This expert guide walks you through the practice of cost segregation analysis, which enables property owners to defer taxes and benefit from "accelerated cost recovery" through depreciation deductions on assets that are properly identified and classified. A relatively new practice that evolved from various court decisions and Internal Revenue Service rulings, cost segregation can be applied to new buildings under construction, renovations of existing buildings, leasehold improvements, and purchased real estate - going back as far as 1987.

Cost segregation practice requires knowledge of both tax law and the construction process. In this book, the authors share their expertise in these areas with tax and accounting professionals, cost segregation consultants, facility owners, architects and general contractors - providing guidance on major aspects of a professional, defensible cost segregation study, including: The legal framework for cost segregation, as defined by the IRS, tax courts, and federal agenciesReview of key IRS cases, court rulings, and revenue proceduresClassification and depreciation methodsUnderstanding construction plans and specificationsProfessional takeoff and cost estimating proceduresOptimizing cost segregation in new construction - from design choices to proper project documentation

With a glossary of terms, sample cost segregation estimates for various building types, key information resources, and updates via a dedicated website, "The Practice of Cost Segregation Analysis" is a must-have resource.

The claim that heritage practice in Asia is Eurocentric may be well-founded, but the view that local people in Asia need to be educated by heritage practitioners and governments to properly conserve their heritage distracts from the responsibility of educating oneself about the local-popular beliefs and practices which constitute the bedrock of most people's engagement with the material past. Written by an archaeologist who has long had one foot in the field of heritage practice and another in the academic camp of archaeology and heritage studies, Counterheritage is at once a forthright critique of current heritage practice in the Asian arena and a contribution to this project of self-education. Popular religion in Asia - including popular Buddhism and Islam, folk Catholicism, and Chinese deity cults - has a constituency that accounts for a majority of Asia's population, making its exclusion from heritage processes an issue of social justice, but more pragmatically it explains why many heritage conservation programs fail to gain local traction. This book describes how the tenets of popular religion affect building and renovation practices and describes how modernist attempts to suppress popular religion in Asia in the early and mid-twentieth century impacted religious 'heritage.' Author Denis Byrne argues that the campaign by archaeologists and heritage professionals against the private collecting and 'looting' of antiquities in Asia largely ignores the regimes of value which heritage discourse has helped erect and into which collectors and local diggers play. Focussing on the Philippines, Thailand, and Taiwan but also referencing China and other parts of Southeast Asia, richly detailed portraits are provided of the way people live with 'old things' and are affected by them. Narratives of the author's fieldwork are woven into arguments built upon an extensive and penetrating reading of the historical and anthropological literature. The critical stance embodied in the title 'counterheritage' is balanced by the optimism of the book's vision of a different practice of heritage, advocating a view of heritage objects as vibrant, agentic things enfolded in social practice rather than as inert and passive surfaces subject to conservation.

Earthquakes affecting urban areas can lead to catastrophic situations and hazard mitigation requires preparatory measures at all levels. Structural assessment is the diagnosis of the seismic health of buildings. Assessment is the prelude to decisions about rehabilitation or even demolition. The scale of the problem in dense urban settings brings about a need for macro seismic appraisal procedures because large numbers of existing buildings do not conform to the increased requirements of new earthquake codes and specifications or have other deficiencies. It is the vulnerable buildings - liable to cause damage and loss of life - that need immediate attention and urgent appraisal in order to decide if structural rehabilitation and upgrading are feasible. Current economic, efficient and occupant-friendly rehabilitation techniques vary widely and include the application either of precast concrete panels or layers, strips and patches of fiber reinforced polymers (FRP) in strategic locations. The papers in this book, many by renowned authorities in earthquake engineering, chart new and vital directions of research and application in the assessment and rehabilitation of buildings in seismic regions. While several papers discuss the probabilistic prediction and quantification of structural damage, others present approaches related with the in-situ and occupant friendly upgrading of buildings and propose both economical and practical techniques to address the problem.

This book is a step-by-step practical guide on how to achieve successful projects in EPC/turnkey contracting and construction. Mapping out the shape of a project, the book spells out where things often go wrong, where and why disputes arise, and how to avoid conflicts. It is a key reference point for all involved in the contract, making it attractive to legal practitioners, construction industry professionals, and government officials involved with these projects.

