost estimating, design, and construction. As in building and heavy/highway construction, this type of construction requires a team of individuals to ensure a successful project often undertaken by big construction companies.

Types of Construction Projects

Each type of construction project requires a unique team to plan, design, construct, and maintain the project. In general, there are three primary types of construction projects:

1. Residential projects

Residential projects is projects around homes, housing developments, buildings, and garages. Residential construction may be undertaken by individual land-owners (self-build), by specialist house-builders, by property developers, by general contractors, or by providers of public or social housing (eg: local authorities, housing associations). Residential construction practices, technologies, and resources must conform to local building authority regulations and codes of practice.

2. Nonresidential Projects

These projects include large and small commercial buildings, including stores, churches, schools, and hospitals. Depending upon the type of building, non-residential building construction can be procured by a wide range of private and public organizations, including local authorities, educational and religious bodies, transport undertakings, retailers, hoteliers, property developers, financial institutions, and other private companies. Most construction in these sectors is undertaken by general contractors.

3. Engineering projects

Engineering projects include the construction of bridges, roads, reservoirs, large public works, dams, highways, railways, water or wastewater, and utility distribution. Civil engineering covers the design, construction, and maintenance of such big projects.

Classification of Construction projects

Construction projects can be further classified as public and private.

1. Private Construction & Renovation

This is construction work performed for private owners, paid for using private funds. As cities become saturated with buildings, renovation and restructuring will become a common part of the building trades. These construction projects could also be small renovations or repair jobs, where the owner may act as a designer, paymaster, and laborer for the entire project.

2. Public Projects & Renovation

These projects are completed for federal, state, or local agencies of government and usually paid for out of tax money, bonds, or other public funds. In the U.S., road and bridge systems need repairs and needed to keep the vast transportation network in a usable condition.

Activities at Construction Project

Each agency associated with the above sub-group of activities has its own particular organizational set up compatible with the nature of its workload. The detailing will depend upon the size, geography of are of interest, nature of activities, and complexity of the problems faced by it. Broadly speaking, the basic activities at a construction project can be grouped into three main categories:

1. Designing and Planning

Construction planning is the specific process construction managers use to lay out how they will manage and execute a construction project, from designing the structure to ordering materials to deploying workers and subcontractors to complete various tasks. Construction planning involves identifying all the required steps to build a structure, splitting them into defined activities, ordering these steps logically, and determining the necessary materials, manpower, and equipment.

2. Construction Execution

Construction execution refers to standards, methods, and practices used during the construction phase of a project to successfully deliver the object that is being constructed. Providing direction to labor, meeting all the regulatory requirements, and supervision of a project from early development to completion is part of the execution phase. The ultimate goal of construction is to deliver the project to the full satisfaction of the client’s demands both in terms of functionality and budget.

3. Inspection and Supervision

Inspection and supervision are required at every step to make sure that the required tasks are being performed required to complete the construction activities. Progress is constantly monitored and changes are being made accordingly. The construction project manager spends most of the time in the step of monitoring and depending on the information that he gets redirects the tasks and maintains the control of the project.

The use of various new technologies and deployment of project management strategies has made it possible to undertake projects of mega-scale. In its path of advancement, the industry has to overcome a number of challenges. However, the industry is still faced with some major challenges, including housing, disaster-resistant construction, water management, and mass transportation.