Comparative study of the effectiveness of traditional technical supervision and digital construction control in the implementation of capital construction projects of varying complexity

Abstract

The article compares the effectiveness of traditional technical supervision based on selective site visits and paper-based document management with digital construction control integrated with BIM/TIM and mobile recording of violations, as applied to capital construction projects of different complexity. The research objective is the quantitative verification of «digital dividends» in terms of time, cost, and quality of control, as well as the identification of the dependence of the digitalization effect on the responsibility class of structures. The empirical basis comprises monitoring data from 128 investment and construction projects carried out in 2019-2023, stratified into unique structures, complex industrial facilities, and standard residential development; 64 projects were implemented under the classical scheme, and 64 using digital construction control platforms linked to BIM models (LOD 300-400), with a total dataset of more than 45,000 prescriptions and 12,000 hidden works certificates. To ensure comparability, a system of metrics was introduced (lag from defect detection to notification and closure, labor intensity in person-hours per area, repeat detectability); inspector time studies, multifactor analysis of variance (ANOVA), and regression models of the relationship between implementation costs and the reduction of losses from defects were applied. The results show that the digital framework radically reduces communication and administrative delays: the full cycle of prescription processing is reduced by approximately three times (from 180,47 to 60,58 hours) with a statistically insignificant difference in the time of physical defect elimination (45,30 versus 41,20 hours), and also decreases process variability (a transition from «stochasticity» to greater determinism in terms of standard deviations). Economic assessment reveals nonlinearity of the effect by complexity: the unit cost of a control operation decreases moderately in standard housing (145,67 → 112,45) but multiple times in unique facilities (489,34 → 198,76), which is interpreted as an advantage of digital algorithms as project information entropy increases. At the same time, a higher «density» of identified defects is recorded under digital control (including significant and minor ones), which is interpreted not as a deterioration in construction quality but as the disclosure of latent defects and a reduction in opportunities to conceal violations due to the digital trace. With regard to as-built documentation, digital platforms virtually eliminate the «rush» at the final stage, increasing the completeness of certificates and signature coverage to approximately 99% versus 68-76% in traditional practice. Overall, it is substantiated that digital construction control is not merely an acceleration of document flow but a shift in the quality management model, with the maximum effect achieved in the most complex and engineering-intensive facilities, where the cost of error and non-compliance is the highest.