Challenges and Opportunities for Innovation in the Public Works ...

priorities, conflicting government policies, a lack of incentives and particularly liability
issues, are major factors causing this low level of R&D expenditures in the U.S.A. The
amount U.S. contractors spend on liability is a magnitude greater than the amount they
spend on R&D, and they confine their R&D activities to actions that do not increase their
liability exposure.
For the large Japanese contractor investment in R&D is necessary for three reasons:
(1) for the firm to be judged socially responsible, otherwise it cannot survive financially; (2)
for design-build activities, since major clients choose contractors, and the government prequalifies
contractors for public works, based on demonstrated expertise in new technologies;
and (3) for improvements in job site activities. Essentially for U.S. firms only the last
incentive exists currently.
The introduction of new technologies into construction practice in Japan is very
difficult with the government using that difficulty to spur R&D expenditures. The situation
is equivalent to a U.S. Government Department, such as Labor or Commerce, controlling
what appears in the Uniform Building Code (UBC)(3); delaying revisions to UBC until the
technology has been widely proven for some time in practice; selecting contractors for public
works based on their level of technological achievement; and routinely requiring extensive
laboratory and field tests, and participation in collaborative research activities with other
contractors of similar technological achievement, if they wish to introduce a new technology.
In Japan before a new technology can be used in practice, a recommendation for approval
must be received from an independent technical committee that oversees that testing. The
Japanese government uses essentially the same process, catalyzed by varying degrees of
government financial and technical assistance, to foster the development of desirable new
construction technologies. The research is planned and executed so that there is a direct
transfer of the technology into construction practice, with participating industry partners
being assured of one of more government construction projects that use that technology as
part of the reward for their participation.
The Japanese Ministry of Construction (MOC) uses MITI's vision system, combined
with a complex new technology approval system, to steer construction research in directions
it desires while simultaneously accomplishing technology transfer. The approval system for
introducing new technologies into public works projects is illustrated in Fig. 4 and an
example of its use for the development of a compaction measuring robot by Mitsui
Construction Company in shown in Table 2.
In 1983 the MOC established a goal of developing measures to increase both
construction productivity and quality. Its vision for such increases involved the use of
electronics based automated systems. The MOC issued a request for proposals, step 1 of
Fig. 4, for such systems. To evaluate the resulting proposals, step 3 of Fig. 4, the MOC had
the Public Works Research Center (PWRC) form a proposal Evaluation Committee. The
PWRC is a neutral professional organization which in the U.S. would be analogous to the
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Evaluation committees have an almost equal
balance of academics and industry professionals and both must have appropriate experience
in the area of the submission. In the example, the private enterprise, (Mitsui Construction),
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