Luis Mayo-Alvarez

Over the past decade the industry has developed technical, contractual and managerial tools for road construction without recognizing their capacity as solutions to land access restrictions. This systematic review analyzes the strategies for executing road projects under such restrictions. Following the PRISMA 2020 protocol, 51 indexed articles (2015–2026) retrieved from Scopus and Web of Science were examined and classified into land access restrictions, execution strategies (four families: technical–constructive, project management, social–institutional and contractual–legal) and impact on performance. Strategies are documented in 64.7% of the studies, but only 25.5% analyze them as an object, which explains why they have not been recognized as available solutions. The four families are not alternatives: they operate at different moments of the cycle, and their effectiveness depends on the type of restriction, the moment of activation and the institutional capacity, a determining variable that the corpus does not measure. Treating the restriction as a planning variable, rather than a contingency, distinguishes the projects with positive impact.

Lean Construction has become a key strategy for improving productivity, reducing waste, and increasing efficiency in civil engineering projects. In parallel, advances in digital technologies have transformed the way engineering design and project planning processes are conceived and managed. However, there remains a limited systematic understanding of how emerging technologies support engineering design practices and influence the implementation and performance of Lean Construction in diverse civil engineering scenarios. This study presents a systematic literature review of 70 peer-reviewed articles published between 2019 and 2025, following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines. The selected studies were examined using a structured classification framework consisting of three analytical categories: Technologies and Tools, Construction Methods and Sustainability, and Production Philosophies and Management. From an engineering design perspective, this framework allows the identification of technological trends, design-support tools, and management strategies that influence the planning, modeling, and optimization of construction processes. The results show that digital technologies, such as Building Information Modeling (BIM), automation systems, Artificial Intelligence, and Industry 4.0 tools, play a significant role in supporting engineering design activities by improving project visualization, coordination, and decision-making during the design and planning stages. These technologies contribute to more integrated design processes aligned with Lean Construction principles. At the same time, the analysis reveals that the adoption of Lean Construction technologies varies depending on project characteristics, levels of digital maturity, and regional industry conditions. The main barriers identified in the literature include interoperability limitations, insufficient workforce training, and organizational resistance to technological change. Overall, the review provides a structured synthesis of recent research trends and highlights the technological and managerial factors that influence the successful integration of Lean Construction with engineering design practices in civil engineering. The findings contribute to bridging the gap between technological innovation, design methodologies, and Lean Construction implementation, offering insights for both researchers and practitioners seeking to improve efficiency, sustainability, and design performance in construction projects.

Over the last decade, prefabrication has emerged as a strategic alternative to address the global construction industry’s challenges concerning sustainability, productivity, and the housing deficit. This study analyzes the advances, benefits, limitations, and research gaps associated with its application in real estate projects between 2015 and 2025. A systematic literature review was conducted under the PRISMA protocol, which allowed for the selection of 58 high-quality articles sourced from Scopus, Web of Science, SciELO, and Redalyc. The findings highlight Asia as the leader in innovation and industrialization, while Latin America is identified as an emerging region with applications in social housing, education, and modular infrastructure. Reported benefits include reduced time and costs, improved environmental performance, and the integration of digital technologies such as BIM, 3D printing, and digital twins. Nevertheless, regulatory gaps, cultural resistance, and limited coordination among industry, government, and academia persist. The study concludes that prefabrication constitutes a transformative engine for the real estate sector, but its consolidation requires stronger regulatory frameworks, broader empirical research in Latin America, and the adoption of circular economy and digitalization strategies to ensure a sustainable and socially accepted impact.

The adoption of Lean Construction has become established as an effective strategy for improving efficiency and reducing waste in construction projects; however, its implementation faces numerous challenges. The objective of this study is to analyze, through a systematic literature review, the critical factors that influence the implementation of Lean Construction, based on the analysis of 52 articles published between 2015 and 2025. The search was conducted in the Scopus database, and the selection of studies followed the PRISMA methodology. The results are organized into six key aspects that influence the execution of construction projects, grouped into three main categories: human, which includes managerial (42.3%) and educational (21.2%) factors; technical, which encompasses technological (23.1%) and safety (5.8%) factors; and management-related factors, comprised of financial (1.9%) and logistical (5.8%) factors. The evidence shows a greater relevance of human-related factors, followed by associated technical factors and, to a lesser extent, management-related factors. Taken together, these results highlight the need to address these factors through integrated strategies, training programs, and committed leadership to achieve a successful and sustainable implementation of Lean Construction.

