It has been always said “a Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words”, so how many words it worth when real-time pictures are captured every minute to document, monitor, evaluate and report the performance of a construction project. Time-lapse construction cameras that are installed at different key locations of the construction site provide stakeholders with a proven solution to visualize the events that are taking place on the project without leaving their desk. This is even more needed nowadays during the Covid-19 pandemic to enable stakeholders to have better visualization of how and where the different project management processes are impacting their project’s performance while respecting the social distancing and work from home requirements. A functionality that stakeholders will continue to ask for even post the Covid-19 pandemic era.
Project management information system (PMIS) like PMWeb, would usually have a project center screen that could be configured to include a separate page for each camera installed on the construction site. Each page will be linked to the camera IP address. It is common that a construction site would have a number of cameras installed to cover all areas of the project. In this case, a legend box can be added to each camera to show the location of the camera on the construction site. The stakeholder can view the feed from any camera by clicking on the relevant project center tab. The stakeholder can use the calendar on the right to view the recorded site progress on any given date.
The benefits of having time-lapse cameras go beyond monitoring, evaluating and reporting a project’s performance. Nowadays, there is an emerging trend of using time and date stamped pictures that are captured by time-lapse cameras to support claims submission. Those captured pictures and sometimes videos will be downloaded and stored in PMWeb document repository and attached to the relevant claim submission to support the sequence of disruption or other events that lead to the claim.
The use of time-lapse cameras also helps in ensuring that health and safety requirements are implemented on the construction site. Those cameras can be used to highlight incidents, danger zones and clearly marking working zones. The captured pictures will be attached to the safety incidents and safety violations captured in PMWeb. In addition, the recorded videos can be used to upskill the project team for knowledge management, training and showcasing do’s and don’ts when it comes to health and safety practices. The construction cameras can be also to better enforce site access and overall site security surveillance.
The project’s quality control team can also use the time-lapse camera for capturing the details of concrete pour. The cameras can capture the details of all transit mixers entering the construction site including their wait time. In addition, the cameras will capture the details of the actual concrete pout activities as well as follow on curing tasks. The construction cameras can also capture the details of all equipment and material deliveries to the construction site including the storage areas. The gate pass permits and other delivery notes created and captured in PMWeb could be attached with pictures captured in the time lapse cameras to show the details of those events.
Time-lapse cameras are also used to for marketing purposed by showing off project milestones, building the organization’s brand and gaining followers by posting engaging videos online. They are used to show prospect clients with details of projects completed in the past by the company.
The benefits of having a BIM friendly WBS in visualizing, analyzing, monitoring, evaluating and reporting the performance of construction projects can also be associated with time-lapse cameras installed on construction sites. For example, EVERCAM Construction Cameras is now working on a solution to associate the data captured in their construction camera solutions with the project’s BIM model. This will enable the stakeholder to visualize the BIM along with the actual construction status feed from the cameras. This video explains the BIM-Construction camera integration concept https://vimeo.com/271456812
About the Author
Bassam Samman, PMP, PSP, EVP, GPM is a Senior Project Management Consultant with more than 35-year service record providing project management and controls services to over 100 projects with a total value in excess of US $5 Billion. Those projects included Commercial, Residential, Education and Healthcare Buildings and Infrastructure, Entertainment and Shopping Malls, Oil and Gas Plants and Refineries, Telecommunication and Information Technology projects. He is thoroughly experienced in complete project management including project management control systems, computerized project control software, claims analysis/prevention, risk analysis/management (contingency planning), design, supervision, training and business development.
Bassam is a frequent speaker in topics relating to Project Management, Strategic Project Management and Project Management Personal Skills. Over the past 35 years he has lectured at more than 350 events and courses at different locations in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and South America. He has written more than 250 articles on project management and project management information systems that were featured in international and regional magazines and newspapers. He is a co-founder of the Project Management Institute- Arabian Gulf Chapter (PMI-AGC) and has served on its board of directors for more than 6 years. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute (PMI), a certified Planning and Scheduling Professional (PSP) and Earned Value Professional (EVP) from the American Association of Cost Engineers (AACE) and Green Project Management (GPM).
Bassam holds a Masters in Engineering Administration (Construction Management) with Faculty Commendation, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., USA, Bachelor in Civil Engineering – Kuwait University, Kuwait and has attended many executive management programs at Harvard Business School, Boston, USA and London Business School, London, UK.