Value engineering practices in infrastructure projects: a case study of Ilam Gas Refinery's water transmission system at Reno Mountain, Iran

ABSTRACTConstruction projects play an important role in the economic development of every country. Nevertheless, review of projects documents indicates that in most cases, particularly in developing countries, the design of these projects is such that the whole life-value is not achieved. One of the suitable tools for the compensation of this drawback is the use of Value Engineering (VE) practice. In this paper, through a case study, it is presented that the use of organized framework for the VE practice in the initial phase of a project generates good ideas in order to increase the project value. For this purpose, the special strategies in the creative and evaluation phases are used. The case study is about water supply to Ilam Gas Refinery. A thoroughly systematic VE study proved it possible not only to save as much as 41% in the overall costs of the construction work, but also reducing environmental damages to one-fifth by adapting a different alternative track to cross the Reno Mountain.