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In urban areas where roadworks are required, single lane shuttle operation is applied, especially where there is limited road space. There are operational problems relating to the site such as site geometry, visibility, length of roadworks zone, position of signs with other traffic control devices and signal timing. Other problems are mainly related to drivers’ behaviour and their compliance with traffic controls on site.

The reduced road width caused by the works will interrupt the free flow of traffic and it can also add to the risks to road users. In addition, shuttle operation may introduce long queues and increase delays especially during peak periods.

There is a need to identify those parameters and behaviours which might influence traffic performance in terms of safety and capacity. An investigation of four roadworks sites in urban roadworks within the Greater Manchester area was undertaken for this purpose. Parameters included in the examination were position of the STOP sign, signal timing, weather conditions, time headway, vehicle speed and percentages of heavy goods vehicles (HGV) in the traffic stream. Statistical analysis and comparisons between sites were conducted. Other factors related to the operation of the shuttle-lane were provided based on site observations.

Against a background context of Construction 4.0, this study aims to explore what digital leadership in construction firms is, why it is necessary and what considerations it involves. It provides a digital leadership considerations framework to aid organisational digital transformations.

To address the research question informing what digital leadership involves, an interpretivist study was conducted. Eleven purposively selected expert practitioners, including construction business leaders and company digital champions were surveyed using in-depth semi-structured interviews. This obtained insights and reflections on how construction leaders can impel digital transformations.

How construction leaders can embed the skills to drive such transformation in their firms, what the essential digital skills for construction businesses now are in Construction 4.0 and how leaders can attempt to evaluate the value of digital technology for their business practices, are all crystallised. Impacts of digital transformations on the construction workplace are also highlighted.

Because of this work, business leaders will be better equipped to lead and support further digital transformation efforts in Construction 4.0. Future research directions aid academics.

Clear definitions of digital transformation and digital leadership are provided, and a digital leadership considerations framework is provided to support firm-level digital transformations for Construction 4.0.

A new class of explicit preconditioning methods based on the concept of sparse approximate factorization procedures and inverse matrix techniques is introduced for solving biharmonic equations. Isomorphic methods in conunction with explicit preconditioned schemes based on approximate inverse matrix techniques are presented for the efficient solution of biharmonic equations. Application of the proposed method on linear systems is discussed and numerical results are given.