This book highlights current research and developments in the area of Structural Engineering and Construction Management, which are important disciplines in Civil Engineering. It covers the following topics and categories of Structural Engineering. The main chapters/sections of the proceedings are Structural and Solid Mechanics, Construction Materials, Systems and Management, Loading Effects, Construction Safety, Architecture & Architectural Engineering, Coastal Engineering, Foundation engineering, Materials, Sustainability. The content of this book provides necessary knowledge for construction management practices, new tools and technologies on local and global levels in civil engineering which can mitigate the negative effects of built environment.

Advanced cementitious composites can be designed to have outstanding combinations of strength (five to ten times that of conventional concrete) and energy absorption capacity (up to 1000 times that of plain concrete). This second edition brings together in one volume the latest research developments in this rapidly expanding area. The book is split into two parts. The first part is concerned with the mechanics of fibre reinforced brittle matrices and the implications for cementitious systems. In the second part the authors describe the various types of fibre-cement composites, discussing production processes, mechanical and physical properties, durability and applications. Two new chapters have been added, covering fibre specification and structural applications. Fibre Reinforced Cementitious Composites will be of great interest to practitioners involved in modern concrete technology and will also be of use to academics, researchers and graduate students.

Construction Scheduling, Cost Optimization and Management presents a general mathematical formula for the scheduling of construction projects. Using this formula, repetitive and non-repetitive tasks, work continuity considerations, multiple-crew strategies, and the effects of varying job conditions on the performance of a crew can be modelled. This book presents an entirely new approach to the construction scheduling problem. It provides a practical methodology which will be of great benefit to all those involved in construction scheduling and cost optimization, including construction engineers, highway engineers, transportation engineers, contractors and architects. It will also be useful for researchers, and graduates on courses in construction scheduling and planning.

This book forms the proceedings of a workshop held in Hiroshima in June 1998 and derive from the work of a Technical Committee of the Japan Concrete Institute. Topics include test and prediction methods, the science of autogenous shrinkage, strain and stress, and consequent design concerns.

This general treatise on precast concrete reflects Maurice Levitt's extensive experience in the construction industry and as a researcher and consultant. It gives detailed coverage of the subject from the material's properties through its manufacture and quality control, and on to specialist topics such as accelerated curing and use in hot and cold climates. It then looks at the properties of precast concrete and its performance in situ before covering standards and testing and then the issues of finishing, repair and jointing. A wide range of professionals in both the civil engineering and general construction sectors should find this an invaluable reference for its guidance on the range of practical questions they can expect to encounter. It will also be useful for students at graduate level.

Concrete technology for a sustainable development in the 21st century focuses on the problems and challenges for the concrete industry today and in the future with particular emphasis on environmental consiousness. Primary topics include: the improvement of concretes service life to ease technical and economical problems and the waste of natural resources; environmentally friendly concrete production including new production methods and recycling materials; and actually using concrete to solve environmental problems, for example through the containment of hazardous waste. The book is the result of the international workshop held in Lofoton, Norway. With very select contributions from the most distinguished international professional experts, this book provides a basic framework and guidelines for national and international bodies.

The process of spraying concrete is one of the most versatile concrete placing techniques, and is used in a wide range of applications - from construction of new tunnels, domes, tanks and pools, to repair and strengthening of existing structure. The steady growth in interest and application in the technique is reflected in this book, which brings together current international developments in materials, application, repair, specifications and testing. Sprayed Concrete Technology forms the proceedings of the International Conference organised by the American Concrete Institute and the Sprayed Concrete Association in Edinburgh, Scotland, September 1996.

Master an Approach Based on Fire Safety Goals, Fire Scenarios, and the Assessment of Design Alternatives Performance-Based Fire Safety Design demonstrates how fire science can be used to solve fire protection problems in the built environment. It also provides an understanding of the performance-based design process, deterministic and risk-based analysis techniques, development of design fire scenarios, trial design development and analysis, and building lifecycle management. Develop a Strategy That Meets the Fire Safety Goals for a Building Topics addressed include designing to protect people from fire, design of detection systems, smoke control systems and structural fire resistance, addressing computational and design uncertainty, and fire testing to support design development or evaluation. Identifies key attributes of performance-based design Reviews the advantages and disadvantages of performance-based design over specification-based prescriptive design Provides a series of steps offering a framework/process for performance-based design Performance-Based Fire Safety Design focuses on the development and application of performance-based fire safety design approaches. Written by leading experts in the field, this text addresses the unique features and uses of a building and helps you gain a better understanding of how a building will perform in the event of a fire.

