RISK ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITIES USING EXPERT OPINIONS AND THE EV TECHNIQUE

Construction projects are complex and involve thousands of details and diverse interrelationships among parties. Different participants from different disciplines are involved in construction projects and may be fragmented in various geographic locations. This fragmentation and multidisciplinary nature of the construction industry makes it one of the most risky industries. The risk associated with construction projects require proper management. This involves careful risk identification, assessment, analysis, and response. Risk management of construction activities is one of the most difficult tasks and risk assessment and analysis, in particular, are considered as the most difficult components of the risk management process. However, the outcome of this task normally provides fruitful benefits. This study elicits the feedback of construction experts to identify risks, determine the likelihood of these risk to happen, prioritize them, and estimate the degree of their impact. A spreadsheet mechanism will then be presented to assess, analyze, and evaluate identified risks and measure the impact and severity of high priority risks on the project's duration and cost. The earned value technique will then be used to measure the schedule and cost progress and estimate the project's cost at completion considering the effect of the identified risks in order to provide an idea on how these risks may affect the project's bid price. The proposed spreadsheet mechanism is expected to help construction practitioners identify the most severe risks and measure their effect on the project's duration and cost. The study will then provide recommendations to mitigate risks with high impact and severity.