The construction industry faces persistent challenges related to low productivity, lack of coordination among disciplines, schedule overruns and high levels of waste, which have driven the adoption of more efficient and integrated approaches. In this context, the importance of Lean Construction and Building Information Modelling (BIM) together emerges as a transformative strategy capable of significantly improving the planning, control and execution of construction projects. This study conducts a review of the scientific literature published between 2015 and June 2025, with the aim of analysing the benefits, barriers and trends associated with the application of these methodologies, both individually and in integration. The findings show that Lean-BIM synergy reduces non-productive time, enhances interdisciplinary coordination and resource utilisation, and facilitates data-driven decision-making. However, its implementation faces technological, cultural, economic and competency-related barriers, particularly in organisations with limited digital infrastructure or traditional structures. Furthermore, six key trends are identified that are transforming the sector: the use of 4D and 5D models, collaborative digitalisation, automation with predictive analysis, process standardization, methodological framework integration, and cultural and organizational transformation. Overall, this review highlights the potential of the Lean-BIM approach as a catalyst for innovation in the construction industry, while noting that its successful adoption requires a systemic vision, organisational leadership and training strategies to bridge the existing gaps between theory and practice.

Sustainable construction is increasingly recognised as essential for reducing environmental impacts; however, its implementation in developing countries remains constrained by multiple structural challenges. This study presents a systematic literature review of research published between 2015 and June 2025, to identify and synthesise the main barriers affecting sustainable construction adoption in developing contexts. Following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, 51 studies indexed in Scopus and Web of Science were analysed using a thematic coding approach. The findings identify 11 recurrent barriers grouped into five interrelated categories: economic-financial, knowledge and awareness, regulatory-political, industry-related and cultural-social. Economic and financial barriers, particularly high initial costs, limited incentives and restricted access to financing, emerge as dominant factors influencing other barriers. The review integrates dispersed evidence through a multi-level perspective, highlighting interactions among institutional, industry and socio-cultural conditions. Significant research gaps include limited longitudinal evidence and underrepresentation of Latin America, the Caribbean and low-human-development regions. Comparative and longitudinal studies are recommended to support context-adapted policy and managerial strategies.

Mixed martial arts (MMA) has always been surrounded by controversy due to the unusual muscle development of its participants, so it is crucial to know the strategies that have been implemented to reduce doping cases. The main purpose of this paper is to describe the various cases of doping detected by USADA in UFC MMA participants. In addition, strategies that are being developed to reduce cases of positive doping are proposed. From the UFC USADA database, doping cases were extracted, obtaining the substance or substances involved; the formula, physiological effect and the athletes involved; the dates of the sampling; if it was out of competition or in-competition and the sanction time. The substances that were most involved were found to be Ostarine (22), Clomiphene (9), Diuretics (10) and Stanozolol (9). Some sanctions were diminished because they were treated with contamination of supplements (cases of Ostarine) and cases of contamination of meat (Clomiphene). When contaminated supplements were reported, they were added to the list of high-risk supplements maintained as part of USADA’s online dietary supplement safety education and awareness resource—Supplement 411. There were also cases in which positive doping could be avoided through the early report of therapeutic use exemptions. The methodology that the USADA has implemented allows us to register the athletes with positive doping, check the risk of the supplements before being bought and provide a teaching portal. These efforts are necessary to implement in all countries in which MMA is practiced, avoiding the participation of doped martial artists.

Successful project management depends on ensuring the project’s objectives. Within these objectives, technical success is associated with achieving the expectations of the project baseline. The baseline of the project is made up of the definition of the scope (WBS), time (schedule) and costs (S curve) of the project. Directly, the project is expected to be technically successful if it manages to deliver its full scope on schedule and without associated cost overruns. Baseline performance management is how project managers track and control the progress of deliverables, timelines and associated costs. In a traditional approach, for waterfall-type projects that use the critical path paradigm, the baseline performance management tool par excellence is earned value management (EVM). Earned value management, in practice, works well when project costs are monitored and controlled; however, applying this approach to measure the status of the schedule presents serious inconsistencies. Over the last several decades, different variations of the original earned value have been developed to overcome some of these inconsistencies when used to measure project schedule status. Within these variations, we have the critical path earned value; the work in progress earned value; the critical path earned value and the work in progress; the earned schedule; and the critical path earned schedule. Each of these proposals tries to address some weakness of the original earned value management applied to time monitoring and control, for example, considering critical tasks as a focus on monitoring the progress of the schedule, solving the problem of task recognition late finishers, reporting schedule variances in time units and measuring adherence to the project’s schedule (P factor). Due to the exposed situation, it is necessary to determine which alternative of the versions of the original earned value is the most appropriate for the management of the project schedule, considering that there are several evaluation criteria that must be considered. In the present research, a systematic review and comparison of EVM and its variations for measuring project baseline schedule performance are performed to determine the most suitable methods for monitoring and controlling the project baseline schedule. For this purpose, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is used, and five comparison criteria are considered: schedule variation focused on critical tasks, recognition and measurement of the delay of tasks that finish late, schedule variation in time units, measurement of schedule adherence (P factor) and software support and development. The result of the AHP performed for comparing the methods shows that the best method for monitoring and controlling the project baseline schedule is the critical path earned schedule because it behaves adequately in comparison with the other methods for the evaluated comparison categories.