Segmentation and Repetitive Scheduling of Linear Continuous Construction Projects

We examine a structuring problem that arises in the first phase of linear repetitive projects which can be found in the area of, e.g., highway construction. The tasks are performed consecutively along an elongated construction site which can be split into segments. This leads to a repetitive project scheduling problem where the same tasks are performed in a repetitive way in every segment. In this paper, we assume the segmentation can be different for each task and that the split of a task into task segments incurs costs for hiring more resources/subcontractors as well as for handling the resulting communication overhead. The goal is to optimize the tradeoff between the project’s makespan and total cost. We develop a constraint programming model and use it to compute pareto optimal solutions.