Conducting Case Study Research in the Transportation Industry

The construction industry is labor-intensive and is composed of people responsible for carrying out obligations and responsibilities to finish a project. Since construction projects deal with human resources, case study methods are adequate to perform investigations into transportation construction projects. A review of past research studies from the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Transportation Research Record journal libraries revealed that transportation construction research has benefited from case studies in situations such as comparing between studies or projects, investigating strengths and weaknesses, comparing of construction methods, and understanding new principals, knowledge, and technology. Case study approach using quantitative, qualitative, or mixed method procedures offers a variety of methodologies that could be implemented depending on the focus of the study. Therefore, the intent of this paper is to present the factors that help to perform a successful case study and the creation of a case study protocol specifically designed for active publicly-funded highway construction projects. A case study example is provided from a Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development highway construction project that investigated the integration of highway construction project teams. The case study example illustrates the planning before conducting a case study, the establishment of a case study protocol, and the process used once the research team arrives at the case study site. The discussion on the use of case studies affords researchers with limited knowledge and experience using case study research on active highway construction transportation projects with information on how to thoroughly conduct case study research.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABG10 Standing Committee on Conduct of Research.
• Authors:
  • Harper, Christofer Michael
  • Silva, Arlys
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: 18p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Case studies; Literature reviews; Methodology; Research; Road construction
• Subject Areas: Construction; Highways; Research;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01664260
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-05686
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 27 2018 11:14AM