Song, S, Marks, E. and Pradhananga, N.
Journal of Construction Engineering and Project Management
Publication year: 2017

The cycle time of construction equipment for earthwork operations has a significant impact on project productivity. Elements that directly impact a haul vehicle’s cycle time must be identified in order to accurately quantify the haul cycle time and implement strategies to decrease it. The objective of this research is to scientifically identify and quantify variables that have a significant impact on the cycle time of a dump truck used for earthwork. Real-time location data collected by GPS devices deployed in an active earthwork moving construction site was analyzed using statistical regression. External data including environmental components and haul road conditions were also collected periodically throughout the study duration. Several statistical analyses including a variance analysis and regression analysis were completed on the dump truck location data. Collected data was categorized by stage of the dump truck cycle. Results indicate that a dump truck’s enter idle time, exit idle time, moving speed and driver visibility can significantly impact the dump truck cycle time. The contribution of this research is the identification and analysis of statistically significant correlations of variables within the cycle time.