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This textbook describes the basic mechanical features of concrete and explains the main resistant mechanisms activated in the reinforced concrete structures and foundations when subjected to centred and eccentric axial force, bending moment, shear, torsion and prestressing. It presents a complete set of limit-state design criteria of the modern theory of RC incorporating principles and rules of the final version of the official Eurocode 2. This textbook examines methodological more than notional aspects of the presented topics, focusing on the verifications of assumptions, the rigorousness of the analysis and the consequent degree of reliability of results. Each chapter develops an organic topic, which is eventually illustrated by examples in each final paragraph containing the relative numerical applications. These practical end-of-chapter appendices and intuitive flow-charts ensure a smooth learning experience. The book stands as an ideal learning resource for students of structural design and analysis courses in civil engineering, building construction and architecture, as well as a valuable reference for concrete structural design professionals in practice.

Practical production of ordinary and special, high performance concretes and their behaviour and properties when fresh are the main themes of this book. It derives from the International RILEM Conference held in Paisley, Scotland in June 1996, and represents the culmination of the work of two RILEM Technical Committees (145 WSM Workability of Special Mixes, and 150 ECM Efficiency of Concrete Mixers). Very significant advances have been made recently in the development of concrete with outstanding properties. Such advances in research must be matched by progress in the technology of concrete production. This book focuses on production methods and on workability and handling, two fundamental and closely linked stages of the concrete construction process. It has a strongly practical emphasis, with many contributions showing how to build effectively using the many high performance concretes which have progressed from research into construction in recent years. The main themes covered are: production mixers and mixing processes; production methods; sprayed and very dry precasting mixes; fibre reinforced concrete; flowing and superfluid mixes; rheology; test methods; mix design and models; special cements and concretes.

This book presents selected papers from the 11th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (ISHVAC 2019), with a focus on HVAC techniques for improving indoor environment quality and the energy efficiency of heating and cooling systems. Presenting inspiration for implementing more efficient and safer HVAC systems, the book is a valuable resource for academic researchers, engineers in industry, and government regulators.

This monograph provides a comparative study between failure probabilities and collapse frequencies in structural bridge engineering. The author presents techniques to resolve and extend the limitations of both parameters, taking also into account the time dependency of both parameters. The book includes available data and case studies and thus presents patterns to identify potential weaknesses and challenges in bridge maintenance. The target audience primarily comprises practicing engineers in the field of bridge engineering, but the book may also be beneficial for academic researchers alike.

This book addresses surveillance in action-related applications, and presents novel research on military, civil and cyber surveillance from an international team of experts. The first part of the book, Surveillance of Human Features, reviews surveillance systems that use biometric technologies. It discusses various novel approaches to areas including gait recognition, face-based physiology-assisted recognition, face recognition in the visible and infrared bands, and cross-spectral iris recognition. The second part of the book, Surveillance for Security and Defense, discusses the ethical issues raised by the use of surveillance systems in the name of combatting terrorism and ensuring security. It presents different generations of satellite surveillance systems and discusses the requirements for real-time satellite surveillance in military contexts. In addition, it explores the new standards of surveillance using unmanned air vehicles and drones, proposes surveillance techniques for detecting stealth aircrafts and drones, and highlights key techniques for maritime border surveillance, bio-warfare and bio-terrorism detection. The last part of the book, Cyber Surveillance, provides a review of data hiding techniques that are used to hinder electronic surveillance. It subsequently presents methods for collecting and analyzing information from social media sites and discusses techniques for detecting internal and external threats posed by various individuals (such as spammers, cyber-criminals, suspicious users or extremists in general). The book concludes by examining how high-performance computing environments can be exploited by malicious users, and what surveillance methods need to be put in place to protect these valuable infrastructures. The book is primarily intended for military and law enforcement personnel who use surveillance-related technologies, as well as researchers, Master's and Ph.D. students who are interested in learning about the latest advances in military, civilian and cyber surveillance.

