GA optimization model for solving tower crane location problem in construction sites

Abstract

Tower crane is increasingly becoming one of the key components of temporary site layout facilities in most construction projects. Determining the location of tower crane is an essential task of layout planning, which is also the central focus of this study. The optimization of tower crane location depends on many interrelated factors, including site constraints, shape and size of the buildings, type and quantity of required materials, crane configurations, crane type, and construction site layout. These factors vary from one project to another, resulting to complicated site layout strategies and approaches. This fact makes the crane location problem impractical to be solved depending on experience of practitioners only which was gained by assuming and through trial and error. This paper aimed at developing an optimization model to solve tower crane location problem in construction sites. The objective was to minimize the total transportation time. Genetic Algorithms (GA) optimization technique is utilized to solve the problem. A numerical example is presented to test and validate the results obtained by the model.