This book is the definitive reference source for professionals involved in the conception, design and specification stages of a construction project. The theory and practical aspects of each material is covered, with an emphasis being placed on properties and appropriate use, enabling broader, deeper understanding of each material leading to greater confidence in their application.
Containing fifty chapters written by subject specialists, Construction Materials Reference Book covers the wide range of materials that are encountered in the construction process, from traditional materials such as stone through masonry and steel to advanced plastics and composites.
With increased significance being placed on broader environmental issues, issues of whole life cost and sustainability are covered, along with health and safety aspects of both use and installation.
*Separate chapters written by subject specialists ensuring cutting edge coverage
*Advice on design specification, installation and use
*Environmental impact and sustainability assessed throughout

An Insiders' Guide to Inspecting, Maintaining, and Operating Bridges Suspension bridges are graceful, aesthetic, and iconic structures. Due to their attractiveness and visibility, they are well-known symbols of major cities and countries in the world. They are also essential form of transportation infrastructure built across large bodies of water. Despite being expensive to build, they are economical structures for the lengths they span. They have evolved significantly from the basic concept dating back to 200 BC China through the first design for a bridge resembling a modern suspension bridge, attributed to Fausto Veranzio in 1595, to present day span lengths close to two kilometers. Offers Insight from Bridge Owners across the Globe Many of these bridges carry significant traffic, and their upkeep is very important to maintain transportation mobility. They offer grace and functionality, yet are extremely complex to construct and maintain. Bridge owners spend considerable amount of time and resources to ensure uninterrupted service, safety, and security for users. Inspection, evaluation, maintenance, and rehabilitation have evolved significantly. Modern materials and innovative design and construction practices have been integrated into these bridges to maintain durability and extended service life. Inspection, Evaluation and Maintenance of Suspension Bridges Case Studies gives detailed case studies of the Manhattan, Akashi Kaikyo, Tsing Ma, Storebaelt East, Forth Road, Bronx-Whitestone, George Washington, Angus L. Macdonald, Mid-Hudson, Shantou Bay, and Kingston-Port Ewen Bridges. It is written by the owners and practitioners who strive to cost-effectively manage them, and applies all the inspection, evaluation, and rehabilitation methods discussed in the companion volume to give a comprehensive picture of how suspension bridges are mana

Sustainable Buildings and Structures: Building a Sustainable Tomorrow collects the contributions presented at the 2nd International Conference on Sustainable Buildings and Structures (Suzhou, China, 25-27 October 2019). The papers aim at sharing the state-of-the-art on sustainable approaches to engineering design and construction, and cover a wide range of topics: Sustainable Construction Materials Sustainable Design in Built Environment Green and Low Carbon Buildings Smart Construction and Construction Management Sustainable Buildings and Structures: Building a Sustainable Tomorrow will be of interest to academics, professionals, industry representatives and local government officials involved in civil engineering, architecture, urban planning, structural engineering, construction management and other relate fields.

A thorough and understandable guide to the properties and design of structural composites. It derives from the author's many years of experience of research, industrial development and teaching.

The first edition published in 2010. The response was encouraging and many people appreciated a book that was dedicated to quality management in construction projects. Since it published, ISO 9000: 2008 has been revised and ISO 9000: 2015 has published. The new edition will focus on risk-based thinking which must be considered from the beginning and throughout the project life cycle. There are quality-related topics such as Customer Relationship, Supplier Management, Risk Management, Quality Audits, Tools for Construction Projects, and Quality Management that were not covered in the first edition. Furthermore, some figures and tables needed to be updated to make the book more comprehensive.

Testing of materials and manufactured items is a key element in the process from standard specifications though control and verification during manufacture to trade in actual products. Cooperative agreements and networks are being set up covering reference materials and calibration. This process is becoming more urgent with the development in the European market and other international developments. This book presents international views on this fast changing field, with the main themes of: technical components of test quality; quality assurance in testing laboratories; laboratory accreditation and transnational recognition of test results.